Tuesday - Thursday: Move-in and Orientation

Each day of orientation, we go through a series of presentations on the different aspects of Milan and the study abroad program. Most of us were so jet lagged that we fell asleep through some of them...as riveting as they were. They did provide some useful information and we got tours around some of our campus facilities. The main university campus is beautiful! It consists of 2 plazas surrounded by classrooms. There were a lot of students bustling around, finishing with their last final exams and signing up for more classes.

It is fascinating being stared at all the time. I guess it is a cultural thing that Italians just blatantly stare at things they find interesing. And of course we are interesting, gabbing in English, with our "unfashionable" attire, blindly wandering around their campus. I guess I don't blame them. In America we are taught not to look at strangers so we don't make anyone uncomfortable, so it is a very different experience...but now I do it too (haha)!

The first day of orientation, they took us to this really fancy spa to relax after our first day. That's right. You read correctly. They took us to a spa. And it was wonderful! They had pools, saunas, and basically everything that had to do with water. It was very relaxing to be able to just meet a lot of the staff and students while we were munching at the buffet or collapsing into the water beds.

On Wednesday, we were finally able to move out of our temporary housing into our actual rooms. One other girl in the program and I are living in Collegio. It is mostly Italian students and a few international students sprinkled in for a little spice. I get my own room, bathroom, private balcony, and air conditioning. I also get access to all their facilities (gym, library, study room, music room) and 3 meals a day. It is a pretty nice deal. And I am excited because this will give me a great opportunity to improve my Italian.

So my first day in Collegio, everything is going well...until I try to take a shower. First of all, I turn on the water and this violent gush of brown water burst forth from the pipes. And I almost burst into tears. Which I guess is a little dramatic, but I had never seen brown water come out of a pipe so I didn't know that's what happens when water sits in pipes for a long time. Surprise! So after the water cleared, I go to take my shower and by the time I am done, the bathroom floor is completely covered in water. The shower is poorly designed so water can easily get out. But other than that...I love my room and I am excited to start meeting people!

On Wednesday night, our study abroad program invited us to this swanky bar to socialize with everyone. Drinking is not as big a deal as it is in America. It is more of a time to socialize (and smoke) with your friends and the point is not to get wasted (although that didn't stop some people). So that was refreshing. After we closed down the bar (haha), we went to this club called "Old Fashioned" and it was international night so we got in for free! So all that was fun. We befriended some Italian men and after one of them was done trying to pick me up he moved on to other girls. It was really funny because he tried to convince some other girls that he lived in Manhattan and I was his sister...

Il Duomo

On Thursday, we got a walking tour of Milan. I am pretty sure it was like 3 hours long, and I am pretty sure my feet were about to fall of by the end of it. It was a fun tour though (I got to see La Scala!!! Nbd)...and at the end we got these little fried dough stuffed with deliciousness for lunch and it was only like 2.50 euro. After lunch, I wandered around with some of the other music students and we got gelato and visited one of their apartments. It was a very nice apartment...almost the the point of me regretting living in Collegio, but I still love it! That afternoon, I also got a tour of Academia della Musica. It is a very beautiful facility, but unfortunately it is VERY far away from everything. I am talking walkingmetrowalkingtramwalking far away. I don't know that I will be taking many classes there, probably only choir. So hopefully I won't have to make that trek too many times a week. And hopefully there will be people to go with so I don't get lost, which I tend to do...