Pre-departure

I can't imagine that anyone would read this, but the purpose of this blog is to record my adventures in Italy... mostly for the sake of my mother since I won't be calling her 4 times a day to update her on the insignificant details of my life.

I am spending my Junior fall in Milan as part of a study abroad program. I will be studying music and Italian to support my major (Vocal Performance) and my minor (Italian Studies). I could have gone to Vienna with a lot of my friends, but 1. my German is more miserable than my Italian and 2. I really wanted to go to Italy because I am 100% Italian. And by 100% Italian, I mean 50% Lithuanian and 50% Swedish...so not at all Italian by blood, but 100% Italian in spirit! I love everything Italian...the language, the food...the men :) and I wish I was Italian. But alas, my blood has fought against me and I remain 100% not Italian.

I am the only person from my school to participate in this program this semester so I know...no one. So this should be interesting. I mean, I have done this kind of thing before -- going somewhere by yourself, not knowing anyone. This will be my third time and I am getting better each time. It is always difficult going into a situation where you know no one and then attempt to make friends and have a good time. But I manage.

I am a little nervous about the language situation. I have only taken 1 year of Italian language so I am not quite sure how well this is going to go. I have studied many languages over the years and I am decent-ish at most of them, but when these Italians get going all I hear is "aawepastasfooigelatoamefjnooperaslfooemamericana." So needless to say, this should be interesting. I did spend a month in Italy this summer for an opera program, so I am feeling a little bit more comfortable navigating around Italy and basic conversation, considering hardly anyone in the town spoke English.

Anyway...I don't have to worry about any of that yet because I don't leave until Sunday. The first mountain I must conquer is packing, which I have yet to start. And I am not the best packer some might say. Even though I do a lot of traveling (mostly to and from college), it is always very stressful and usually ends up with a lot of eye-batting toward the airline guys so they will allow my overstuffed 60 lb bag to go on the plane without extra charge. So we will see how I do this time. For my 3 and a half month trip, I am attempting to only pack one rolling suitcase and 2 carry-ons...ambitions, right? I doubt it will happen...but I suppose I can dream big...?