Week 4: Milan Milan Milan

1. Italians from Madison. During the fall semester, the girls who went on my last year set up a mixer with the kids from Madison going to Milan this spring and the exchange students from Milan that were at Madison during the fall. On Tuesday we all decided to meet up (plus some of our other friends from our program) and we went to an amazing aperitivo at Exotic. It had everything from pasta, to sandwiches, to pasta salad, to pizza. Plus it had a lot of desserts like chocolate croissants and tiramisu. 

2. Football. On Wednesday we decided to go to an AC Milan football (soccer) game. The weirdest part was that we had to buy our ticket at the bank before hand.. not sure why but just another different thing Italians do. The stadium was very old and felt more like a Colosseum to me. Unfortunately we lost 1-0 AND to make matters worse... on our way home I was just trying to do some lunges down the stairs (normal right?) and an Italian man came by and pushed me. Luckily I had my feet in the right place so I didn't fall down the stairs. Normally, being an American girl has helped me but in this case... it did not

3. Shopping. The shopping here is incredible and my credit card bill is not liking me at all... There are just so many interesting stores and little boutiques all over the city. I have already found one of my favorite stores and plan on vising it quite frequently. Going with my friend Emma though can't happen very often because she is a horrible shopaholic. Put us together and Visa (and our parents) would not be happy. The sales though are amazing. I didn't have room to bring my robe (which I practically live in while at home) BUT don't you worry I found one for only 12 Euro. My friends here will tell you I'm always in it.

4. Fashion Week. Milan is known for its fashion week and you can't get into shows but if you stand outside the shows you could be lucky enough to see some models/famous people going into the show. We, of course, stick out like a sore thumb because the people going into these shows dress super high fashion which includes very high heels, a lot of bright colors and oh don't forget their favorite thing at this time of year - fur. 

5. Christians. I know I have mentioned this before but seriously it deserves to be mentioned again. Christians is a family owned restaurant right by my dorm.The man who owns it is so nice and I have yet to order something I do not like. This past week I got a pasta dish that included shrimp, zucchini (which I normally don't like) and tomatoes and it was fabulous. We always leave getting something free, and this time it was something my cousin had told me I had to try which was this drink  Italy is known for called a limoncello. 

6. The Alps. Deciding last minute, a group of 8 of us decided to go to Bardonecchia to ski in the Alps, which is outside of Torino where the 2006 Olympics were held. Our day started when we had to leave Arco at 6 am on Saturday to catch the first tram into the city and we were all still half asleep and of course running late to our bus. We got off the Metro where we were supposed to get picked up at but there was so much fog we couldn't find the bus stop so we started sprinting all around with all our luggage - unaware of where we were going. We finally found the stop and off we went. As American girls, the three of us on the trip have been constantly harassed EVERYWHERE we go.Of course this trip was no exception. Over the course of two and a half hours on the bus, the Italians running the trip kept talking over the intercom about the "American girls" in Italian. Sometimes it is pretty funny but after 5 times it can be extremely annoying.   .

7. Alberto. Us girls had to rent snow pants or else we were going to freeze so we befriended the guy in charge of the resort and he told us to go ask the ski rental people if they had any left and if not to come back and find him. Of course they had ski's, boots, polls (and don't worry mom, helmets) but no snowpants. Alberto went out of his way and took us to his own personal stuff and gave us each a pair of snowpants and forced me to wear his jacket because he thought I would freeze up in the mountain. Our outfits were straight out of the 80's. A perk of being American is how much Italian's are willing to help us. I even left my coat on the bus and Alberto made sure to call the bus company and had it waiting for me the next day.

8. Skiing. The rest of the day and all of Sunday we skied. I was able to reteach Emma how to ski, just like I had been taught by Afton and my mom; making her follow my tracks.  Saturday I went skiing mostly with Alex and on Sunday I skied with Emma during the morning and then we met up with the boys for lunch at this amazing chalet surrounded by the Alps. I then skied with the boys (two of them were really good and Nick.... I only skied with him so he could take videos of me with his gopro camera) the rest of the day, and I wasn't amazing but I held my own. I have been to Colorado to go skiing but that doesn't even come close to the Alps. It was amazing and we had perfect weather of about 45/50 degrees. I tried to capture the views with a camera but it was one of the moments when it wasn't possible. The runs were difficult but beautiful and the fresh powder was to die for.

9. Wine on tap.  With our tour, we were provided a dinner. Since Italians do not really keep track of their time, we tried eating at least 3 times but were told different times each time we asked. We finally were able to eat and the dinner was amazing. I had four or five plates because I wanted to try everything they had to offer.The craziest part was when we went to get water out of the tap, water did not come out... instead it was either red or white wine! That night we decided to go to the bar below the chalet thinking it would be filled with kids our age from the trip but boy were we wrong. Instead it was basically empty besides a group of 15 elderly Italians. We were able though to turn it into a fantastic time

10. My bed. Arco is finally feeling like home and after every trip and at the end of my school day I cannot wait to come home, eat and relax. I have to keep reminding myself to live in the moment but my next few weeks are making this extremely difficult. This weekend is Venice for carnival. Next weekend is Budapest for Emma's birthday. The following weekend is Prague with just Emma and Annie (that will be interesting just us three girls on our own. I'm sure there will be great stories to be told). Until next week! Hope the weather warms up soon back at home, since I've been going to class these past two days in no coat.

Emma and I at the AC Milan game

Outside one of the fashion shows during Fashion Week

Yes this man looks like an astronaut

One of the more tame outfits I saw

Some pictures of the Alps

Of course you have to see my whole outfit. I refused to take photos in it because I look like a 300 pound blue marshmallow so had to screen shot a picture from Facebook.