Milanese Life

So I’ve been in Milan around two months now, and I thought I would give you (all), my reader(s), an idea of what life is like for me in Milan (the three or four days a week when I’m here and not traveling elsewhere).

I guess I’ll start with class. I’m taking classes exclusively in Italian, which means I’m taking them with the normal students at my university. It’s been an interesting experience so far: trying to understand as well as comprehend the entire lecture and take notes at the same time is actually impossible. Today, for the first time ever, I managed to listen passively and understand Italian at the same time in my Psicologia Sociale class. So exciting!! I’m hoping that by the end of the semester I will be able to take notes and understand the lecture at the same time, at least at the same level as I do in classes back at Miami. In other words, be able to write down powerpoint slides mindlessly and pick up a few words here and there that the professors say about them, such as “and”, “the” and “got it?”. I think it’s doable.  The thing I’m most worried about is my final exams; I wonder how hard the professors are going to grade me considering this first month all I’ve done is try to understand what they’re teaching me, not comprehend what they’re teaching me. I need to start reviewing my notes and hope I understand them I guess.

My school is beautiful

I wanted to write about all the things that were culture-shocky for me when I got here, those big differences between the states and Europe that you normally hear about, but everything here seems pretty normal to me now. There are a few things that are still out of the ordinary, but they seem less and less so each day. I’m trying to think of what I wanted to write about but it’s hard, because I just look at those peculiarities and think to myself, “oh, Italy…” not, “oh, I need to write about that in my blog because it’s SO Italy”. I think the thing that strikes me the most (or at least the thing that just came to mind) is that everything is a parking space here. The sidewalks? Parking Space. The middle of the street? Parking Space. That space between two cars already parked that is just slightly (an inch or so) larger than your car? Parking Space. I have seen so many people parallel park by nudging the cars in front and behind them just enough to fit in the space they want. Parking is at a premium, sure, but this is slightly ridiculous. Another thing is lines; I’m sure most of you have heard this but Italy doesn’t believe in lines, it believes in crowds of people where whoever is the best at getting through a mosh pit wins and gets to order their delicious, carb-heavy Italian pastry (or pizza or sandwich or coffee or drink or anything else you would ever have to order). Even at the Post Office, people just stand in a group. This strikes me the most because I assume governmental offices to be really orderly and rigid, the one place in Italy where they would have lines, but instead it’s just a more ordered chaos. Also, there are no SUVs here; people are the same size relative to their cars: tiny! And by tiny I mean not morbidly obese, like America. I can count the amount of fat Italians I’ve seen on my left hand (3)(but not my right hand, not really feeling it), but I would need a lot more than that to count the amount of fat tourists.

Not exactly horrible parking, but really Italy?

Speaking of gaining weight, for dinner a lot of times we go to this thing called aperitivo, where you buy one drink for 5-10 euro and get an endless buffet along with it (almost all of the restaurants in Milan do them). I’ve been to a few so far; one of them is free because I’m an international student (Old Fashion) so obviously I go there the most. My other favorites are a place called Cheese (Lebanese/Israeli) and a pizzeria called Slice (which has the BEST Nutella® pizza I’ve ever had. aka the only one. But it was amazing). When I went to Cheese I went with my friend Sarah’s (who named this blog) friend Fede, who goes to school in Padova (like two hours east of Milan), along with two of his friends who go to school in Milan and his friend from Padova who had never been to Milan before. They were all Italian so they spoke in Italian the whole time, and I understood next to nothing. I was listening as best I could and it just wasn’t happening, but luckily Fede was there to translate for me. It sounded like the stories they were telling were hilarious/riveting, and I really wish I could have understood them. I had a great time going out with them though, they showed me an awesome new restaurant and I got to meet Italians the same age as me, outside of the circles provided us by Cattolica. It was a really cool experience. After dinner at Cheese we walked over to this AMAZING gelateria called Cioccolati Italiani (the original. I had been to their franchise over by the Duomo). We all got coffee (I felt obligated to, as they all did and it’s Italy, so I might as well) and mine was too bitter (but I always say that about coffee soooo). We stayed and talked (I listened) for a few more hours and then parted ways.

Fede and I outside the Duomo

Cioccolati Italiani!

So decadent

Speaking of gelaterie, I’m completely addicted to gelato here. I have gotten it almost every single day since I arrived, and get cravings when I haven’t had it within a few days. Right now I’m working my way through every flavor offered at various gelaterie around Milan, and I haven’t found a flavor I dislike (at least, a flavor that is legitimate, not one made with chemical flavoring). I’m still making my way through all the flavors so there might be a dud, but I doubt it.

                                                  

Here’s a selection of pictures from around Milan:

Sant Ambrogio, the Church next to my school

Blood Oranges at the biweekly market

The only fashion week show I went to, Nara Camicie

My building, my balcony is the really empty one, 5th floor

A tram decked out for the 150th of Italy

Spring has sprung in Milan!

P.S. I don’t have anything to add but wanted to have one of these anyway. See you guys in a week! (at least, that’s what I’m trying to do. Make this a weekly thing. We’ll see how that goes.)