Life In Milan 2: Electric Boogaloo

Hey guys, uploading another out-dated blog! Hopefully I'll get all caught up this month and you'll finally learn about how this whole adventure ended.

So I’ve been living in Italy for about four months now (my anniversary was just last week!) and I’d like to think I’ve gotten to know the country pretty well. I’ve been all over the place (except Sicily and Sardegna, the two places in Italy I NEED to get to. Out of time this trip though) and have done some amazing things. I finally can speak the language comfortably (I’ve had actual conversations in Italian and it is amazing) and I’m very comfortable in Milan as well, I walk home at 4 am consistently (sorry mom!) It has been an incredible semester and I really don’t want to leave in 16 days. At all. Unfortunately I’m pretty much bankrupt at this point and so I kinda have to. I also desperately need to find a job this summer, especially if I’m going to be visiting a few of my friends back in the states like I told them I would (Madison, Louisville, DC, Berkeley here I come! Hopefully). Craigslist has been fruitless so far however, and other than that I don’t have many options, at least that I can think of. Any ideas? I would like to apply to be an extra in The Avengers, so maybe that will happen. And apparently lots of movies are filming in Cleveland this summer, I could just get an acting job (time to get some headshots! And an agent!) I wish Cleveland had any NGOs to speak of because I would apply to them in a heartbeat. Sorry I’m just whining about joblessness. Let me tell you about the awesome stuff I’ve done the last few weeks!

My first awesome adventure (maybe only? I haven’t been doing too much the last few weeks, exams, sleeping, not having money have kept me from traveling a ton) was on May 14^th, when I went canyoning for the first time. What is canyoning you ask? Well, there are no words to describe it, so watch this video:

It's not of Garda, but ours was even more awesome than the stuff they show in this one.

My friend Allie got this whole thing together as she wanted to do something outdoorsy for her birthday (which was the 16^th) and Lake Garda (one of Italy’s big three lakes) has some of the best canyoning in the world. So five of us (Jorge, Tucci, Allie, Mel and I) made our way to Lago Garda early that Saturday morning to meet up with Graziano, our canyoning guide. We met him at the bus station in town and he drove us way up in the mountains, to where we began our hurtle down the canyon. Before we could start jumping off of waterfalls however (yes really), we had to hike up in to the canyon for about 20 minutes in 5mm thick wetsuits. It was a little uncomfortable. When we got up there Graziano gave us a quick lesson in canyoning (essentially how not to fall on our asses while walking on slippery rocks), rappelling (falling with style) and jumping off of waterfalls (kinda just have to do it!) and then we were off! We walked down in to the canyon and into the frigid water (10˚ C, aka 50˚ F. Hence the 5 mm wetsuits) and got started slipping and sliding and jumping our way down the canyon, back to where we started our hike. There aren’t really words to describe just how incredible the experience was, to be trekking down a canyon in the Italian Alps with a group of five people as awesome as ours. After every little thing we did (first slide down a waterfall, first plunge in to the SO COLD water, first jump off a waterfall, and second, third, forth and fifth jumps) we would cheer and be American (except Mel, she would be Australian. It’s close enough) and just had an amazing time. All we could say the whole time (well all I said the whole time…) was “This is the coolest thing I have EVER done” (kind of literally. I don’t know if you all picked up on this yet, but the water was cold) and it still stands, looking back. In a word: incredible. In a few more words: Canyoning is something everyone must do, preferably in Riva del Garda with Graziano from Free Alp. The end. Also, I jumped off a 40 ft cliff. So my life is complete.

 Before we left, check out the guns

After the most amazing thing ever

Exhaustion

Other than that what have I been doing in Milan and its environs? Not a ton stands out because that canyoning thing kind of overshadows everything I’ve ever done (in fact, I now divide my life in to three eras. BHP (before Harry Potter), AHPBBC (after him, but before canyoning) and AHPaC (After Harry Potter and Canyoning); I cannot tell you enough times how ridiculously fun/terrifying/exhilarating the whole experience was. I’ve gotten gelato more than a few more times (you may have seen my brief post about eating rose flavored gelato. Definitely a low point in my gelato tasting career) eaten a bunch of pasta, had this enormous pizza/pasta combo at a restaurant called Big Pizza (they’re not lying), went to a few more museums and saw the Last Supper (which was mesmerizing). It’s been a pretty productive couple of months, and I still haven’t done everything the city has to offer (still need to go to both Pinacoteche, Brera and Ambrosiana. I’ve seen so much art at this trip though, not sure if I’m gonna make it. Little to no motivation)

Aside from actual fun things I also finished all my exams on the 9^th(and passed! You would have never known I was even taking classes here if you read my blog regularly, and I forgot that I was at school sometimes too) and have been searching frantically for housing in Paris (pretty much impossible to find something affordable. I booked one at 28 euro/night hostel last night out of desperation, hopefully I can find somewhere to couchsurf (couchsurfing.org!) though. That would make my life much easier) and figuring out how to make the rest of my money last me through to the end of the month while also traveling a respectable amount. Right now I’m budgeted at 20 euro/day, but that would leave me with 0 dollars on June 27^th, so I probably should keep it around 10. Which makes it a little hard to travel. But I’m on the train to Bologna right now, so this is my first real test of how little money I can spend on a trip while also eating enough to not starve. Should be interesting. I’m done talking about myself though, this whole self indulgence thing is getting old. So I’ll talk to you guys soon, when I blog about Deanna and mine’s trip through Naples (sketchy), Sorrento (beautiful), Capri (heavenly) and the Amalfi Coast (beautifuler). Ciao!