Weekend in Milano

Ciao regazzi!

This past week classes started. It was a rough adjustment, but at least I am not taking two Odekon classes anymore lol. The worst part about classes starting is that my day ends at 5:30pm every day and thus I do not get to explore the city during the day.

The highlights from this week:

-An adventure to the police station trying to get my permit to stay. I missed my first appointment because of that IES trip to the abbeys. Everyone who had gone to their permit to stay told horror stories of waiting for 3 hours and being treated horribly. I had no idea what to expect since I didn't even have an appointment. So Sadie and I ventured into the snow (Oh yeah it snowed here!) and found the police station. There were a lot of people, including families with kids, waiting in line. I struggled to articulate to the beautiful ginger police officer my dilemma about missing my appointment; he started doing my paperwork right then and skipped over all the other people in line. The first time that I truly recognized the privilege that came with being a young American girl.

-Another highlight this past week was going to the local synagogue. I had started feeling a bit homesick this past week, and thought that a visit with other Jews would help me make Milan more of a home. I went to the synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat services. The whole experience was weird, a little bit rewarding, but also disappointing. I was checked-in by a young Israeli guy who works at the synagogue and is in Milan studying. I hope to try to become friends with him over the next few months, although he wasn't very friendly because he was busy working. I sat in the upstairs balcony, dedicated for women, although there was a section in the downstairs section allowed for women, but it was in a tiny corner and basically boxed in a cage. The service started 25 minutes late because it took them that long to get a minyan (Italians are always fashionably late!). The synagogue was Sephardic, but a nice old man gave me an Ashkenazi siddur to borrow. The service was fairly familiar, and it was refreshing to be surrounded by Hebrew, a familiar language. But it made me homesick to not have the service and the atmosphere be like it was in Baltimore or at Skidmore Hillel. Overall, I think it was a good experience, and I hope to go back maybe for Saturday morning services where hopefully there will be more people there.

-This past weekend, I lived up Milan nightlife. On Thursday night, Chris, Hugh, Sadie, Victoria, Anna, and I went to a restaurant called Maya for an aperitivo. Possibly one of the best aperitivo's yet because it had a huge display of different pastas. We met some Argentinian boys studying in Milan at the table next to us; we ended up meeting them at the club Le Banque later that night! Of course, we stopped by Navigli first, to go to the Sofa Cafe just for Chris! (Just to fill you in, the Sofa Cafe is this small bar/cafe/lounge that is very serene and different than all the other bars on the Navigli strip. The Sofa Cafe has hand carved checkerboards, while other bars have disco balls and crazy lights. Afterwards, we ventured to Le Banque, which is now my favorite club yet. It is located in an old bank, so the place was really nice. It was Carnivale in Milan this past weekend so everyone was dressed up in costumes that night. By 3:30 we left the club and looked for a cheap means of getting home, since the taxis are so expensive! We ended up outside the duomo, which was amazing because we were the only ones out there! We went into the Galleria which was amazing because it was empty and we spun around on the bull's balls. I am realizing that the best time to see places in the city is at night when no one else is around; it can be pretty amazing.
On Friday night, Victoria kindly had Sadie, Chris and I over for dinner (pesto pasta of course!), which was delicious. We went to AJ, Arturo, Connor and Ale's apartment where a bunch of people met up before we all went to Alcatraz, a huge club venue. I was skeptical that I would enjoy Alcatraz because it's kind of like a big warehouse music venue, but I ended up having a lot of fun and it was great to be with so many IES people. Again trying to not take a taxi home, Ale took us from bus to bus and finally got us home!

Before going to Alcatraz

Wanna hear my next few weeks: Florence this weekend, Zoe coming to Milan, skiing in the Alps, visiting Kayla in Copenhagen, Midterms, Traveling around Spain for Spring Break!!!  WOOOOO

The only other important thing to mention is that Milan Fashion Week starts tomorrow!! So exciting! It's the week we've all been waiting for. Can't wait to show you photos.

xoxo,
~E

I've Survived My First Month Here!

Ciao amici!

Well... I've survived my first month here! Interestingly though, I've yet to start my classes. That changes tomorrow; thus living my European vacation life is about to end. But no worries, I have much more planned for the next three months. My classes will no doubt change things, but all of my classes are going to be super interesting and I think I am going to enjoy all of them.

I last wrote about the my trip to Venice and the Ravens winning the superbowl. Thus this past week, I've been living on Cloud 9.

My European life is amazing, but I was particularly envious of my brother and all of my Baltimore friends who went to the Ravens parade and celebrated our amazing win in the 410. My facebook exploded with pictures and statuses about it, and it made me just a little bit homesick.

That went away of course when I spent the afternoon on the top of the Duomo and watched the sunset up there. You can see the entire city of Milan around you, and it is possible to see the alps in the background. It's so beautiful and amazing. With the sun setting... its breathtaking!

Is this seriously my life?

This week I have been cooking for myself. I made chicken parmesan and I made homemade lasagna for my friends and I. This was not just any lasagna; I made it from scratch and with an authentic Italian recipe. I used a bechamel sauce instead of ricotta cheese. It turned out pretty well, except for the fact that the noodles didn't really cook (because the only noodles I could find in the supermarket were no-boil noodles). So the taste was wonderful but it was a bit chewy lol. I am determined to make it again and make it amazing.

On Friday, I went on a day trip that IES planned for us. It was a trip to several abbeys in Lombardy near Milan. We went to Certosa di Pavia, a beautiful and very decadent monastery near Pavia. We also visited Vigevano, a small town nearby. We visited Ducal Square in Vigevano, a beautiful piazza. We also went to Chiaravalle Abbey. This was probably one of my favorite churches that I've been to yet. It was significantly more understated than the other decadent churches that I've visited while here. But there were such significant and intricate details and reasons behind certain paintings and designs. The most memorable part, however, was our crazy amazing tour guide of Chiaravalle Abbey. He was like the classic eccentric Italian artist. He kept flailing his arms in excitement, touching everyone, and would interrupt the interpreter just to emphasize something. He was great!
It is essential to note, that on this trip, I had the most delicious pizza I have had yet. We grabbed lunch at a local pizzeria in Vigevano.  The pizza was HUGE, and the waiters expect you to eat the whole thing! Look how big this pizza was! It was a bufala mozzarella pizza... YUM! 

For the rest of the weekend, I rested up from these crazy past few weeks. I went to the Navigli (the canals) with some friends (Brent, Sadie, Chris, Victoria, and Nick) for drinks on Friday night at Vintage, one of our favorite bars by Navigli. We've become good friends with the beautiful bartender, Ross. On Sunday night, we (Brent, Brent's friend from home, Sadie, Arturo, AJ, Chris, Hugh, and I) went to Spritz, for an aperitivo. Everyone had been telling us that it was mandatory to do an aperitivo at Spritz... it was wonderfully delicious! We particularly enjoyed eating nutella pizza :) (This for sure beats dessert pizza at Skiddy's DHall for Wafflefest).

Just to update you on my future travel plans: I am off to Florence next weekend. I have booked my tickets to Dublin for a weekend. And I am all set to go to Spain for Spring Break with Zozo. Also, I am going to Rome for Easter and am going to Easter Mass and will hear the new pope speak. UM.. WHAT IS MY LIFE? COULD THIS GET ANY MORE AMAZING?

OK, well, I have got a busy week ahead of me... now that I actually have classes :-/ I am still working on my pictures- but they will be uploaded ASAP.

Baci Baci,
~E

When You Come to a Fork in the Road... Take It

There were two mottos for my trip in Venice this past weekend:

1. When you come to a fork in the road... take it.

- Venice is completely a walking city... there are no cars; people use boats and the water taxis to get around. The streets are tiny and wind around in no organized fashion, but somehow through a combination of 100 rights and lefts through alleyways, you can get to when you want to go. So over and over again, we would be confronted with a fork in the road, and the only way to know if we'd end up where we wanted was to take it.

2. Do it for the story.

-My weekend in Venice was one of the greatest times I've ever had. We had such an amazing experience and there were so many moments that happened that makes fabulous stories to remember and so we left with no regrets and just great stories.

We left Milan on Friday in the afternoon and arrived in Venice in the early evening. It was already dark, but we still decided to walk from the train station to our hotel, which was near Piazza San Marco, the famous square in Venice. On google maps, the hotel was a 45 min walk away, but considering we had to stop at every mask store and freak out about being excited to be in Venice, it took us over an hour. We got lost in the tiny streets, making a million turns down alley ways, and we constantly used our little bit of italian to ask where go. We finally made it and were shocked to realize how amazing the location of our hotel was. It was literally a half a second off the Piazza. When we checked-in, they upgraded us to a suite in a neighboring hotel, Hotel San Marco (a 4 star hotel)!! We were freaking out! I seriously thought that we had been "punked" and I was waiting anxiously for someone to jump out and say "HA Joke's On You". The room was beautiful and huge and we were so lucky!

On Saturday, it rained and poured all day... But that didn't stop us. We ventured out, exploring the city, and looking for food. Our feet got completely drenched; all of our clothes and everything was so wet!! We were freezing and wet, but we had positive attitudes and laughed 24/7 so we still had such a great time. We became masters of the city, exploring all the nooks and crannies of the city. The advantage of having the hotel so close was that when we got too wet and cold, we could come back to the hotel, dry off, blow dry our shoes, and rest until we were ready to brave the weather. At one point, the rain and wind was so hard, that all three of the umbrellas we had broke.

What did we manage to accomplish on Saturday? Well we did go into the Basilica di San Marco, which is the fabulous basilica off Piazza San Marco. It was absolutely beautiful, and unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos (you should look it up to see how beautiful!). We also had the best meal I've had since being in Italy. We went to a small local restaurant, where I had the best pasta I've had yet.

Venice is completely different than Milan, but the thing that struck us the most besides the obvious differences was:
A. how touristy Venice felt, especially with Carnevale happening...
...but more importantly...
B. how much English was spoken and how many Americans were around. I realized how much I appreciate Milan not being very touristy and how almost no one knows English. I like going into stores and not being spoken to in English. In Venice, whenever we tried our Italian, people would just ignore it and speak in English.
In addition to that, our encounters with a lot of American students made us kind of embarrassed, in that the reflection of Americans or Americans our age was particularly negative. The students were rude and ignorant and it forced us to be aware of our behavior and try to not come off in a similar fashion.

Anyway, Sunday was really the best day. No rain! Plus the most beautiful weather! We woke up at 6am in order to catch the sunrise on a bridge over the canal. We had hoped to go back to a bridge we had found earlier in the trip, but we couldn't manage to find it that morning. So we were running through the alleys of Venice and made it back to the Rialto bridge and watched the sky gradually get brighter. We got some fabulous photos, and the whole experience was so great, especially because there was no one out on the streets; we had the city to ourselves. Just a few hours later, when we crossed the bridge again, the place was packed with tourists. After our sunrise on the Rialto Bridge, we went back to Piazza San Marco, where the carnevale festivities were beginning. We saw so many people dressed in fabulous costumes and we saw a drum performance. The sun was shining and the square was packed!

My experience in Venice showed me three main things that Venice is known for: masks (masks, and more masks), murano glass, and little bridges. We came and conquered all of them.
- We went to a million mask stores and ended up in one of the most famous ones, La Bottega dei Mascareri. All of the masks were absolutely amazing! We met and talked with the artist of the masks; we even watched him paint one for a short time! Chris bought the most amazing mask from him.
-We all managed to get our little piece of murano glass. :) I got myself a wine bottle stopper of murano glass... fitting for the wine of italy and in honor of my 21st birthday (well.. in 6 months)
-While we had gotten lost a million times, we stumbled upon small neighborhoods with beautiful bridges and amazing sights. Please, if you (all of you) have a chance to get lost in the alleys of venice, DO IT! It's such a magical city! The bridges are so adorable and it's so funny to think about using small power boats as a method of travel. SO INTERESTING!

My last major element of my trip of the Jewish Ghetto. It was one of my main goals while in Venice to make it to the Jewish Ghetto. Well, a. because I am me and thrive off exploring my Jewish roots wherever I go. But, more than that, I remember sitting in 12th grade Shakespeare class with Mr. Paulson reading the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare and loving every moment of it. Probably my favorite quote of all time is from the Merchant of Venice:

Shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that. (Act 3, scene 1, 58–68)

It's amazing that issues occurring 500 years ago are still relevant today. Anyway, Venice has a rich presence of Jewish history and it was really cool to explore it. We walked forever to get to the Jewish ghetto, and I am so thankful to my friends for going so out of their way to explore this with me. When we finally found Gam Gam, the Kosher restaurant, I was so happy! I was ready to find my Jewish husband (apparently the Jewish Italian waiters at Gam Gam are super cute!) but the restaurant was packed so no luck :( We walked into the Rabbi's wife outside the kosher Jewish bakery in the ghetto; she was absolutely the sweetest (kind of typical for an American Chabad Rabbi's wife- at least in my experience). She was from America, but her husband is Italian. She invited me for Passover seder and future shabbats, which was so nice of her and I am hoping to do. I bought a murano glass mezuzah and saw some beautiful Jewish artwork in the ghetto shops.

Ok... here's my embarrassing story for you to laugh at me for the rest of time: WE MISSED OUR TRAIN! We got the time wrong. We had been wrong about the train time all weekend. We were off by 2 hours! Luckily, there was another one within the hour to take; unfortunately, our ticket was non-transferrable so we had to buy a whole new ticket (molto costoso!!) :(

...At least we got home! ... and were safe and healthy... and we had the best time. I could not have asked for a better weekend! THANK YOU TO SADIE, CHRIS, and BRENT!


A necessary and important message: THE RAVENS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! AHHHH CAN MY LIFE BE ANY MORE AMAZING! I got home exhausted from the weekend in Venice, and couldn't stay up to watch it last night. But immediately when I woke up this morning, I checked the score and saw that the Ravens had won! I called my mom and woke her up at 2am and she gave me a synopsis of the game. I SO PROUD TO BE A BALTIMOREAN! So happy for Ray Lewis! What a special win. I am so bummed I missed watching it and am not in Baltimore to celebrate, but I am so ecstatic that we won! I BLEED BLACK AND PURPLE (even a million miles away!)


Well that's all folks. Pictures to come. I promise. I have over 300 to sort through!

Ciao!
~E