What's happening?

So, there hasn't been anything extremely exciting going on, but, things have still been incredibly fun. This weekend was very busy. Starting on Thursday, we went out every single night. The first three nights of the weekend we went to clubs. It was a very, very fun weekend. Three of my roommates friends were visiting in town so we spent some time with them too. Everybody definitely had fun this weekend, too. Other than that, I have just been going to my Italian class every morning from 9-11 (with a short cappuccino break in the middle of it). I chose my classes the other day, too. As of now I will be enrolled in Advanced Italian 350, Literature and the city, Never Give In! Facsicm, Anti-Semitism and Resistance in Italy (1922-1948), Communication and Media in Milan, and Managing Fashion and Luxury Companies (that one should be interesting). It looks like it should be a very good semester with some fun classes. What else is new? Not much. It is snowing for the first time (since we have been here) and it has been all day. I went running today in the snow and it was very cool, although running here is like smoking a whole pack of cigs. The air is so polluted out here. To cope with the loss of my dear wallet, I stopped by the PRADA store and picked up a VERY NICE new one. I am going to leave the cost out of this post for sure. We made dinner for some girls on Sunday night before going to a bar with some other of the people from the program. The meal was delicious (Like always. shout-out to Nick. Although I did help a lot like always) and it is never a bad thing to be in the company of some lovely ladies. As for me, I am still eating pizza, pasta and panini. (Trying to eat some fruits and veggies, Mom, don't worry) I also just purchased my ticket to London for my birthday/spring break. I am really excited. There are so many other trips that we are planning too so it should shape-up to be another amazing semester. (Already is) More to come later.

Luke

Verona

So this past weekend, some friends and I decided we would go to Verona for the weekend. If you don't know much about Verona, it is a city in northern Italy and also the setting for the play Romeo and Juliet and is the site of the "house of Juliet". We took a train on Friday and stayed two nights in a hotel just outside of the city. (A bus into the city only took about 10 minutes) There were six of us on that went on the trip to Verona. We took a train on Friday afternoon (the train takes about 2 hours) and then a bus to get to our hotel. We all stayed in one room and needless to say, it was a little crowded. (But a lot cheaper) Friday night we went to a restaurant (I ordered an amazing seafood spaghetti with a mountain of clams, mussels and shrimp) and then we took a long walk around the city at night even though it was probably 25 degrees. The city is filled with amazing architecture and it was really cool to see it all at night. The next day we woke up early enough to see as much as we could in the city. We walked around the entire day and saw basically everything there was to see. There were many churches and bridges. Everything was old and beautiful. The main attraction to see in Verona is "La casa di Giulietta" or the house of Juliet. This house is tucked away in a little section of the city and is a place that people all over the world come to see. The house is actually just a normal house that people have said is the house ofJuliet because it very much resembles the same layout as the house in the story. The walkway into the courtyard is covered by writing (people come and write their names and the names of their significant others on the walls). On one of the gates, also in the courtyard, people link locks with the names of themselves and their significant others to symbolize that they are going to be together forever. Their love is "locked forever". There is a staute in the courtyard of Juliet too and actually it is said that if you rub the right breast, you will have good luck. Kind of strange. Had to do it though. (Superstitious) The whole house is filled with items from the play Romeo and Juliet. The whole house is set to be just like the house from the play. There is even a balcony where people can take pictures. It was all a very romantic place. I loved it, being the romantic that I am. We also went to Julier's tomb, although it was a very big letdown. She wasn't even there! It was an empty tomb. (It might be because she wasn't a real person) Also, on Saturday we went to eat at a little restaurant and I had a delicious seafood risotto. (I love talking about food as you can tell) Saturday night we hung out in the hotel for a little bit and then we went to a club that was a little outside of the city. It was a really fun night. On Sunday we walked around a little more and went to see a castle, bridges and other architecture throughout the city. We ate lunch at the same place that we had dinner the first night and I had another great dish of gnocchi with meat sauce. Two of my friends and I left on the train and got home around 8 on Sunday night. The whole trip was a lot of fun.

Besides that, life around here has been going well. Class has been going well and yesterday we had a meeting about choosing our classes. (Classes start Feb 6) I pretty much already know what classes I am taking and I will let you all know what they are once they are locked in. Other that that, I have just been eating lots of pasta, pizza and panini (italian for sandwiches) and drinking cappuccini. It is the Italian way of life and I am embracing it like a champion. More info to come after I start picking classes.

Luke

Life in Italy

So I have made it here more than a week and everything is still just as awesome as when I first arrived. Better maybe. The rest of the weekend went by very fast but it was still a lot of fun. On Saturday we went to a local bar, near our apartment with a good group of people before coming back to our place to hang out for a bit. We actually ended up playing risk until morning. Kind of lame, but a lot of fun. Sunday night was really cool because we went to a bar with a bunch of people from our program in order to watch the big soccer game. (AC Milan and Inter Milan) Inter Milan ended up winning the game. Some people were happy, some people definitely were not. Monday was my first day of class at the IES center. Our class has only 5 people in it, but it looks like it is going to be good. It is a little fast-paced for my level at this moment, especially because I only had Spanish for a whole semester, but I like the challenge and I will be fine. Our class is two hours long with a ten-minute break. During our break, we go across the street to a little cafe and buy either a sandwich or a cappuccino. I tried my first Italian cappuccino the other day and with (a lot) of sugar, it wasn't too bad. Since then we have just been going to class, hanging out here, planning trips (already bought a ticket to Belgium for March and this weekend we are taking a train to Verona) and eating all kinds of good food. I have had so many sandwiches and pieces of pizza. Those places are everywhere. Yesterday I went on a long adventure through the freezing cold for about four hours. I walked down through a couple of outside markets, went downtown to do a little bit of shopping, got a kebab and then came back home. I saw a lot of the city and had a good time just walking around. Today we are going to plan more trips and maybe go to a bar to watch another game. Be back after Verona!

(I put up some pictures of the apartment. I love our place. It is pretty big and really nice. Three bedroom, kitchen, 2 bathroom and large common room in the middle)

Luke

Milan

Well here I am, sitting in my room in Milan, Italy. So far today, I woke up very early and, along with my roommates, I went to eat breakfast in these girls' apartment in our program. I then went on a run (it is hard to breathe here. Polluted like crazy) and then had to deal with a lot of wallet-loss problems. My roommate John and I didn't have class today because our class (Italian 305) doesn't start until Monday. Everything so far (and I will elaborate, of course) has been amazing, minus one thing-my wallet is now gone along with everything inside. (Still have my passport thank goodness) but all of my cards and IDs are gone. I have been going back and forth with my parents trying to call banks and send new cards ASAP. It's no fun. Not at all. BUT, now it is time to make you all a little jealous/tell a happier tale. The fun part-

So we arrived into Milan on Monday morning, tired yet excited. Interesting story, I never had to go through customs. I walked through a gate in Madrid (first stop) where they stamped my passport, but my bags never had to go through any special customs. I should have brought more dangerous things I guess. Italy doesn't seem to mind. So we arrived at the airport and were met by many young Italian people that were working/volunteered to help us get where we needed to go. AKA our apartments/homes. We took a train from the Malpensa airport to a train station close to the center of the city. Once we arrived at the train station we (one of my roommates, Chris, that was on the same flight as me/we hung out on the train ride over) got into a taxi and drove to our apartment building. We met a couple of our other roommates (Tim, Nick and Lorenzo. Lorenzo is our C.A., which is like a live-in R.A. and he is a student here in Italy) We have another roommate named John, but is doing a whole year in abroad so we didn't meet him right here. (He was traveling) So right when we arrived, Lorenzo was already making pasta for lunch. It was delicious. We hung out for a while, walking around and talking. We went over all of the house rules and how everything works. Then later in the evening we went to a very cool restaurant that overlooks Il Duomo di Milano (Probably the most famous building in Milan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Cathedral). We had a welcome buffet filled with all kinds of delicious types of Italian food. There was prosciutto, pizza, tiny sandwiches, cheese and, what it seemed to be, an endless supply of red wine and prosecco. Everybody was introducing themselves and talking and it was a very fun time. The next day we went to breakfast at our new traditional breakfast place. It is this little cafe with outdoor seating and they make some delicious, well, everything. It is a little expensive but I don't go there for the food. I go for the orange juice. Everybody that knows me will read that and be confused because I have never been one for drinking orange juice. This is OJ like none other. It is freshly squeezed/made and it is absolutely amazing. We plan on eating there all the time. We then had many boring meetings about orientation things and had lunch at the local university. A normal cafeteria in Milan is not too bad. I thought the food would be better but it was better than in Madrid. I ate some risotto with mushrooms, chicken and some pear juice. It was quite ok. Later that night our program took us all to one of the premier spas in Milan. It was so awesome. The name of the spa is Terme Milano. I highly recommend you all look it up. The place had everything from different hot tubs to spas to steam rooms to outdoor pools and hut tubs. They also had a buffet for us with lots of small food and a whole lot more wine. It was such a relaxing and fun night. The next day we had more meetings in the morning but then we were free for most of the rest of the day. A couple of my roommates and I walked around the block for about 3.5 hours. We learned a lot. At night, we had an aperitivo, which is where you go to a bar and buy something to drink and you can have as much bar food as you want. They have all different kinds of little things to eat and it was a really nice bar so we had a good time hanging out and meeting more and more people. After the first bar we went to a friend's apartment and hung out for a bit before heading to another bar where most of the program had already gathered. From there we all went to a club and danced for a couple of hours. The next day we hadto wake up for a tour of the Financial/Fashion districts of the city and it was pretty cool. The fashion district is the coolest. It is potentially the greatest in the world. They had all kinds of the best labels such as Gucci, Prada, Armani, Versace and everything else that you can imagine and not afford. It was pretty incredible. That night we made (my roommates Nick and Lorenzo) a very good dinner of pasta and homemade meatballs. It was so delicious. Afterwards we went to a bar to meet up with another girls' apartment group and hung out for a few hours. The rest of the story was told at the beginning so you now know where I am. Tonight we are going to go plan some trips with some friends of ours and then hang out at there apartment before going to another club. Life is good. More to come after the weekend.

Luke

Round Two

It's almost that time again. Time for me to venture out and journey to Europe. This time, however, I will be going to Milan, Italy. I am very excited about heading back overseas and I am so ready for another semester of study abroad. This break has been very relaxing. The first night that I arrived home I was greeted by a whole welcome wagon. My mom, dad, my brother Jordan, my grandparents, and two of my aunts were there at the gate to meet me as I broke ground back into this wonderful country. We then went to a nice pizza place in St. Louis called Pi Pizza. (If you are ever in STL you should check it out. It is actually a favorite of the Obama family as well) That wasn't my first taste of American food, though. When I first arrived in the States, I was in the Washington D.C. airport and I went to my usual favorite for that airport-Five Guys. There was no better way to taste America than by eating a double cheeseburger covered with grease and a big cup of cajun fries. That is the moment I knew I was back in the best country in the world. The majority of my break has been spent hanging around my house with my family and spending time with all of my friends. We aren't super exciting so most of our group nights we just hung out at somebody's house and played games. It was a lot of fun though, that is for sure. I definitely missed all of my friends back here in O'Fallon. I would hope you all are reading this so I will say I love you guys and I can't wait for the summer. Spending time with all of my family was great too. It made being back in my own house feel even more like truly being home. One of the days we were home we went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie and it was awesome. Better than the first one, I think. Also, two days after I was home, my dad and I had to drive up to Chicago in order to drop off my application for an Italian visa. I was a little worried about getting my visa before I left because the embassy talked about it taking up to three weeks to process an application. (I only had 3 weeks at home) Well, my appointment was at 9:45 AM so my dad and I woke up and started our roadtrip at about 4:00 AM. We drove to Chicago, grabbed a quick burrito, made it to my appointment (with time to spare) and then afterwards we jumped back in the car and drove back home. It was a long day filled with about 12 hours of driving. After all of that worrying, guess how long it took to return that visa? Two days. Those Italians know what they are doing about visas. It took the Spanish consulate 5 weeks in order to process my Spain visa. Moral of the story? Go to Italy I guess. (Although Spain is still very highly recommended by me) Christmas this year was very nice. My grandparents were still in town and everything was very fun and very relaxed. We open presents one at a time (the only true way to do it) and even though it takes all day, it is our tradition and you get to see what everybody gets. My favorite present was from my mom-2 tickets to the 49ers vs Rams game here in St. Louis. That day was so much fun. My mom and I are the biggest 49ers fans in our family, I think. (Yeah I said it, family!) We showed up to the stadium, rocking our 49ers gear and with one look around, we realized we were certainly not as out-numbered as badly as we thought. I would like to describe our section as a "sea of red and gold". There were so many 49ers fans there that it seemed there were almost more than the Rams had. Our seats were only nine rows from the field on the 49ers side and all of these players were so close to us. The 49ers ended up winning the game (of course) and our side was alive with energy and booze. It made for a very fun game and an amazing day out with my mom. As of right now, I am just sitting here in front of the TV watching the Saints play the Lions and I am leaving in the morning. I have been writing off and on on this post for a couple of days because I just couldn't focus. I still can't really focus. I am leaving for Milan tomorrow! I just got home, how can I leave again? With a smile on my face. That is how. I truly am very excited to go to a new place and start a new semester in a place I have never been to before. I am ready for everything that this semester is going to throw at me and I hope that everybody that was reading this blog before keeps checking up on me and I will surely entertain you with my stories from abroad. I hope you will all wish me some good luck, or as they say in Italian "In bocca al lupo!". Talk to you all in Italy.

Luke