A Glorious Reunion

Sorry it has been so long, but it has been hard to find extra time here. But, here I am back at updating. Last weekend I went to Florence to meet up with my friend, Ted, from Bowdoin. (He is studying in Orvieto, which is a city about halways between Rome and Florence. I rode the faster train, which is more expensive, but it was worth it. (You can get there in about half of the time) Once I got there, I walked around for a while, exploring the city on my own. (Ted missed his first train and did not arrive until about an hour after I did) I walked around the historic district at first and into the commercial section as well. Florence is a very nice city. It is great to look at and there is always a lot going on. The reason why I didn't want to study there was because it is like a little America. There are so many American students studying there and almost everybody speaks English. You are not exactly getting the "Italian experience". It was an amazing place to visit though. So when Ted finally came to the city, we went to our hostel to check-in and see where we would be staying. It was no ordinary hostel. It was in an apartment building with random rooms that you could rent. (It was very cheap though) It was a very nice and safe place though so no worries. We then went out to get a kebab and walk around the town. Our hostel was in a great place in the city. It was near all of the historic district buildings and the more "commercial" area. It was already getting a little late so we didn' really do much that night except walk around and get acquainted with the area in which we were staying. On Saturday, we walked up (basically) a mountain to go visit a fort/the famous Boboli gardens. We walked all through the gardens, saw the museum that they had there and a roman gate. We then proceeded to head back to our hostel (after getting another kebab, of course) and decided to go check out the duomo in the city. The duomo in Florence is a lot bigger/nicer-looking than the one here in Milan. Ted and I walked up to the top (many, many stairs). The view from the top of the duomo was incredible. We were one of the last groups up there so we were lucky enough to have some of the light of the day still left. We could see the entire city and the landscape. It was awesome. For dinner, we went to this incredible restaurant called Il Latini (http://www.illatini.com/) It was high on the list of "things to do/see in Milan". It was one of the best meals I have ever had. It was a very unique place because they sat you/your group at a table with other random people. It would have been very interesting but the two chinese girls that sat next to us spoke NO english. Also, there were no menus at this restaurant. They have set courses that they are going to serve and you can pick between certain 1st plates and 2nd plates. The appetizers that they served were prosciutto, brushetta, and anchovies (not my favorite). They also had bread and very large bottles of chianti. For my first course I had a Pappardelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappardelle) dish with wild boar. For my second course I had grilled rabbit. The portions at this place were incredible. They gave me the entire leg of the rabbit. I basically ate 1/4 of a rabbit. Ted had some ravioli for his 1st course and a steak for his second. This was the largest steak I had ever seen in real life. It was actually 2 inches thick (at least). We ate until we could eat no more and then they brought out some dessert wine and biscotti on the house. It was incredible. That night we went out to a club called Space. The next morning we both got on our trains and went back to our cities. It was a really fun weekend and I am glad that I got to see somebody from Bowdoin. News in Milan for right now? FASHION WEEK.

Luke

Past Posts

So, life here has just been rolling along. Unfortunately, I had to change my class schedule around a little bit. Two of my classes (communication and management of fashion and luxury companies) were not "liberal enough" for Bowdoin, so I switched out of the communication class into a sociology class and I just added another history class to my schedule. Now I am taking six classes, which is going to be rough. I don't really mind, though, because life here is too good. I have been working hard the last couple of days trying to send a lot of emails and looking for something to do this summer. We are still cooking some great meals in our apartment and saving a lot of money doing so. The other day we had some rabbit that was absolutely delicious. (PS, rabbit kidney tastes just like sausage. It's pretty good) Yesterday for my literature class we walked around the city, but through an area that is near my apartment and also where I have never walked through. This neighborhood was probably one of the richest I have ever seen. Every single person that walked by was either a lady wearing a really nice fur coat, or a man wearing a nice suit. They all just looked like they were loaded. That's where I want to live. (If I could ever afford it) ----------This post was written a long time ago, but I never finished it ------------- The week of midterms was definitely very hectic. I am taking six midterms, therefore I have 6 classes. Over the weekend, and during some of the week, there were two people visiting. That didn't help the studying, but we definitely had time for some fun. So, on Monday, I had my Italian final. Tuesday, I had my Fashion final and my Sociology final. Also, with Sociology, I had to give a presentation. (I hate presentations, but it went very well) On Wednesday, I had two more finals-Literature and History of Fascism. Finally, on Thursday, I finished off my "hell week" with another History final. It was a very long week, filled with only a few hours of sleep. I slept so well on Thursday night. It was glorious. Other than that, life has been the usual of going to class, drinking cappuccinos, eating panini, making meals (turkey and chicken burgers are classic) and spending time surveying the area of Milan. As I said earlier, I am heading to Rome tonight and I will report back at the beginning of next week.

Luke

First Week of Classes

This week was our first week of real classes. On Monday and Wednesday, I have Italian 350 at 10:30, Literature and the City at 1:30 and Never Give In! Fascism, Anti-Semitism and Resistance in Italy at 3:30. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Managing Fashion and Luxury Companies at 9:00 and Communication and Media in Milan at 11:00. Each of the classes are two hours long (minus Italian, it is only 1.5 hours). Two hour classes can be quite long, but luckily we have a 10 minute break in some and one of them ends 15 minutes early. The Italian class is pretty good, but not too exciting. The Literature class is a little slow so far, but it should be very interesting because throughout the course, we are going to go on walking tours of the city in order to explore the literature throughout the history of Italy. The communication class also seems like it will pick up in interest, as it is a little slow right now. We are going to have a couple of field trips throughout the course such as a trip to a set of a tv show and a trip to where they run the famous Corriere della Sera newspaper. The history class is about a very important time in the history of the world and I think learning the history from the Italian side should be very cool and add a whole new perspective. Last, but not least, would be the fashion class. So far, it has actually been very interesting and sounds like it should teach us a lot about the fashion/luxury industry and how those companies run they way they do. Also, we are going to visit the Swarovski factory which should be pretty cool. One of our professors (we have two) worked there for 18 years and knows a lot about the industry. As for this weekend, I believe that we are staying here in Milan again. We are planning some pretty big trips so it is a safe way to save money for those future adventures. Sorry for no pictures at the moment, but there just hasn't been a whole lot to photograph. It has been very cold lately. Somehow colder than at Bowdoin. I thought I was escaping that Bowdoin winter, but by some chance, Italy has had the coldest weather since maybe 50 years. I was elected by my class to be a part of the student council here so that is pretty cool. In our first meeting, we arrived to a whole spread of pizza and salad and drinks. It was fun. I think that we are going to have a very good group. Also, I had a skype interview for an RA job at Bowdoin. It was great to talk to somebody back at Bowdoin. I do miss it. (Although I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world) Other than that, life is perfect.