Apartment life is fun. Charlie and I have got the cooking thing down. We found a cheap supermarket nearby called Dico and I can get about a weeks worth of groceries for €30. And they sell 79 cent champagne. I don't understand how they do it. Anyway, if I'm not eating in the cafeteria at the Catholic University during the week, I will go home and make a panino...definitely a great lunch. Usually, we cook meat and pasta and make a salad for dinner. I hope to bring back some great Italian recipes with me to the states.

On Thursday night a bunch of kids on the program went to this Indian restaurant called Bhangrabar for aperitivo. It had a really cool atmosphere and we got drinks and a ton of food for really cheap. Once again, props to aperitivo.

My first Italian test was on Friday. It was pretty easy, but we haven't gotten it back yet. I am understanding at least half of what a speaker says in Italian, it is just difficult to speak it at this point. Italians are always gesticulating wildly while they speak too, so that definitely helps the comprehension.

This weekend was fun, although pretty chill. I went out on Saturday night with a bunch of IES people to a club called Le Banque. It was pretty cool. The place was filled with international students and had huge montors showing runway shows and photo shoots. I also did all of my laundry for the first time. It is nice to have a machine in the apartment, although I have to get used to letting everything air-dry.

The voice lessons are absolutely amazing. Patrizia is very direct and will not beat around the bush. I like her approach a lot. I have already noticed a large difference in my voice after the first two lessons. She catches everything, and will not settle for anything that isn't bello or bene. We have worked a lot on technique, and she has changed the way I breathe so I'm much more efficient. Apparently, she did the opera La Traviata in the Twin Cities at the Minnesota Opera in 2003, and she said that she really liked being there.

However, I am getting a cold. I think it might be from the change in atmosphere. It is so polluted here right now because it is always foggy and hasn't rained in a long time. While most people in Milan do not jog, they say it is actually quite harmful to one's body to do it outside here because of the pollution.

This week I am planning to do some cultural things around the city. I have done a lot of walking so far, but I haven't been to many concerts or museums yet. They told us in orientation that because there is so much to do here culturally, it sometimes feels like there is nothing to do because there is just too much. It's hard to just dig in. But I plan on digging in this week.

Milano is now my city. All it took was a LOT of walking, looking at maps, and riding the metro. I met a group of kids on Saturday morning in the Duomo square (in the center of the city) and we proceded to ride the subway around Milan to different produce markets. The markets are held a couple days a week, and this is definitely where to buy fruits and vegetables. You can buy 1 kilo of clementines for 1.5 euro, etc!

We spent the afternoon shopping in the fashion district, although I didn't buy anything in the designer stores. The saldi, or big sale, is happening right now in Italy, and everything is 50-75% off. I bought a burgandy velvet blazer at Zara for a good price: it definitely helps me look Italian.

That evening we threw a dinner party at Mike's apartment. There were 9 of us there, and we went all out. It actually is way cheaper to go grocery shopping for dinner party food than to eat out.

By the end of Saturday, we rode all three metro lines (red, yellow, and green). I had probably walked in between 6 and 8 miles all around Milan...I was truly exhausted by the end the night. My apartment is on the green line at the Garibaldi stop, and the IES center is also on the green line four stops down, so it doesn't take me too long to get to school in the mornings. There is a bit of a walk before I get on, so it's about a 20 minute commute total.

Charlie and I finally went grocery shopping yesterday and got food for the apartment. We had been eating out every meal before that, and it was getting to be very expensive. Last night we stayed home and made pasta and drank wine with Giuseppe, our roommate. It was comfy. I got to test out some of the phrases I learned yesterday morning during my first day of Italian, like Quanti anni hai? and Di dove sei? on him. I will definitely benefit from living with an Italian.

The "intensive" Italian class is alright so far after two days. It is three hours per day (9 - noon). My teacher is Professora Messina and she wears olive green leather pants. I like her. However, the class is moving kind of slowly...it's definitely a different atmosphere than Macalester. That will definitely take some getting used to.

Right now I must be off to my voice audition where I will meet my voice teacher, Patrizia Zanardi. From what I hear, she is "in demand" as a Milanese soprano. More to follow on this subject.

Some of the ruins at the end of the peninsula

Opera Star Maria Callas stayed in Sirmione when she was recovering from her many addictions.

Lake Garda

Castle in Sirmione

I have been in Italy for almost a full five days now. After the IES students arrived in Milano on Monday, we left by busses in the afternoon for our orientation site, Sirmione, about an hour and a half away. Our hotel was on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Garda, the largest lake in Europe. This small vacation town was relatively empty during the off-season and was a great place to spend the first three days in Italy. When I wasn't in the orientation sessions, I was meeting the other Americans and exploring the town, including the ancient ruins left at the end of the peninsula. Many of the students are very cool, and we had fun getting to know each other.

We bussed back into Milan yesterday afternoon (Thursday), and we took cabs from the IES center to our new apartments. It turns out that I only have one other American roommate named Charlie. He goes to Grinnell, plays jazz piano and is pretty laid back. Another IES student, Alex, was originally going to live with us, but he was placed in another apartment in our building. The apartment is 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a kitchen, and a living room. Charlie and I share a room and Francesco and Giuseppe (our Italian roommates) live in the other. They are both young university students who speak some English, and hopefully they will warm up to us. They were nice, they just didn't really have much to say to us at this point. Once we start our Italian class next week it will be easier to communicate. We are on the 5th floor and have more space in the apartment than I originally anticipated. It is in a lively neighborhood with a famous jazz club across the street. Last night, before I went to bed, I looked out our window and saw a ton of people standing outside of it trying to get in.

Today is the last day of our orientation, and this morning we went on a walking tour of part of Milan. We started at the Duomo (the third largest cathedral in the world), and continued through the Galleria (the first shopping mall in the world). We walked through the entire fashion district and saw Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, etc. The list goes on and on. I swear half the people in this district were models and the other half were very, very rich. It was like Rodeo Drive raised to the 5th power.

I didn't realize that I wouldn't have very much internet access while I was in Italy. We can use our University ID's to use the labs at Cattolica, but they are only open from 10AM until 6PM. We don't have internet or a phone line in our apartment, either. I guess this is for the best...I should be out exploring instead of sitting on the internet.

Sorry this post is quick and to the point: I will probably be able to write more soon. I am still adjusting to the time difference I think. We are just so busy all the time either in workshops or socializing that I get extremely tired in the afternoons.

Tonight we are going out for aperitivo at 6. This is sort of the Italian "happy hour" where restaurants give patrons free food in order to entice them to buy drinks.

Oh, and look for some pictures on here soon. I will try to get them put up once I transfer them to my computer from my camera. Ciao!