(L-R): Roshni, Me, Alex, Sohta, Matt, and Charlie at our dinner party

Stage set-up for the Italian TRL Awards in Piazza Duomo

Inside the Galleria (first "mall" ever!) at sunset

Duomo at sunset (behind scaffolding)

Entrance of Castello Sforzesco

I'm not quite sure why the Milanese insist on wearing their winter coats when it's 65 degrees F out. I came to school today in a layered t-shirt, and on the way I got very odd looks. Hopefully I won't have to wear my twelve pound winter coat when it's 80.

I finally solidified plans for the second part of my spring break. I am going to meet Mike, Lindsay, and Nichole in Naples on the 16th of April, and then we are going to spend 1 night on the Amalfi coast, see Pompeii the next day, go to Rome for the next 3-4 days, and then spend the last three days on Sicily. We started by buying our plane ticket from Sicily to Milan on the 25th. So, it's just a matter of working backwards.

Last Thursday night I went to the Verdi Symphony again. The night had a Spanish theme: they played selections from the opera Carmen, Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsokov, etc. It was really cool.

On Friday, Charlie and I had a dinner party for a few people at our place. We made lasagna for the first time, and it actually turned out alright. We also had salad and actual American cookies. We found the mix for it at the grocery store (for the equivalent of about $7), and they were definitely worth it. We try to do a big dinner party once a month because they are actually a cheap alternative to going out. After, we rented the movie White Noise, probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Saturday, I went to the Castello Sforzesco with Charlie and Alex. They have a bunch of municipal museums inside that are free for the hour before they close. We saw the Ancient Egypt exhibit which housed many interesting artifacts. AND I saw my first mummy! After, we walked around the city a bit and discovered they were setting up for the Italian TRL Awards for MTV in the piazza of the Duomo. We decided we had to come back to see some of the actual show later that night.

Saturday night was Notte Bianca (White Night), an all-night party that Milan has when spring arrives. To celebrate, the metro and stores stay open until 5 AM. So, we decided to go back to the TRL awards that night at about 11, and it was packed when we got there. We moved up toward the stage a bit and saw a few performances. It was really interesting to see how Italian MTV works. The rest of the night was kind of a messy blur. Mostly, because after these performances, so many people had shown up at the Duomo that we could hardly get through the crowd. The five of us got split up and I got stuck in an area where people weren't moving and some were starting to get smashed. It was actually really scary. After about 45 minutes, I got out of the mess, and I decided to walk to a less crowded metro stop. The metro was still insanely packed. We couldn't get ahold of each other by cells either because we were all down waiting for the metro at different locations. So, by the time we all got back to my place, we were cranky.

For the last two weeks, my voice teacher was out of town because she was doing an opera in Florence. Yesterday was my first lesson back, which was a little scary because I had to learn two pieces in that time. She warmed me up to a high C (crazy), and she was pretty happy with the progress I had made while she was gone. She gave me some intense breathing exercises that she wants me to do "from today until the rest of my life". The routine is supposed to take a half hour and is meant to train my muscles more because I am "still a bit lazy" when it comes to technique.

I must be off because I have yet to do some research for a presentation I have to give this afternoon. Hope you like the pics in this post!