Study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan-Classes

Buon giorno,

I have received e-mails asking about how my classes are going and the
whole 'study' part of study abroad.

I am currently enrolled in 1 class, Italian 150. The first week of the
program was orientation and then the next 3 weeks are italian intensive
courses. I am halfway through my second week of the intensive Italian
instruction. Next week I will meet with an academic advisor to discuss
my class schedule. At the moment I am 90% sure that my class schedule
will look like this...

Monday
11:05-12:55pm IT 105 (Italian language course that focuses on
conversion and culture)
3:35-5:25pm PO 342 The EU and the Process of European Integration
(Supposedly the prof. is a difficult one)

Tuesday
9-10:30am IT 150 (My current language class)
1:35-3:25pm HS 342 Multicultural Milan: From Celtic Foundations to
Multiethnic City

Wednesday
9-10:30am IT 150 (My current language class)
3:35-5:25pm PO 342 The EU and the Process of European Integration

Thursday
11:05-12:55pm IT 105 (Italian language course that focuses on
conversion and culture)
1:35-3:25pm HS 342 Multicultural Milan: From Celtic Foundations to
Multiethnic City

Friday
9-10:30am IT 150 (My current language class)

Yes, I will be studying here. Class so far has been fine. My teacher
is going very fast and I need to study more at home.

Study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan Week 2

Greetings everyone,

Week 2, done.

Saturday I got to see my first Serie A and AC Milan football game. Getting tickets in advance proved to be quite difficult. Thursday, I lead a group of curious students, wanting to see a Milan game, on a crosstown adventure that took nearly 4 hours. First we went all the way to the stadium via metro and then we walked for 35 minutes to the stadium to find that no tickets were being sold at the stadium until 3 hours prior to the game beginning. Being as excited as I was to see the game, I thought we should definitely get tickets before the day of. This game was of particular importance because rumors were flying around that my favorite player, Kaka’, was going to be traded to a team in England, so this game had the potential of being the only time I would be able to see Kaka’. Truth be told, nearly 55% of my decision to come to Milan was so I could watch Kaka’. The other 45% was because of the academics, because I am studying really hard (This sentence has nothing to do with the fact that my father is a teacher). Anyway, back to the story… We then took a tram back to central Milan in search of a bank that sells the tickets. We got to the bank at 3:45pm, which means that the bank is closed until 4pm (From 2-4pm small business’ and apparently banks close down). We waited and finally got in and somehow waited for 45 minutes to get to the desk to ask for tickets. Because we were foreigners, they could only give us tickets in the away section for 11 euros. Reluctantly, we took them. Security is high at Italian matches with past violence, which meant we had to show proper ID in order to get the tickets. The man at the bank said that because we are Milan fans we should not wear any red or cheer for Milan because the Fiorentina fans are a bit crazy. This proved difficult for me to do during the course of the game. So finally 4 hours later we had our tickets, I was happy.

We all arrived 40 minutes before game time, the streets filled with people chanting, kids yelling “David Beckham, Spice Boy”, helicopters flying over head with search lights, it was crazy. We got into the stadium and I nearly cried I was so happy. Check the pictures out. Our seats were way up in the 3 deck but it didn’t matter. I stood, along with all the visiting fans, for the whole game. The man next to me smoked like a chimney, not always tobacco I might add. My throat is still trying to recover from that. Milan scored in the 7th minute through a 19-year Brazilian named Pato, the Fiorentina fans went silent, the Milan fans nuts, and I held my emotion in, somehow. The game ended 1-0. The visiting fans were made to wait nearly 45 minutes after the game until the Milan fans had all left and then security and police in riot gear escorted us out. That was neat. I forgot to mention that the visitor’s section is actually a giant cage with a large glass wall in front and on the sides with metal netting everywhere else.

I later found out that I had friends buy tickets an hour before the game and sat in the Milan section and had a better view. I will now be buying tickets the day of the game from now on.

The weekdays were filled with rain and one day of sunshine. I took some pictures here and there. Check them out. Oh yeah… this week I was worried that Kaka’ was going to be traded. I would pick up Italian newspapers and try to read the sections on Kaka’ to see if he was staying or going. One particular day I read a headline that he was leaving and I sat in class unable to concentrate because I was so depressed. During my break I went one of the faculty (who is a Milan fan) and asked them how they felt about Kaka’ leaving. She said to me in broken English, “He is not, leaving, he staying!” Needless to say I was happy, I could not concentrate in the remaining bit of class.

Sunday a crew of us went to Bologna, 65 minutes by train. I was hoping to get tickets to the Milan v Bologna game, but it was sold out. We watched the game in a small café, Milan and Kaka’ tore it up. Milan won 4-1, Kaka’ had 2 goals. Bologna was really cool. Check the photos out below.

-Karl R.

Here are links to all the albums I have created from the various adventures. Enjoy at your leisure.

Lake Magiore (Stresa, Italy) Orientation
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254411923/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Via Edolo, 26. The apartment.
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254415160/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Milan Pictures, bars…
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254410836/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

AC Milan vs Fiorentina (1-0)
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254415169/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

The Duomo and stuff
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254411112/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Castle (Milano)
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254430256/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Bologna (Day Trip)
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254419864/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan Week 1

Ciao! I left Chicago around 5pm on the 9th of January with my friend Louis. We arrived in Istanbul, Turkey the next day around noon Turkish time. I must say that the folks on Turkish Air run a tight ship. Immediately after standing to go to the bathroom, which had been occupied for the past 15 minutes by an unknown person, I was confronted by a rather angry stewardess who asked why I was standing. I proceeded to explain to her that I needed to use the bathroom and she seemed to be angry with me. Oh well, there must have been something lost in translation. After touchdown in Istanbul, Louis and I sat down for some coffee at Starbucks. When in Istanbul, do as Americans do and drink Starbucks I guess? We arrived in Milan, after 14 hours of airtime, to find a fair amount of snow on the ground and a slight drizzle. After taking a express train from Malpensa Airport and then getting on the metro with all our bags (I don’t think we stood out… 3 confused people on the metro with huge bags… doubt it) we encountered a foreign beast… the round-about. Only this was no normal round-about, it was the convergence of 8-10 small streets, with 8-10 different names. After going around the whole circle once, or piazza as it’s called, we finally found the street that our hotel was located on by mistake. I say by mistake because we had given up and decided to go back to the metro station and start over and then we saw the street sign (which is actually just words carved into the side of a building). Another 15-20 minute walk with our bags, swerving through the various piles of dog fecal matter, we found the hotel. This concluded the first 24 hours or so.

Day 2 (Sunday): We explored a small section of Milan and found the apartment we were going to move into later this week. It was a nice, sunny day full of walking and getting lost. I believe we saw the Duomo and the Galleria, and a really neat castle that had nets of lights draped over its walls. The lights were timed to music as well. I will try and attach the video of that.

The next 2.5 days were spent on Lake Magiore in a small resort town called Stresa. We stayed in Regina Palace Hotel. It was indeed a palace. The lake and mountains were beautiful. All the IES students stayed in this hotel for orientation, which consisted of many boring meetings.

We are now back in Milan and all situated in our apartment. We cooked our first meal last night, tortellini and cabrese salad. Today, we had some unbelievable pizza. It was beyond words. I will be going back to the ristorante many more times. I have my first Italian class tomorrow. So far I have been able to get by with my Italian. I can hold my own in a café and have been mistaken for an Italian many times on the streets, though that mistake doesn’t last for long.

Until more stories, try and stay warm.

Time for bed...

Ciao,

Karl