Study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan-Week 6

20-22 February 2009
Friday morning I left for Valdidentro (with 50 other IES students), located in the Alps in the Lombardy region of Italy. The bus ride was nice after we got out of Milan. The hills turned into mountains and before I knew it there was snow everywhere. We arrived at our hotel around 2pm. We had an excellent lunch at the hotel, meat and pasta, just my kind of food. Friday night I went to a spa, my first spa experience, I wouldn’t mind spa-ing more often though. I was the only dude to go, someone had to go with the 7 ladies, I volunteered. The water in the baths was filled with natural hot spring water. The first bath I went into was called the bat cave, because it was a cave (no bats). I went into a few saunas, all of which had panoramic views of the Alps. My favorite bath was one in which the water was lit up with crazy rave colors and when you submerged our ears underwater new age music could be heard (wood flutes, bells, drums, etc…). There was an outdoor bath with a view that must have been fake or so it seemed. I just couldn’t believe I was sitting in a hot spring bath in the Alps. I came back to the hotel in a state of relaxation never felt before. I was ready to go skiing the next day. Back at the hotel, I helped many people get fitted for ski boots and skis and then played cards.

The next morning we all left for Livigno. The views from the bus were only to be matched by actually standing on the mountain. After about an hour, we arrived and I went with another girl to rent some nicer skis than those that were provided by the hotel. We hit the slopes hard and stopped momentarily for lunch and then switched to a mountain on the other side of the valley. The snow was really nice above the tree line. No powder, but you can’t always get what you want.

Sunday was nothing special, I just walked around Valdidentro.

Our bus driver was hilarious, even though I did not know what he was saying 90% of the time. He had commentary for everything, most of it rated R. He got into a huge word battle with a man on the street and I thought there was going to be a fight. After the obscenities were shared by both sides, with the bus driver winning of course, our adult leader on the bus said “Bravo”. A popular quote from the bus driver was “Bastardo merda!” I’ll let you decide what that meant.

Pictures…
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254565282/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

24 February 2009
Tonight Manchester United came to Milan to play Inter in the Champions League. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. On my way to a bar to watch the game there were 5 loud English lads (Manchester Fans) who were having a jolly time singing in front of the few Inter fans on the metro. It was funny to hear their songs. The bar was full of Inter fans that were hypercritical of there sub-par performing team. I thought Inter were lucky to come out of the match with a draw.

That’s all for now. I need to sleep.

Bye bye,

Karl

study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan-Week 5

I have been busy lately with school, running, watching soccer, eating, and sleeping little… I have much to say in this e-mail as I have not written in quite a while…

14-15 February 2009
Early Saturday morning I left for Urbino with two friends. Our train went through Bologna (Southeast of Milan) and on to Pesaro (5 hours or so). We then took an hour bus ride directly West to Urbino. It is an old town has since broken out of the walls that once were its boundaries. The town is located high up on a set of rolling hills, which made walking everywhere a chore. One of my friends had studied there the previous summer and new of some parties going on Saturday night. Some facts… Raffaello was born in Urbino. There are some 40,000 students that live in or around the town, which made for some exciting parties… and that’s all I learned about the town. We went to two different bars where my friend was remembered and we were given VIP treatment. The night concluded around 4am and we were on a train back to Milan by 9:45am on Sunday.

Pictures…
They are currently loading, and I will send the link tomorrow.

15 February 2009
Milan Derby… I managed to get a ticket for the Inter Milan vs. AC Milan game online. Before coming to Italy this had been one of my life goals. This game is similar to Cubs vs. Sox or Yankees vs. Red Sox. The atmosphere was unbelievable. Outside the stadium was chaos. The streets were packed with cars, people and trams. My tram ride to the stadium was intense. I had run to catch the tram and as more and more people forced their way onto the tram I broke a sweat. Since it was cold outside I was wearing many layers, none of which would be taken off during the tram ride, because that would involve me elbowing someone in the face. Finally I arrived, took a second to cool off and then took in the sight that was before me. I got into the stadium as quick as I could. There were many chants before and during the game. During the course of the game flags were waved, flares were lit, cannons set off, and obscenities yelled (some of which I could understand, others I knew just sounded bad). The game ended 2-1 to the bad guys (Inter Milan). Milan now need a bit of luck if there are to win the championship this season. It was by far the best sporting event I have ever been to. I had goose bumps the whole game.

Pictures…
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254564943/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

16-19 February 2009
School… classes are a bit boring due to the fact that the professors need to set the foundation for the class before getting into the interesting material.

Week Quattro,

This email is a bit late as the 5th week of my stay here is coming to a close. I hope everyone receives this since I am sending this on Friday the 13th. I just finished my first week of new classes. They went well, naturally. I give props to the professors teaching in their second language. There are some words that I will have to get used to hearing in an odd manner, such as “area”. One of my teachers stressed the “e” hardcore making it the word “area” rhyme with diarrhea. Enough about classes…

Thursday night of last week I went to the 100th anniversary of the Futurist movement, which supposedly started in Milan. The first portion started with some modern dance performances in the middle of the Galleria (big shopping area, the shops on the 4 corners of this intersection were Louis Vuitton, Mercedes, McCafè and some other expensive store). The next morning, Friday, I left Stazione Centrale at 7:50am for Nice, France. I met up with my roommates there and then we left for Aix-en-Provence. The trip from Nice to Aix usually takes about 2-3 hours but ended up taking 6 hours as our train broke down.

Aix-en-Provence
Aix is a small college type town in southern France.
I arrived around 7pm and met up with my friend from high school. Went back to her apartment and had some good food and went out around 11:30pm in search of a good time. Including myself there were 6 members of my high school class in attendance (2 came from Florence, my roommates, and my friend). We went to a nice pub of sorts and were successful in having fun. We ended up returning around 2am or so. The next morning we all got going around noon and headed to the local market. We all walked around exploring for the day (you can check the pictures on snapfish). My roommates and I took the bus back to Nice (2 hrs and whole lot cheaper than the train that broke down).

Nice
Nice was nice. (a large town on the Mediterranean)
We arrived around 8pm on Saturday and checked into our hostel located about 3 blocks away from the sea. We left the hostel for a bar that my roommates new of called Wayne’s. There was a very international crowd there with the common language being English. We met 2 girls, one from Denmark and one from Holland. We talked with them for most of the night. After the bar we found some amazing pizza on some small street that was still open. I ordered the pizza in French and heard the owner speaking in Italian so I tried some of that as well. She was really nice. The pizza was probably so good because she was Italian. We ate the pizza on the boardwalk with the moon out and the waves crashing against the beach. That was nice. The next day we climbed these steps to a top of a hill where there was once a castle. I took some good pictures from up there. We left Nice around 1:30pm for Milan and made it home around 9pm.

It was an awesome weekend.

Today, I got to finally play some soccer with some locals. I had seen this park that had some goals and decided to go there today around 3pm. There were 8 guys warming up and my roommate and I were asked to play. The field had a little grass in each corner and compact dirt everywhere else. I was sliding a bit when trying to cut but managed to put in quite a few goals. My team won both games easily. One of the Italians on the other team thought I had hit him in the face on purpose and wanted to confront me about the contact but resorted to just staring at me. He tried to come after me during the game with late hits but it was not enough to help his team win. I had no idea what he was saying but he was constantly talking. That was a good time.


Futurismi pictures
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254502169/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Aix-en-Provence pictures
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254502289/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Nice pictures
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254502101/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish


Karl

Study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan Week 3

Week tre,

This week was filled with calcio, calcio, and more calcio. I also went to my Italian language class everyday. On Wednesday, I saw Milan take on Genova. I sat in the second tier in one of the corners. David Beckham scored a beautiful free kick to put the Rossoneri ahead, but they were not able to hold on. In the 87th minutes Genova struck to pull even. It was a bit frustrating to watch, Genova had one good opportunity to score and they capitalized, that is soccer though.

On Friday, a group of us went to a large dance club. There was an Italian band playing when we got there and they finished up around 1:30am or so. The band played a bunch of American song and would somehow incorporate 3 or 4 songs into one. It was interesting to listen to. At one point I remember hearing the song “Reach out and Touch Faith” which went into some song by Pink which then went into some Marilyn Manson song, and then to Rihanna. That was neat. After the band was finished the dance songs started up. I was a bit confused with the European dance style. There really isn’t much of a style actually. A lot of standing and some foot movement with a little hand movement mixed in. I was not able to integrate myself into the dance scene and therefore took a spot on the balcony that overlooked the dance floor as I searched for my friends. I may or may not have been looking at the barely clothed ladies dancing in cages as well. At times I found them to be distracting. I left the club around 2:30am walked home by 3am.

Needless to say, I rested on Saturday. We went grocery shopping later in the day. I believe I also went for a nice run.
Sunday, I awoke and went to purchase a pump to inflate my soccer ball I purchased. After that I came home for a quick bite to eat and then was off to the Inter Milan v Torino game at the San Siro. I wanted to see what the Inter games are like and I hoped to bring some bad luck to them. I sat with the super-fans. Scattered through out the stretch of the first row of the second section were “conductors” that would lead the fans in chants. It was an intense atmosphere. I understood some of the chants. Under my breath I was wishing for Inter to lose. They ended up drawing 1-1, which helped my team (Milan aka Rossoneri) gain 2 points in the standings. From what I observed, the Inter fans seemed to be goons and not pleasant folks. My experience made me happy to be a Milan fan.

After the game I went home for a wonderful dinner that my other two roommates cooked. The menu consisted of Chicken Parmesan, a nice salad, and spaghetti. It was amazing. The best chicken I have ever had. As soon as I cleaned the dishes, I ran to the metro to go to a bar to watch Milan take on Lazio (a team from Rome). The classy Rossoneri made easy work of the Lazio side and finished them off 3-0. David Beckham got my man of the match award as he provided assists for the first two goals and was connecting some amazing passes.

I did not watch that american football game that was on last night. Who was playing? Sleep was of higher priority.

Next weekend, we are going to Nice, France and then to Aix-en-Provence to visit a friend. I will start my academics next week.

I almost forgot to talk about the weather. For the most part it was nice during the week. Yesterday it started to snow around noon and it got progressively worse during the day. I awoke to heavy snowfall and 3 inches of slush on the ground. The weather is not supposed to change much this week.

Whenever Italians say bye to someone, they say “Ciao” about 10 times, so…

Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao Ciao. Ciao.
-Karl