Spring Break photos

Pictures are up! They should all be upload by now sorry for the delay.


Again the link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/abroadinmilan/sets/


Michael

Spring Break

Ciao! I just got back from my spring break. I visited Barcelona (again) for 7 days, Calabria (the southern tip of Italy) for 3 days, and Athens, Greece for 5 days. It was an amazing trip to say the least.

Barcelona the second time through was very interesting because this time I visited all of the tourist hot spots. The first time I was there I mainly caught up with old friends but this time I explored Barcelona to the fullest. We went to the beach, La Segrada Familia, Parc Guell and other fun places in Spain. I also celebrated my 21st birthday on the beach!

Calabria was amazing. One of the girls that was on the trip with us helped us get a free all-inclusive hotel on the beach through her dad. We relaxed and did nothing for 3 days straight where the only activities where sleeping, laying on the beach/by the pool, and eating for free. We went to a 6pm mass on Easter Sunday in which the whole mass was in Italian and at one point in the mass they even had a statue of Jesus rise out of a box on the alter. It was very interesting.

Athens was also a great trip. We saw the ruins such as the Parthanon and took a 1 day cruise to 3 of the greek isles. The cruise was incredible and we got to get off at each of the 3 islands and look around for about an hour. Athens was a lot more dirty than most of the cities I have visited however. They also celebrate easter a week later than everyone so I experienced their easter as well. It was a little inconvenient at times because there were not many places open to eat but when we found a greek restaurant we enjoyed some of the best feta cheese and olives in the world.

Overall it was a great trip that I will never forget but I have never been more happy to be back in Milan. Traveling is exhausting and I'm ready for 2 weeks of Milan to rest up before my parents get here May 15 and I get to travel for 2 weeks straight again. 7 flights in 2 weeks is quite tiring and I am looking forward to staying put for a while. Pictures are being put up as we speak and will hopefully be done in the next few days. Until next time, Michael.

Barcelona

Hey back again! Not much has been happening before this last weekend. I stayed in Milano for two weeks straight and explored the city a little further. In my Italian class we learned how to make pasta and even ravioli. It turned out very tasty and I am looking forward to making it again. My roommate and I also made our own bolognese sauce and have cooked it several times to perfect it. We even cooked for one of our friends parents and they said they loved it. My mom also gave me a lasagna recipe and last week I made 2 lasagnas for 9 people that turned out perfectly. This last weekend I met up with a lot of Indiana students in Barcelona, Spain. It was gorgeous there and within 20 minutes of being in the city we were on the beach and in the sun. Barcelona is a beautiful city however the food does not even compare to Italy. Like most places I have visited, I loved visiting but do not think that I would want to study there. It was really good seeing my roommates from IU as well as around 50 or so other IU friends that are studying abroad or on spring break from the states. Helps the home sickness a little bit. I attached a photo of my two roommates and me. I hope everything is going well in the States and I will try to update my blog more frequently. Things have just been busy here with midterms last week but now they are over. Unfortunately this picture was one of only about 7 that I was able to take because after taking these pictures and going to my roommate's apartment my camera would not turn on. But ciao for now, Michael

Carnivale in Venice

I got back from Venice Monday after going to Carnivale.  It's basically their mardi gras and we had a blast.  Everyone wears masks and people dress up in full costumes.  Definitely different than mardi gras in the states. This next weekend we are going skiing with our program in the Alps. I am so excited to ski - I havn't been in years. I posted pictures on the Flickr website and I hope all is well in the USA. Love, Michael

Back From Florence

Ciao again! Sorry for the delay but my computer has caught an Italian virus...so it's been a struggle to update my websites online.  This past weekend I visited my roommate Alex Green and our friend Jordan Pollak in Florence. It was more of a party weekend with catching up with friends than a site seeing trip but it was still extremely fun. Florence is extremely different than Milan in that it seemed to be 50% Americans. Every other person that we passed in the streets was speaking English and even when I tried speaking Italian to waiters or taxi cab drivers they would respond in English. While in Milan it is rare to hear English once a week, in Florence it was weird to not hear English for more than a half hour! I am very happy that I chose to study in Milan compared to Florence. It was beautiful, the food was absolutely amazing (being in the Tuscana region), and it was great seeing about 20 of my friends from school but I was happy to have chosen to study in Milan.

I hope all is well in the states and I did upload a few pictures that I took in Florence. Again, the website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/abroadinmilan/sets

Michael

First Trip: Pisa

We just got back from our first venture outside the city limits of Milan. A group of ten including myself boarded a train Saturday morning at 6:50am (not my choosing) and traveled four and a half hours to see the city of Pisa. The train ride was not bad but it was dark and rainy so there was not much scenery. When we arrived we walked to our hostel which was 10 minutes away and were pleasantly suprised to find that it was just as good as a cheap hotel in the states! Since we had ten people we had a living room, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom all to ourselves. There are pictures posted on the website. After dropping off our belongings we made a 25-30 minute walk to the grounds of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The grounds, Piazza dei Miracoli, actually consist of four religious edifices: the Leaning Tower, the Duomo, the Baptistry and the Camposanto. I posted a video online also of a 360 degree view. The tower was really impressive because for years we had seen this picture in our history books and now we finally had the oportunity to witness it for ourselves. It is even smaller than the arch.

Besides the tower Pisa is known mainly for their food and wine and it did not dissapoint. Pisa is actually a province in the area of Italy known as Tuscany and the food was phenominal. For lunch I had a spaghetti bolognese and for dinner we had a cheap 3 course meal with bruschetta and pesto pasta. The city of Pisa made me feel like I was actually in Italy compared to the highly industrial, commercial city of Milan.

The train ride home was not bad at all considering we traveled 90% of the way up the eastern Italian coast line and got to overlook the ocean for most of the trip. It was a great first trip and I am happy that I got to witness the Leaning Tower of Pisa but we are all glad to be back safe and sound in Milan. Until next time, Michael

Again, the picture website is http://www.flickr.com/photos/abroadinmilan/sets/

Pictures

I decided to post pictures on a different website. I will continue to write on this website but you can find pictures that I will update a little more frequently at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abroadinmilan/sets/

Our First Futbol Game

Sorry I do not have enough time to write as much as I would like but we just got home from our first soccer game! AC Milan played Fiorentina (Florence) and won 1-0. Here is a picture of my rommates and me in front of the stadium and a video of the first goal. I was lucky enough to have taken a video when the only goal was scored. Hope all is well and I will write soon. Love, Michael

Ciao from Milano!

After months of waiting I finally made it! I touched down in Italy January 12 after a 13 hour trip. The flight was not half as bad as I thought it would be and I slept most of the way. My first flight was from St. Louis to New York and I fell asleep for all but 10 minutes of it. Luckily enough I woke up for the last 10 minutes and got to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building as we flew into New York. At this time I thought that the view was beautiful but little did I know that there was much more to come. After a 5 hour layover we set sail for Milan and when I boarded the plane I met another IES abroad student who sat behind me. He aproached me as soon as we sat down and to my suprise it was one of my roommates! His name is Andrew Karp and we chatted for a while and stuck together as we found our way through the Italian airport. He attends Bates College in Maine and is a Philosphy major. Towards the end of the flight I fell asleep and was woken up to the sun rising over the Italian Alps. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life. It was then that I started to get excited and knew that my trip to Italy was going to be something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

A couple days before my flight I started to get nervous and it hit me that I was being dropped off in a foreign country all by myself but meeting one of my roommates early and having IES at baggage claim helped calm all of my worries. From the airport a group of 20 or so IES abroad students were shuttled to an off-site location for orientation. The hotel was located about 45 minutes away and was on an enormous lake with a mountain back drop. This 4 star Italian hotel was currently closed due to the season but IES rented the entire complex out for us to start getting used to life in Italy. There were many activities for us to do while we were there and it was a great chance to meet almost all of the 120+ abroad students. I met my second roommate John Galvin and the three of us hung out and bonded. He attends Penn State University and is also a business major. After a little jetlag and a lot of informational meetings we were finally ready to get our keys and head to Milan to unpack our belonging in our apartments. We soon found out that we were one of a very few number of apartments who were going to be living with an Italian Residential Assistant. At first we were a little nervous about the living situation but after meeting Florin I was very excited because he was our opportunity to ask any questions we had about the city, traveling, or basic necessities such as groceries and local activities. Plus when we got to our apartment it surpassed every expectation I had about living in a small room in Italy. Small is not the correct word to describe our place. Before leaving they warned us that apartments in Italy are not like apartments in the US and that they might be smaller and less luxurious but our place has 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, a large kitchen, a HUGE living room and three balconies! It also came fully furnished with 2 couches, 2 chairs, a kitchen table, all cooking and eating utensils, and even sheets and pillows for our beds. I am extremely pleased with our apartment.Needless to say it is even better than my house that I had this last semester at IU.

Our apartment overlooks the streets of Milan and is literally half a block from the Futbol Stadium. The local teams here are AC Milan and Inter Milan. We are all very excited to go to a few games while we are here. That is all that is going on so far and I hope all is well in the states. Ciao, Michael.