Monday, Day 1, 14Aug2006

Jetlag caused me to wake at 4AM, but sometime later that morning I fell back to sleep until my gallo-alarm clock started crowing at 7:30. I took a hot shower hoping that my sore throat would go away. It didn’t’, but Rosella my landlord walked in on me in the bathroom. I’m sure it was embarrassing for her, but was really no big deal because I already had my towel on. Then I had the leftover part of my veal cutlet and bread for breakfast before heading off to school with Rosa, the other student sharing my apartment. Only she’s a bit older than me and is a professor of physical chemistry in Spain. Last night’s thunderstorms left a beautiful, but chilly, morning in their wake.

The scuola is in a nice building that is part of the art institute of Milan. I took a placement test and was put into level 3b taught by Anna. There are 7 other students in the class. We’re a diverse group with 2 Brazilians, 1 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Korean, 1 Peruvian, 1 Turkish, and myself. We spent most of the hour going around the room, introducing ourselves, and then talking about usanzas (customs) or our respective cultures. Since returning from Argentina, I’m still having some trouble speaking Italian, opposed to Spanish, but I hope to have this out of my system after a few more days. By the end of class I was dying of thirst! -I forgot that they don’t have public water fountains in Europe.

After class we had a little mixer with all the new and old students. I may still be recovering from my stint in the Stanford Engineering School, but I was surprised by the number of girls in attendance. The ratio has flipped from the norm I had become accustomed to. By the end of the afternoon I met people from Sweden, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Columbia, South Africa, and an American from Ganesville studying at Harvard.

That afternoon I went shopping for some groceries and then took a short nap that turned into a 3 hour dozing. I woke around 8 and went looking for diner. Tonight was pizza, but with a salad and ¼ of wine it still came to 15€. There’s something weird about the red wine here. It’s mild tasting, but has a micro-carbonation. I think I like it.