Departing the U.S. 16.01.08:

Following a week of goodbye dinners and farewell get-togethers, Mom dropped me off at the International Wing of BWI for a 9:00pm flight. Security was a breeze and soon I was in line waiting to board. I met up with another girl from UMD, Hilary, and we chatted about our excitement and fears before taking off.

I found my seat and, running on adrenaline, ended up chatting for the entire flight to London (6 hours) with the man sitting next to me who had his own business in MD and was thinking of buying a house on my street! The world is SO small and while it sparked our conversation even more, it was a little creepy knowing just how close you can be to someone and never meet them.

We had a layover in Heathrow's new Terminal 5 where they have tons of fancy restaurants and lounges in addition to five star shopping. I love my designers as much as the next girl, but honestly, who needs a Tiffany & Co. in the airport? Hilary took off two hours before I did because she was flying into Linate while I was arriving in Malpensa. In the end, we each paid about the same in cab fare since I split mine with other Bocconi students I met at the luggage carousel and she took one by herself.

Arrival 17.01.09

The cab dropped us off at Arcobaleno Residence, Via Fratelli Fraschini, 3, Milano 20142 at about 6:30pm (12:30pm EST). I unpacked, had a PANIC attack when I discovered my computer had crashed, called home, and then met up with Hilary and another UMD student, Sasha, for dinner. We were so tired, the concierge helped us order pizza for delivery. All I can say is that I will never look at american pizza the same way again. Even though it was take out, it tasted so fresh and was absolutely delicious! We also met a lot of other students from all over the world while we were waiting in the lobby. I am so glad that it has proven so easy to make friends!

Domenica 18.01.09

We agreed to meet in the lobby at noon to trek into the city center and start the adventure. Of course, I was late. My room is really luxurious compared to UMD and comes with what I can only describe as hurricaine shutters that block out all light and cause young americans to oversleep. I also have my own bathroom that I share with a roommate and a galley kitchen with microwave, cabinets, and refrigerator, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I knew we would all be great friends when I sprinted down the stairs to find them all waiting for me.

After breakfast in the cafe near the tram stop (2 blocks from our residence), we boarded the tram, which is similar to Baltimore's lightrail, and took it all the way to Il Duomo (the main cathedral of Milano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Cathedral). It was raining and foggy (and has been since the minute I got off the plane) so our pictures turned out very mysterious looking. However, once we were inside the pictures picked up what little light there was coming through the stained glass windows as ethereal beams.

This cathedral is absolutely the biggest one I've ever seen in my entire life - it took 6 centuries to build! It is made of pinkish-grayish marble and has thousands of spires, each topped with a sculpture, which are best taken in from the rooftop terrace. We plan on doing that the first sunny day we get since it also boasts some of the best views of the city. The inside is just cavernous and gives you the idea that the designers were really trying to get as close to heaven as possible. Tapestries hang from the ceiling on either side of the main aisle and there are altars to relics as well. They also have a basement crypt and Davinci Code-esque circular meeting room open to the public.

We then took our overwhelmed selves to lunch which gave us enough energy to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening browsing the shops. We returned to Arco exhausted and agreed to meet up the next day.

Lunedi 19.01.09

Relaxed and lengthy breakfasts seem to be the trend because that's how we started our day again. This time though, we treked in to the Bocconi campus on the tram (about a 20 min. ride) to take a tour and get our welcome kit complete with sparkly ID badge. The tour left me completely disoriented but gave me a chance to meet the leader of the International Student club and ask a lot of questions. I can only imagine how exchange students feel when they come to UMD for the first time. They're faced with 25+ academic buildings and I was all turned around just having to keep track of 3! Don't think me a complete idiot: it's an urban campus so one grey building looks the same as the next grey building and they used underground tunnels and outdoor courtyards instead of city streets with names to shuttle us from one place to another. (Don't worry, it's Tuesday now and I have learned my way around)

Finally, we were able to get to a cell phone store just down the street from where the tour ended. It was about the size of a postage stampe and we filled it up quickly and a little obnoxiously. The stereotypes you hear about Americans are true: we are loud. My entire group of friends packed in:

Sasha - UMD student, originally from Ukraine, petite and dark haired, the sweetest girl you've ever met but with a taste for fun and adventure

Hilary - UMD student, tall and blonde, affectionately known as the "mom" and "father time" of the group because she always knows where we're supposed to be and at what time we should leave to arrive promptly

Joey - UMD student, blue eyed and solid, has the best sense of direction and is extremely personable, offered on day 1 to beat anyone up that bothers us girls. I said I would be sure to pay his bail money if he ever has to do that for me

Maricor - University of California at Santa Cruz student, short and sassy, always on the look out for the best party, makes friends like there's no tomorrow

Natalia - University of Texas at Austin student, is the best Italian speaker in the bunch so I make sure to sit next to her during class, beautiful olive complexion and great at girl talk

Mandy - University of Texas at Austin student, blonde and bubbly, sweet and funny, her and Natalia came attached at the hip

Aamir - University of Texas at Austin student, laid back and flexible, goes anywhere there is a chance for dancing, drinking, and having a good time (that's pretty much everywhere here)

Anne - University of Wisconsin at Madison student, cute little blonde bob, sweet as pie but surprises you sometimes with sarcastic quips

Adam - University of Wisconsin at Madison student, tall and obviously from the midwest, has been dating Anne for 4 years

Triumphant, we left the store heading for the tram only to find that a car had driven on the tracks by mistake and gotten stuck in the mud that is inevitably caused by weeks upon weeks of wet weather. Joey and I wanted to push it out but the police wouldn't let us near it. So we're standing in the downpour trying to figure out how to get home without spending a million euros when little Anne chimes in with the brilliant idea to go get a drink while we waited for Italian bureaucracy to take it's course. It was Natalia's birthday too so we spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other better over an awesome aperitivo!

Martedi 20.01.09

Our first day of class! We arrived at Bocconi for an orientation at 10:30am. I don't care what culture you're in, orientations are always boring. Once we got to our crash course however, there was no time to be bored in between concentrating on understanding la professoressa who speaks entirely in Italian and writing down every vocabulary word you can pick up on to study later. I was placed in the top level Beginner class which turned out to be a good fit since I can understand everything because of it's similarity to French. By the end of the day I was stringing sentences together, not gracefully, but still.

We celebrated our official entry into l'universita by attending another aperitivo sponsored by the International Student Group at a posh little bar around the corner from school. We were also able to watch the inauguration there even though it didn't have quite the same effect hearing it simultaneously in Italian and English. It was the images of the 2 million+ people gathered on The Mall in honor of one man that moved me the most, assuring me that at least for now, our country is on the right track.