It’s Been a Long Week

It all started with a 2 hour wait for a 10 hour plane ride. While I fully expected to be miserable the whole time, the opposite occurred. Usually when I fly I feel very ill, but, praise be to God, my stomach behaved itself the entire flight. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself, watching movies and TV. I had been so stressed the week prior to leaving that being able to just consume entertainment with no obligation to do anything else was rather refreshing. But, the lack of sleep eventually caught up to me and I was sufficiently exhausted by the time I made it to my apartment.

Living In Milan

I have been living in Milan for less than a week, so I don’t really know what it is like yet. But, here are my impressions so far:

It is not so different than the United States.

When I went in my Uber to drive to my apartment, I expected to feel like I was in another world. But, the truth is, the city reminds me a lot of New York, Los Angeles, and London. A big city is a big city. Lots of small shops, graffiti, smoking, and people with somewhere they need to be.

The people remind me a lot of Americans too. Some people, like my Uber driver and the man who stood behind me in line at the grocery store, are super nice and accommodating. But, most people are busy focusing on their own wants and needs, just like we do in the United States. People don’t make eye contact or greet each other. Whenever you give a blank expression to a long sentence said in Italian, the person who has now realized your AMERICAN gets really cranky.

There are four kinds of public transportation, but I prefer walking

In Milan, a lot of people drive, but the city also offers:

• Bus
• Rail Car
• Train
• Metro

A company called ATM runs all four so a ticket that works for one, works for all of them. In fact, once you use a ticket, you can use that same ticket on any number of buses or whatever for the next 90 minutes. The tickets can be purchased through the ATM app or from a sketchy magazine stand.

The problem is I live far enough from all 4 that it is often faster to walk than to take public transit. Plus, the public transit options are so crowded that I would be standing for half and hour anyway. So, I have decided to walk instead. I really like walking because the cold air is refreshing and I get to see interesting parts of Milan.

The food meets all the stereotypes

There is so much pizza and pasta. Oh my goodness. Every block has a pizzeria. Every grocery store has an aisle dedicated to pasta.

Some of the foods I wanted to buy have been hard to find, like Cheddar cheese, tortillas, and rice. In fact, all but one of the stores I went to didn’t have rice. Additionally, the salad dressing options are slim. I’m guessing people make their own or just use oil or something. I grabbed one of the 5 options at my local grocery store, but, alas, it is not good. Every time I eat carrots or lettuce I also grimace a little.

Italian Language Crash Course

The University of Bocconi hosts exchange students from 54 countries. Consequently, it offers a beginner 40 hour Italian class. I knew I wasn’t going to be motivated to learn a lot of Italian over the break, so I signed up. Is it helpful? Well…

If you have ever taken a basic language class in the United States, you have taken the equivalent of this class. We watch videos and fill in blanks. We complete crossword puzzles. We look at pictures and identify what is in them. While I would have preferred to learn what to say in an emergency or how to order at a restaurant, our lessons are limited to classic language learning topics like Family, Numbers, and Basic Grammar. My professor speaks pretty good English, but two or three times every class, someone says something she can’t understand.

I find that the value of the class comes from the social opportunity. The other ASU law student at the University of Bocconi, Grace, is in my class and we sit together. There are 20 of us in total and everyone is really friendly. Half of us are American, but we also have students from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, and China. The class is at such a slow pace they we spend a lot more time talking than doing anything else.

The Great Ikea Adventure

Okay, so my apartment is really cold. The heater tries its best, but it is small and far from my bed. In order to sleep well at night, then, I need a warm blanket. Unfortunately, the duvet my landlord provided is on the loft bed, which due to my fear of heights and the slanted nature of the steps is inaccessible.

Thursday night, with my coat serving as my only covers, I began to research where I could buy a blanket in Milan. I quickly learned that Milan does not have a Target equivalent. Either I would have to pay $2000 for a blanket (just a little outside my budget) or go to IKEA.

Now, getting to IKEA from the school takes an hour via public transit. I wasn’t super excited about going that far at night (I had to go at night because of when class ended). So, I invited Grace (law student from ASU) to come along and she invited a guy from Bocconi’s International Student Dorm where she was staying, Nick (from Canada, his parents are farmers and own kangeroos). We stopped by the dorm first (half an hour by rail car) and then headed out. Our journey was as follows:

1. Bus Stop – we walked 18 minutes through a poorly lit area to get to our first public transit option. It went smoothly enough. We reach the area the map indicated and saw a bus stop. Google told us to take “M2” which was one of the options on the screen at the stop. However, while the other options had times of arrival, “M2” had a word next to it which Grace claimed meant it was on the night schedule. A bus arrived which Nick said was going in the right direction and we got on it. But, after a few minutes, it started heading in the opposite direction we were supposed to go.
2. Unexpected Walk – Concerned we were going to get farther and farther from where we were supposed to go, we got off the bus at the first stop. Because there was no other option, we decided to walk to the first stop the correct bus was supposed to stop at. The area wasn’t really meant for walking. Most of Milan has these huge sidewalks, but we had to cut through a park, a lot, etc. We were safe, but it wasn’t a great route. We finally got there…and it was a metro station. We weren’t supposed to take a bus at all. The three of us, to this day, do not remember seeing an entrance to the metro at the first bus stop, but there must have been one.
3. Metro – this part actually went smoothly. We found the right subway train and got off at the right stop.
4. Train – the metro led to a train. Because of our detour, we had to wait 20 minutes for our train to arrive. At that point, I was really starting to feel the laptop in my backpack. Eventually the train did come and all was going well, until our stop came. We tried to get off, but the doors we went to were out of service. By the time we reached another set of doors, the train was moving again.
5. Train again – We got off at the next stop and were going to take an Uber, but there were no Ubers available. So, with no other choice, we waited for the train in the opposite direction to come pick us up. It eventually came and we were able to get off the stop we wanted in the first place.
6. More walking – the train stop was 15 minutes away from IKEA as IKEA is in a suburban area. It was really weird walking there because the area did not look anything like the rest of Milan. Instead it reminded me of Chandler. We walked past a lot of large stores.
7. Arrival – we finally made it! But, of course, that was not the end of it. We had made it to IKEA, but finding stuff in IKEA is a challenge in itself. We decided not to fight it and just follow the arrows.
8. Uber – I took an Uber to my apartment while Grace and Nick shared a taxi to their dorm. We were not about to brave the supposedly hour-long journey again.
9. Time for sleep – I got back to my apartment at 9:40, 4 hours after we had left for IKEA. With my warm blankets and my exhaustion, I fell asleep quickly.

While a long trip, I am glad we went. It was fun to hang out with Grace and Nick, who stayed positive the entire time. Plus, I really needed those blankets. Wouldn’t do it again, but not a bad experience to have.

9 Songs and 2 Canadians: Church at Night

Today I went to church. I had googled “Protestant church Milan” before I had left and had found this church: Milan Bible Church. It’s self-proclaimed mission is to “minister to English-speaking people in Milan”. I was taken aback that they meet at 5:25 pm, but I decided to check it out nonetheless.

It was interesting . In many ways it was like the churches I’ve been to in the United States. But it was unusual in that:

• Most of the people at the “English speaking church” were not native English speakers. Of the 60 people in the congregation, at least 30 were Filipino and 10 Italian. The pastor and his wife were Canadian, there was an American couple from Texas, and an elder from Ireland. Everyone else was more comfortable speaking a language different than English and spoke that language while at church.
• The songs were American and from the 1990s. I recognized most of them as songs from my church in Florida when I was six. It was weird because the people singing the songs were not native English speakers and struggled to pronounce quite a few of the words.
• They had 9 songs during the course of the service. In the United States, most contemporary churches have 5 songs: 3 before the sermon and 2 after. But this church had 7 before the sermon and 2 after. It was a lot, but I like singing so it wasn’t too bad.

I am not sure Milan Bible Church will become my church home. There are not a lot of English speaking churches and certainly not a lot that are close to me, but I might try to find one that meets in the morning I can check out.

Praises and Stresses

Things that have been awesome:

• I haven’t seen any bugs yet
• I have been able to interact with other students a lot
• I had pizza and, unlike in the US, it didn’t make me super sick (the dough is less oily).
• There is a store by my school that sells ice cream, cakes, and toilet paper (the essentials!)
• The owner of the grocery store closest to me speaks English and is super nice.

Things that are stressing me out:

• I’m still messed up from my flying and stuff. I keep waking up at 5 am and can’t get to bed for at least an hour.
• I have to complete something called a “Permit to Stay” which requires me to purchase something from a “Smoke shop”. It isn’t confusing, but it has a lot of steps and I have to turn it in by February 3rd.
• I have a research paper I am completing as an independent study through ASU which I have to do in accordance with ASU’s schedule and not the University of Bocconi’s schedule. I haven’t done any research since I got here since I’ve been so out of it, but now I am behind.

Well, that’s it, but here are some more pictures: