My Trips Wishlist

Where I hope to venture over the next few months:

-Munich (Oktoberfest)
-Nice
-Cannes
-Montecarlo
-Amsterdam
-Prague (Czech Republic)
-Vienna (Austria)
-Krakow (Poland)
-Moscow (Russia!!!)
-Stockholm (Sweden)
-Greece (island-hopping, anyone?)
-Istanbul (probably one of the most gorgeous cities in the world)
-Egypt
-Rome
-Venice
-Cinque Terre
-Pisa
-Florence
-the Vatican
-Bologna (food capital of Italy, also home to the country’s oldest university)
-Parma (delicious food)
-Verona (home of Romeo and Juliet)
-Genova
-Naples (best coffee in Italy)

Yikes that list got long really quickly…hmm well we’ll see how many of those cities I can cross off.

We get a mid-semester break which is when I’m expecting a few friends from Sweden and also want to make it down to Egypt. One of my friends is working in Madrid (I find it hard to stay away from Spain as it is) so I will definitely be heading back. Hopefully Paigelicious and Ianskies (shoutout!) come to visit during Christmas break and then New Years in either Barcelona or Paris!

Oh my, the roomie is playing “Me Gustas Tu” by Manu Chao in the kitchen. If you’ve never heard the song, it’s a must:

I first heard it in a Spanish class freshman year and have been a Manu fan ever since. Baller-ific.

Italian TexMex, Cubans, & Coffee

My roommates have been dolls and cook for me every now and then since I’m positively incompetent in the kitchen. They also joke about how I’m always eating out and have probably tried all of the restaurants in Milan by now. Alessandro and I were having spaghetti carbonera yesterday when I surprised him by saying dinner was going to be on me the next night. I had lofty ideas for the meal from variating on an Italian dish with chicken pesto pizza with a crust made from scratch or showcasing a Cuban style Chipotle citrus marinated chicken. Alas, I chalked up to the fact that I wasn’t going to become a world-renowned chef in 24 hours so instead decided to go with the ever simple burrito (they’ve never heard of it here!). After class the next day, I went to a nearby supermarket and scoured the aisles for ingredients. I picked up a few tomatoes, red onions, beans, salsa, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, cheese from the south of Italy (I like to get creative with my food), but couldn’t find any tortillas. In fact, I was very surprised they had beans since all I have eaten in the past 3 weeks has been pasta, rice, and other variations on pasta and rice. Instead, I found something called a piadina which is an Italian flatbread and is similar to a tortilla but a lot thicker. I went back home to prepare my Italian burrito and surprisingly it didn’t turn out too bad (unless Alessandro was lying to me) which makes this my first solo meal in Italy! Victory is so sweet.

After my marketing class today I had an hour and half break before Finance so instead of actually studying for my finance class I went down to the cafeteria to people watch. People watching in Milan should be a sport. I had heard the students here are wealthy but I didn’t realize going to school would be like walking a catwalk. My first day of school I see at least a dozen girls wearing 4 in stacked stilettos, carrying designer purses, and wearing what probably just flew of the racks from the latest fashion show. This is definitely a change from Texas where we don Nike running shorts (don’t worry, I brought mine here to wear on the days I want to look like an American tourist) and oversized t-shirts to class every day. I’m learning to step it up but I still refuse to make the 20 minute walk to campus in heels.

Anyway, back to my 1.5 hour break. I sat down at a booth in the cafeteria and spotted a coffee vending machine that churns up delicious Italian expresso for 25 cents a cup (the cup is actually more like the size of a plastic shot glass). Ready for a lesson in Italian coffee? You can choose from cafe expresso (straight up expresso), cafe lungo (expresso with a little extra water to soften the flavor), caffe macchiato (half expresso half steamed milk). mocaccino (my personal favorite: 1/3 expresso, 1/3 steamed milk, 1/3 chocolate), cappuccino (mix of hot milk, steamed milk foam, and expresso), latte macchiato (pure milk stained with a touch of expresso), and finally caffe d’orzo (expresso made from ground roasted barley) along with a number of decaf options. I am a true coffee lover and had to try 4 of those within half an hour… suffice to say my stomach was not too happy. Even after 4 shots of expresso, I managed to take a 2 hour nap in between classes (trying to read for finance…figures).

I had my first Cuban cigar a few weeks back! A couple of my friends bought some and were lighting up at one of the really popular bars here called Old Fashion and since they’re illegal in the States, I had to try one.

Milan fashion week starts in 2 days and I’ve already seen a couple of models walking around the city–6 feet 5 inches and 90 pounds, yep can’t miss them. I talked to my Fashion and Design professor to ask if there was any way we could get in on the action that revolves around fashion week, but unfortunately invitations are required. Regardless, we’re leaving for Munich this Thursday so I’ll be missing out on most, if not all, of the runway shows.

I’m still not used to not working during the semester or even not being involved in any organizations so when IS@B (International Students at Bocconi–an organization that plans events/trips for exchange students) sent out an email regarding applications to their board, I immediately filled out a form. I have an interview tomorrow, so I’ll keep you posted!

Some of my classes are really interesting and others I daydream through. I’m enrolled in Corporate Finance, Marketing, Public Management, and Management of a Fashion and Design Company. All of my professors are Italian (except my Finance professor who is German) and have very thick accents so it’s proving hard to pay attention 100% of the time. Classes also change rooms all the time–yesterday I spent an hour trying to find where my Finance class moved to until I finally gave up. The buildings don’t have names either (for example, they call the largest building, “The Main Building” and the one built a couple of years ago “The New Building” and the red, circular one, “The Circular Building”…yes, I am totally serious). There isn’t a “campus feel” to the university; there are simply building spread here and there. I learned Bocconi is trying to change that within a few years because they want to emulate the American university system and have a traditional campus.

A couple of things I’m still trying to get used to: not having a dryer (you’ll be hard-pressed to find one in Europe and I don’t like it when my jeans don’t shrink a size or two!), odd colored water (I hope the drinking water in Milan is safe–I’m sure it is–but you have to wait 20 minutes before it goes from cloudy white to clear), speaking Italian at the supermarket, clothing stores, metro, gym etc (Milan isn’t very touristy so not many people speak English and most of the time I think I’m speaking Italian when in fact I just reverted back to Spanish), and finally Bocconi having such a huge international student body (there are 500-600 exchange students! That’s crazy considering McCombs only has about 50 each semester).

Okey doke going to go for a run before I turn in for the night. Tomorrow we’re going to Old Fashion to party with some models! Haha kidding…sort of

xox,
sweta