2010 Trip to Italy: January 2010

In the last two days I have gotten a lot of much needed things done. I have no pictures because I did not go anywhere that was very attractive; as nothing is attractive in Italy right now because the sun does not exist. I have been here 6 days and have yet to see the sun. I couldnt watch the AMERICAN football games but I just wanted to point out that I predicted the Colts/Saints Superbowl WEEK 4!!! Go Colts!!

Two nights ago there was a big party on the first floor of my dorm. There were probably 75 exchange students there and was a great way to meet a bunch of new people. I have a group of friends that I made that night that I pretty much go everywhere with. My friends range from US cities such as San Francisco, Cali to Chicago, Illinois to Boston, Mass to Worldwide Cities and Countries like Australia, Dubai, Portugal, Norway, Puerto Rico, Chile, and more. The universities they arrive from are Berkeley, Cornell, Sydney University in Australia, Babson, UIllinois at Champagne, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Maryland, and other countries that I couldn't spell in a million years. It is a great group of kids who are in the same boat as me. We all want to travel, hardly know any Italian, and are very personable people. I have realized that people in Milano are mildly good-looking but shockingly the Exchange students are the best-looking (in terms of girls)!! I will hopefully get pictures of my friends soon.

All 12 of us (who have a combined experience of the italian language of close to 2 months) went to do the big errands yesterday. We went to the center of Milano to buy our monthly tram passes to avoid 34 euro fines that a few kids have unfortunately encountered. We walked to WIND to purchase our cellular phones and contracts which is soooo much cheaper than the United States. The popular contract was 4000 texts per month for 2 euros and 240 minutes per month for around 10 euros (WIND to WIND is free). Calling to the US is 45 cents for the first minute and 30 cents a minute after that so not too bad.

We then went to the Bocconi Campus to make sure we could find our classrooms for when classes start. We checked in at the International Student Desk, received our IDs and packets of information. We asked a "ResLife" student for a tour and even though the campus is concealed within 3 blocks, it is beautiful and big enough. The library seems to be nice which I didn't enter because I won't be in there much ha. All of the buildings are unattractive on the outside but are BEAUTIFUL inside. The buildings mostly all have 100% marble floors and hallways. The coolest part is that most of the buildings are connected by an underground hallway/tunnel. You can go from one building with classes to a cafeteria to a bank to another cafeteria to a library to a gym and to 2 more buildings without taking 1 step outside!! It is awesome and there is the smell of pizza everywhere, its honestly like an imitation of Heaven.

We did a bunch of other things that I really cant think of right now for some reason. The reason for that is the damn 5 hour premiere of our crash course in ITALIAN. Before we arrived we had the choice to take a crash course where you learn italian for like 10 days or something like that. You told them your experience and any other languages you have taken. I took French for 10 years so boy did I screw myself over!!! Beginner 1 is the easiest and Beginner 6 is the hardest. I find myself in Beginner 5 where my teacher was awesome and had a great sense of humor, I think (based on her smiling and laughing because I couldnt understand the words much). The first 2 hours was full throttle Italian with a very little bit of english here and there. I have no clue how I responded accurately to one of her questions but thank god. She gave us the option to bump to Beginner 4 to see what was better for us so now I reside in the Beginner 4 class!! The only downfall of switching was that my Beginner 5 class had SOOOO many gorgeous girls and Beginner 4 not so much. I learned a good amount of italian in the first day (today), after all it was 5 straight hours. I have Homework, on the first day, what a joke!

I will wrap this up because I am getting sick of typing but I met a girl and a guy from Romania. They are students here and are leaving in March for Jobs in London and somewhere else. I told them my schedule and classes I am signed up for and they told me what classes are interesting, boring, easy, and hard. Of course the interesting and/or easy ones intrigue me!! One class I am in sounds pretty hard but it also sounds interesting. As of right now my classes are: Marketing Research, Intro to Mgmt Consulting, Business Strategy, and International Relations. I also signed up for a class called Management of Fashion and Design Company. I know it sounds a little homosexual for a guy (sorry if I offend anyone), but I overheard handfuls of gorgeous girls say there are in it and I might as well show up the first day and see what the girl to guy ratio is :-)

I have Orientation tomorrow as well as the 5 hour crash course continuation. Hopefully everyone enjoys this, I have heard from a few people via email which always makes my day!! I love coming back to an email or comment on the blog so I know Im not wasting my time writing all of this!! Reynos4@rpi.edu, thanks for reading!