Catching up FINALLY

So here is a recap of week one.. I just hope that I can do more and more of this blogging stuff as the progresses. 

With that said, here we go. Good luck getting through this, there is a TON of stuff. 

Day One: Lufthansa flying over was awesome. They know how to treat their customers. The only bad thing was I could not sleep AT ALL. It was quite warm on the flight as there were no personal fans, but I could deal with it. The meal wasn't all that bad either - a pasta dish with some veggies and wine. I took the wine hoping it would help me fall asleep, but like I said, I got close to nothing (one solid hour of snoozing). After landing, I went into Munich to visit some friends (Jan and Jerry, great guys) and had two delicious meals with them. After spending about five hours or so, I set off for Italia! Finally I would be in the land of half of my ancestors, the place that I have wanted to see more than any other nation. The anticipation was getting to me and my mouth was getting dry. After waiting for the slowest family in the world at the vending machine, I finally got the Coke I was waiting for. I forgot how crazy-delicious the Coke in Europe was. As I was getting my Coke from the machine, the door on the train closed on me and I thought I was going to miss my flight as the next train was not for another twenty minutes. After pacing back and forth and panicking that I would miss my plane, the train arrived, but trust me, my heart was still racing as it was a thirty minute ride out to the airport and I had forty-five minutes to get to the airport and go through security and finally make it to my gate. Long story short, I made it with five minutes to spare. The best part is that we didn't even start boarding for another fifteen minutes so I was worrying for nothing. I don't remember the plane ride as I passed out the second the main cabin door shut. Next thing I know, we have arrived in Italy! I finally made it to my hotel at 10:30PM and was starving but the only thing that was open was Micky D's. Who would have guessed that my first meal in Italy would have been a Royal with Cheese (Pulp Fiction tribute, woot woot!). After making it back to my hotel, I wanted to charge some electronics. I brought a power strip with me, plugged it in, and zapped all the power on my floor of the hotel. Oops! After getting the power back on, I just decided to charge one thing at a time and pass out for the night. 

Day 2: Woke up around 10:30 and caught a cab ride to my school. I know in Italy you are supposed to walk everywhere, but there was no way I was walking with a 50lb bag behind me in a city that I did not know. In this cab ride, I thought that at least thirteen people were going to die, the drivers are that crazy/ballsy here. People would just walk in the middle of the streets, cars would just not obey the traffic laws, and it was complete insanity, I love it! I finally made it to my new school and met the program director and was shown to my home from home, or at least I thought it was. The apartment that my flatmates and I were supposed to move it was not ready so they stuck us in another apartment for the night. I was there alone for about an hour or so until two of the guys (Mark and Clint) arrived. From there, we set out for lunch and met up with some other classmates of ours. Later that day, we met the other three guys (Matias, Rob, and Jake). That night we went out, nothing special and not very late because we had an orientation the next day. 

Day 3: Orientation day and finally moving into the new apartment. Nothing spectacular happened on this day other than us blowing the power in the apartment because we turned on a light and having to 

Day 4: Sunday - The last day of vacation. One again, nothing special. Took a short walking tour of Florence, saw where our classes would be. Saw the Dante's church (which was surprisingly small). We also participated in a wine tasting which was very boring. Afterwards, Jake and I set out for a bar to watch the second half of the Inter Milan soccer game. Later that night, we discovered a gelateria that offered free wifi! I couldn't be happier at that point, haha. 

Day 5: First day of my first class. After hiking across Florence at 8:30 in the morning, I made it to my class 10 minutes late (I underestimated how far it really was). This class is a cooking class and is by far the best class, or at least the one that I am looking forward to the most. In class, we sampled a couple different meats (I had wild boar for the first time, I must say, it was pretty good. I don't like it by itself and it needs to be married with something else, still good nonetheless). We also sampled different olive oils, the Toscana (Tuscany) one was my favorite. Nothing else of major importance happened on Monday

Day 6: More first day of classes. Started off with a test to try to get into Italian 3 (which I did not do well on and was sent back to Italy 2 to brush up). Next was my Italian Cinema class that I thought I was going to love. The first movie we watch., Obsession, was very boring. I know some people loved it, but it reminded me of a soap opera. That night we went out to Fratelli la Bufala and I got a calzone that was in the shape of bull horns, it was delicious. That night, Jake and I were roaming the city looking for free wifi as our gelataria was closed for some reason. 

Day 7: Made it to class on time this time. We made some crepes in class that were pretty good. I really need to cook more when I get home. SawRobin Hood in a wicked nice theater that was like an opera house. It was in English with Italian subtitles. The movie was pretty good, but we couldn't beat the price - 6 euro. 

Day 8: Italian 2 and another movie. This time the movie was Rome, Open City. It was better than the last movie, but still was boring. Not sure why both these movies were chosen. That night we went out (we have gone out every other night, but tonight for much longer. Went to a couple different places for drinks. Nothing special again. 

Day 9: Off to Milan for the weekend!! We saw Sar Siro, THEE soccer stadium of Milan. Both Inter Milan and AC Milan play here. It was awesome to take a short tour of the massive stadium. The stadium is nice than Camp Nou in Barcelona but the Camp Nou tour was so much better. We got to go in both Inter and Milan locker rooms. Inter's locker room was based of the idea that there is one bench and they are one team. Milan's room was more focused on the individual. Each player had their own stall and very comfortable seat. To me, I would much rather Inter's locker room as I believe in the team and not the individual. After finishing up the tour and getting many pictures in the stadium, we set back for our hotel. Our hotel was decent but the price was amazing - a 3-star hotel for just 30 EURO! This is unheard of but you gotta love having a big group of 12 people. Later that evening, we went to the Duomo to take pictures at night and eat dinner. After dinner we just went back to the hotel as there was nothing to do according to our waiter that night. 

Day 10: Started off with a free breakfast but I woke up with a wicked congestion problem thanks to all the damn smoking here. One of my roomies smokes a pack a day and the smoke always seems to some how blow in my face when we walk around. Combine that with more than half of the people here smoking equals a very unhappy Sonny. I got some meds in Milan that seem to do a little, but I need my Mucinex that I left in Florence. We finally set out for the Duomo. When arriving at the Piazza del Duomo, there was already a watch party for later that night for the UEFA Champions League Finale. We went into the church for about 45 minutes. The church was amazing. I love the Gothic style churches. I lit a candle for each of my two recently deceased grandparents (Nana and Pep, miss ya!).  Afterwards, while the rest of the group went shopping, Rob, Zim, and I went on top of the Duomo. I still can't believe the amount of detail that was put into this project. There were just so many intricate details that the normal person would have left unattended to, but these builders did a phenomenal job.  After about an hour of walking around, we decided to take a break from and just lay down on top of the Duomo. Next to us were some teens that were sipping on some Italian beer. I swear, only in Italy can you sit on top of a church and drink beer. The thing that made the moment surreal was when a green balloon was spotted floating in the sky. Just a normal green balloon, nothing special, but it was just so weird to think that I would did similar things back in my childhood (laying on the grass, staring at the sky and random things just go by). It was amazing to think that 15 years later, I was doing the same thing, but this time on top of a church 5,000 miles away. After sitting around for about 15 minutes, we decided to walk down and meet the shoppers in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele - the oldest shopping mall in the world. In the center of the mall were four main stores - Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, and (drum roll please..............) McDonald's! Only Micky D's could get away with this. After meeting up, we went back to the hotel to drop off somethings and get some food. Later on, we went back to the Duomo to watch the game with what seemed 10,000 other fans. We had two giant TV's to watch. The fans were standing for hours upon hours. There were many chants going on and I couldn't participate in them as I was rooting for the other team (FC Bayern Munich). In the end, Inter Milan won 2-0 but I still had a great time. There were fireworks, flares, hundreds of flags waving, and God only knows what else was going on after final whistle blew. We eventually made it back to the hotel, but all over the city were thousands of cars honking their horns, Vespa's zooming around waving their flags, and so many people just crowding the streets. I was so happy I got to be in Milan for this, even if Bayern lost. Finally, at 11pm, we made it back to our hotel, where once again, I got McDonald's as I was just hungry and didn't want to wait for food. 

Day 11: Off to Venice on the train surfing the internet and writing this... I will update my entire day later on when I get a chance and the internet decides to cooperate. I love that I had a better connection on a 200km/h train than I do in my apartment.