Tuesday September 11th turned out to be a day of tourism. Francesco, our local guide and fellow CEMS student, organized a trip to Palazzo Brera. At Palazzo Brera we saw the old library, the old observatory, the botanical garden, and parts of the large art museum. In addition, the buildings also host the Academy of Fine Arts. Overall, a very nice trip including some historical lessons regarding not only Milan but also renaissance art.
On Saturday September 8th we went for a trip to Lake Como. Originally the plan was to join an ESN* group, but we slept too long. Szymon, who has his car here, then suggested to drive there and as a result five of us had a small roadtrip: Szymon and Zuzanna (both polish), Melissa (Australian), Martin (Norwegian), and myself. We (very swiftly) looked inside the church and basically headed straight for the lake itself. Melissa joined the entire ESN group for drinks while the rest of us rented a boat… a pedalboat that is. It wasn’t cheap, but at least it was rusty. In any quite a lot of the pictures below are from the trip on the boat. Following our luxury cruise we had some dinner inside Como before heading back to Milan.
*ESN: Erasmus Student Network, an international student organization in charge of organizing exchange students. In Milan, they are represented on 8-9 universities, so for some trips and parties there are people coming from all those schools.
The entire week - monday to friday - we had our so-called Blocked Seminar. It’s a one week seminar with eight hours of classes which ended by a two hour written exam on friday. The subject was Public Management, or in other terms, how can the public institutions attract investments and help the national companies compete without distorting competition.
Every day we had lunch in the Bocconi Restaurant. It is actually quite similar to a restaurant, and is usually only used by teachers, professors and the like. Basically it’s far too expensive for students. In any case, as you can see in the pictures the lunch consisted of a nice buffet, wine and coffee if you so desired.
We had social events every day of the week (pictures from the tourism in the post below) and we of course had to finish in a grande finale after the friday’s exam. We first went for aperitivo at a place called g-lounge, following which we had pizza (at 11pm). After dinner we went to a place in Milan with tons of bars, and where people stand all over the street and have fun. Finally, we walked down to Naviglio which is the only water in Milan also covered by bars and a few clubs where we ended the evening.
On Wednesday September 5th the CEMS Blocked seminar hosted a guided tour at the Castello Sforzesco for all participants at the seminars (only a bunch showed up though). The building of the castle was initially begun in the 15th century by duke, and was then is now named after him: Sforza. In between, the castle has undergone multiple name and architectural changes as it also changed ownership between Milan and invaders such as Spanish forces and Napoleon. In addition to the towers and walls, which were the only purpose of this tour, the castle also hosts 8 museums containing pictures by Leonardo da Vinci, among others. Overall a very nice tour also giving a (very) brief overview of the history of Milan which naturally ended with a dinner.
Last time I said welcome to Milan, but this post would in fact have been more worthy of that title. How can you truly have been to Milan without having purchased some of the local fashion? And therefore I have now settled for this new pair of shoes; made of kangaroo skin - no less. The salesman, who spoke English surprisingly well, was just that: A salesman; I therefore got shown several pairs and got told that I wouldn’t find anything of remotely similar quality at that price anywhere in Milan. I was satisfied with getting out alive with only one pair of shoes.
On Sunday I had dinner with one of my buddy’s friends, Andrea, who happens to be living in the building next door. While I may be able to purchase better groceries here, my cooking skills really don’t compare to the local experience: we had a really nice three course dinner supplied by some ice cream. By the way, Danish shops such as Paradis are certainly nice, but they simply aren’t Italian.
That also means that you can probably figure when a Paradis is open; a feature that seems to escape many of the Italian restaurants, boutiques, or small supermarkets. I guess it makes it easier to close down for the afternoon/evening whenever you feel like if you don’t advertise with opening hours. It won’t matter much in the long run, but you need to get used to the majority of the smaller shops and restaurants being closed in early afternoon, while, the large supermarket, in turn, is open till 21 (I was told so anyway, they don’t display it either).
I finally got my student id at Bocconi, which means I can use the school’s computers. Unfortunately you’re not allowed to chat on those computers, so browsing and updating website only. And although I don’t have a need for it at the moment, I’m still not allowed to print because they haven’t made the passwords for the very same student ids yet… We should get them “soon”.
It doesn’t mean that I can use my laptop though, because that needs to be set up by some technicians. These technicians are 1) located in the “new building”, which is a very helpful piece of information when you don’t know which buildings are the old ones, 2) definitely not available until next week (or maybe the week after?), and 3) only available about 6 hours during the week. Fortunately, the latter seems to be in the afternoon, so I don’t have to get up early.
On the more positive side, getting my student id also meant that I can apply for my monthly card for public transportation. In other words, when I manage to complete this Italian form, I’ll have unlimited use of public transportation for €17 a month.
Overall I’m having a great time; it’s just a lot of fun complaining about the Italian bureaucracy.
I finally arrived. The setup went perfectly, and I got guided directly to the apartment through the metro and tram system. We even passed by Piazza Duomo so I got to see the main tourist attraction right away. I spent the first week getting to know the area, finding the local supermarket (which happens to be the size of a carrefour) which has more pasta that you can ever dream of in one aisle. The result of that, can be seen below.
The first couple of days had quite bad weather with heavy rain. Since then it’s been getting warmer and warmer and it’s supposed to reach 35 degrees celsius during the coming week. I spent most of my time walking to the centre of Milan, checking out the local fashion. However, saying that Milan is dead in august would be an understatement - Even some shops on the main shopping street are closed for vacation. The coming week will pass by getting set up at the university and finding some new shoes, as hopefully more stores open this week.
I have an italian cell number now, which, along with the rest of the contact infos, can be found in the menu.
Camilla left for Australia, but at least we had a nice party to say goodbye.
Pictures of Camilla and myself displaying a couple of earrings she got from my parents on her way out.
