30 June 2014

You can see the Alps from Meg's room!

Today was our first day of lectures.  Our first lecture was given by Prof. Leonini and she did a very good job.  She seemed to really enjoy what she was talking about and the students had a lot of questions!  That made things a lot more interesting.  It allowed her to talk about things in a little more detail so the statistics came alive. They learned a lot about Italy and how its people live.  The website that she discusses things from is this:  http://www.istat.it 

Milan Study Abroad 2014!!

After class we had a couple hour break so we could eat lunch and they could shop.  We all scattered to the wind.  I decided I wanted to have Steak Tartare, which I knew I could get at La Rinascente.  It’s an upscale, ritzy store that has an amazing beef restaurant.  Sadly for me, they had the tartare, but they had changed the recipe and it just wasn’t as good.  It lacked a lot of something.  They made it into two small patties with caviar in the middle.  Fancy?  Yes.  Tasty?  Yes.  What I was craving?  Absolutely not.  I was sad, but happy at the same time.  Meg had a delicious burger made from Tuscan beef.  Scrumptious!  The bun was as big as my head, haha!

Our flier by the
classroom door

We headed back to watch the first of three films:  Rome, Open City.  I adore this movie.  Every time I watch it, I get more and more out of it.  It just a brilliant screenplay with good acting.  It draws me in each year!  The other movie is the Bicycle Thief, but we don’t have time to watch both, so I always have to choose one or the other.  I might show the Bicycle Thief next year, but I don’t know…..I love Roma, Open City so much!  There are other excellent neorealism movies (Bitter Rice, The ShoeShine Boys, and Umberto D), but the Bicycle Thief and Rome, Open City are classics and truly representative of the genre.

Gnocchi
Sorrentino

We settled in and watched it and then left for the dorms.  A group of us decided to go out and we went to Calabianca.  It’s a nice restaurant and two people ordered Gnocchi Sorrentino.  It comes out with an Italian tortilla baked on top like a crust and the delicious gnocchi nestled inside.  Yummy!  I had Spaghetti Carbonara, which was to die for tasty!  It was a nice dinner, fun with a small group…there were 7 of us.  Most people stopped to get gelato, and then Meg and I went back to the dorms while the other 4 went to the grocery store on a mission. 

 A great start to the program!