positiveness

why does everything seem so much better when the sun is shinning?

milan is getting more and more pleasant by the day. it is not that gray dead city anymore and i am discovering now faster than before more and more things to do around. it is so true that six months are not enough to discover a lifestyle so different from what you have been used to before.

now time is going by faster, only about 4 months left and i remember perfectly thinking in the beginning: one down ten to go. now 4 months seem so little to do all the things i still want to do. so many places to see still, so many people to meet, so many clubs to discover :-p

well, the italian machine is working. after more than half the time i will stay here, now they finally finished fixing my bathroom and the common areas and repainting the rooms. ahaha. it's good, i can't complain.


also, yesterday we went to a party in the open that the community organized for young people. the purpose was sustainability and saving the environment but they had a dj games and other fun stuff. i think we should do more stuff like this in the US. plus all parties in milan and clubs have all the music that's on my computer. I love it.

la vita italiana

i shower my hair with UltraDOLCE
body wash is NeutroRoberts
brush my teeth with AlfaZetta
wash my clothes with AceGentile and OminoBianco (ok sometimes :-p )

i eat Tortellini con carne e formaggio, biscotti di MullinoBianco, Parmegiano Regiano, Vino Rosso di tavola, panini con pomodoro e mozarella, all of Kinder chocolates, prosciutto, and a lot of other quite greasy and fattening things but i am still not gaining any kilos. love it!

i am quite happy to have avoided the north polar climatic phenomena of Chicago this year, really hope next one is warmer.

one very exciting thing!! ***fashion week*** starts in milan this week! i am going to try my best to go sneak into one of the runway shows and be with the bold and the fabulous... hmm *crossed fingers*.


_______________________________


on another topic, i am scared to go back to school in chicago. i don't want to get killed while sleeping in my history class by a depressed and frustrated student who got a gun really easily at one of the many stores around. i can not even start to think of what all those families must be going through...





















one big emptiness for all the bad thoughts. i hope the killings stop here and american society finally realizes something needs to be done soon. stop selling guns maybe? sounds like a good start...

nuovo post

wow it's been exactly a month since i last wrote on here. vacation has been in the way but mainly lack of inspiration.


spain and sweden were gorgeous. seeing the guys from chicago was even more fun. it made me realize that they are still the same waiting there for me to get back and i am probably the only one changing from this trip. that took a huge anxiousness away because i don't think i have changed that much and it's relieving to know you will go back to the old safe place and back to your normal settled life.


i miss "same". i miss not having change. i miss sleeping in the same bed for more than a month straight. in between hostels, my room, paulina's apartment, montse's apartment, mimmi's place, eve's room, i can barely say i wake up in the same bed twice. ahahha i exaggerate.

i have probably traveled more than i will ever travel in my life again. it's fun but also exhausting. i decided that it is no good to travel for two weeks non stop and that the maximum traveling time from now on will be one week with going back to milan stop after it. showering and changing clothes is very important.

other than that, there is a restoration project going on in my bathroom now in the dorm. they have decided to redo the old bathroom that needed fixing since 1997. aparently, it takes 11 years for italian bureaucracy to get moving. not bad, i was expecting worse. i think i owe to put a little preview of what is going on every morning starting 8:30 am. hopefully it won't last longer than the promised maximum of ten days.

exams coming up full speed with me needing to do things for iit also so i can have a more comfortable year when i go back. what i mean by that is apply for:

- leadership academy scholarship

- RA (hopefully they take me again)

- some job to be able to live and go out :-p

i also applied at the supermarket here in milan that is so close to the dorm. perfect weekend job for some extra money. *crossed fingers*


next trip outside of italy seems to be france in march. we'll get to see some more iit-ers that are there for the semester and of course beautiful paris, toulouse and lyon. in between i will probably go to turin (capital of design for 2008!!?!) and florence where ernest resides now. probably some other italian cities, too. if anything, after this trip i will know italy on the tip of my fingers. (i know i am forgetting to speak proper english...i will correct my expressions later)


seems like i am going to albania, too. which i thought i would not do but my brasilian suitemates want to go and i havent been there in 11 years almost (as long as this bathroom has to be fixed lol) so i wouldn't mind giving them a tour. i have to rediscover it myself. i am kind of excited about that actually, i might find out why i liked it when i was there.

fairytale gone bad <> sunrise avenue (dedicated)

This is the end you know
Lady, the plans we had went all wrong
We ain't nothing but fight and shout and tears
We got to a point I can't stand
I've had it to the limit; I can't be your man
I ain't more than a minute away from walking

We can't cry the pain away
We can't find a need to stay
I slowly realized there's nothing on our side

Out of my life, Out of my mind
Out of the tears that we can't deny
We need to swallow all our pride
And leave this mess behind
Out of my head, Out of my bed
Out of the dreams we had, they're bad
Tell them it's me who made you sad
Tell them the fairytale gone bad

Another night and I bleed
They all make mistakes and so did we
But we did something we can never turn back right
Find a new one to fool
Leave and don't look back. I won't follow
We have nothing left. It's the end of our time
We can't cry the pain away
We can't find a need to stay
There's no more rabbits in my hat to make things right

Out of my life, Out of my mind
Out of the tears we can't deny
We need to swallow all our pride
And leave *THIS mess behind
Out of my head, Out of my bed
Out of the dreams we had, they're bad
Tell them it's me who made you sad
Tell them the fairytale gone bad

fancy stuff

no comment...

siena, san gimignano, pisa

best trip so far. a weekend in the medieval part of italy, immersed in the countryside, the simple life, the gorgeous views, and the fun times with people from all over the world. it was a trip organised by Erasmus Student Network (ESN) milano and everyone on it had only been in italy for as long as i have. the 3 little cities we visited were so quiet, so pretty, so friendly, i felt like i was in a Tolkien story the entire time.
it started out pretty bad with me going to the bus stop at 6 am and waiting in the rain after returning from the club at 5:30am. but all the bad start was worth the amazing time i had there. best part of the trip was a wine tasting session in san gimignano at a traditional facility that bottles their own wine. the bread, the olive oil, the cheese and of course the wine were extraordinary. i actually know now how good wine tastes like.


the last part of the trip was in pisa, where i was so eager to go and take a picture with the leaning tower. i have never seen a place where people do funnier poses than in front of this special tower which by the way you have to book in order to climb up.




now i understand why everyone i told i was going to milan told me that i would like the rest of italy much better. it was really sad going back to the city and school after such a fun weekend. however, ESN is having a t-shirt competition for all erasmus students and my submissions are totally going to win. the price the next trip for free. i can't wait for the results.
i started out on this trip all by myself, like coming to italy was too, but by the end i was really good friends with 15 people in the bus and we did everything together. i met 4 americans form new york, and they told me there is 50 people from their school here (why is there not from mine?), 2 canadians, 1 german, 1 french, 1 israeli, 3 turks, and some italians. we have already agreed to 3 different events to go together to in milan. i am really excited about taking advantage of all these friendships and visiting all their countries, too. i think it is the most awesome thing to have connections throughout the world and right now i feel like i have a lot.

random

i have been traveling so much lately. out of all the people that decided to come to europe from iit i thought i would be the one traveling the less but not true at all. so far i have been to athens, venice, roma, and istanbul. this weekend im going to see 3 more italian cities on a quick tour, pisa, siena, and san gimignano. cant wait to take a picture holding up the leaning tower. the trip that i want to do the most though, i can not do.

i finally realize how easy the english language is and also how unnecessarily complicated other languages, like italian, are. there is no reason for more than 8 tenses or silly phonetic changes to words. in other words, i don't want to learn italian. speaking english with all the foreigners here is making me forget my english. if you hear wrong english for a long time, can you think it is right afterwards?

also i have this one huge complaint about albania not being recognized as an important country in europe. i was the only one that had to get a visa to get in turkey. not even the brasilians do! brasil is really far away damnit. it seems like a really trivial thing to mention but i am always last in all the lines, and i always have to wait the most, and they always have doubts and check my passport like 300 times. if i am to travel so much, i need at least to be allowed to do so. i really can't wait to get my american passport. its like my ticket to traveling freedom, more than anything else.

it's freaking cold out.