Archive for January 21st, 2009

Journal 4 – 2 Am Jan 22:

Milan 2009 – Observations. The city is interesting, like its population it is fitted. Tight streets, tight corners, tight clothes. Everyone I’ve seen is thin, and strangely… fitted, like a silhouette. It’s a little odd. The buildings here have seen better days, and with snow expected for Friday, it should be an interesting weekend. Graffiti is very common and the city is deep in winter mourning. Everything appears slightly dampened. It’s a new feeling. Not something I felt even in the cold grey that was London… but it was summer when I was in London. People here are seasonal I think. As spring and summer come along I trust Milano will shine.

I saw a lot of interesting things during my walk through the city, the graffiti and the hungry growl of winter push foremost in my mind. I’ll start taking photos tomorrow as I’m walking between the apartments I am looking at. I hope I’ll find a good fit.

The bar was a lot of fun. Guys studying at Bocconi and one young woman studying at the Catholic Univeristy. Interesting group – English pub and everyone speaking English with a little Italian mixed in. Played Uno and Jenga over a pint of Guiness – it tastes so much better here. Pub closed around 1:30 and we stayed inside with the folks running it.

Basta. Io ho bisogno di dormire. Alle due in la mattina e sono molto stanco. Suffro di Jet lag e sveglio alle sette.

Ciao

Journal Three Day two – Milan – Jan 21st Wednesday evening:

Wonderful morning. Buon Mattina! This morning Paul and I went over to the consulate and checked in. I had a wonderful chat with Mr. Kidwell about my duties and what our division of the consulate does. I think its going to be quite a lot of fun. From what he described I’ve got a bit of writing and reading ahead of me to stay on top of my learning curve. Nothing I can study for either. I just need to pick it up quickly. Time to start reading Italian newspapers and online sites each morning to work on my language skills. I’m excited to start work on the 26th.

Since I only have 5 days before I begin work I need to figure out this whole apartment issue. The two apartments I checked into today didn’t work out. The first won’t be available until February 1st five days after I am to start work. The second was already booked. I took the entire day to check into resources. I managed to find my way to University Bocconi. After speaking with the staff and getting some contacts I fired off two e-mails to their housing directors and spent a good half an hour scrounging through the bulletin boards for room availability postings. I called 20 different people today and 14 of the 20 rooms had already been booked. I emailed two, and set up appointments to visit the apartments tomorrow starting at 1pm and going until 7pm at night. I hope I’ll find something manageable. I don’t want to impose on Paul and he’s been nice enough to let me stay here two nights now as it is. I think I’ll end up staying tomorrow night as well and hopefully moving out on Friday.

Its pretty cold and I’ve been fighting my jet lag. Had to take a nap today around 6pm so I could focus. I did my first assignment for my online ITA 202 course. Made a post and now need to wait for my fellow students to ask me questions then respond. It seems like the course will be a lot of busy work. But over all I think I’ll do just fine. It is imperative that I find an apartment with Internet though. Been talking and asking for directions in Italian and trying to bring my mind around to the idea of thinking in it. I’ll know its happened when these blogs are in Italian.

Better run, meeting Paul at the Duomo then off to a pub for my first drink in Italia!

Ciao,

Baci.

Journal Heathrow 2009 – Jan 20th 3:28 Local time.

Ciao! Hello! Here I am! London, England sitting in the Heathrow airport trying to figure out why the free wireless internet connects but won’t bring up any pages… funny. Here I sit thousands of miles from home and my biggest concern is figuring out how to connect to the WIFI network in a foreign Airport. Strange, frustrating, Fun.

This morning we left home, My parents and I drove, met with my Aunt and Uncle, then met with our cousins from Chicago. Nice to see everyone. We got to have lunch together and Alex made it over from work for lunch. A good send off. A great last memory of my family before I take off on this grand adventure. Seven months, my god what a long time it seems now, but I know before I even blink it will be over far too soon.

Alex took me to the airport. The flight in was pretty nice. Got through security on the American side in 10 minutes flat grabbed a seat and had a lovely chat with the gentleman to my left. He was a retired English gentleman from just outside London, worked all his life in London and came out to Arizona to visit his son who was training for his American PPL in Goodyear Arizona. To my left was a German woman headed to Munich to visit her daughter and grandchild. They helped pass the time as we waited to board the BA flight 288 to Heathrow.

The flight itself was fine. I’d describe the feeling as warm, cozy… tight, very tight. We were served two meals, the first – dinner – was served while we flew over New England and the second while we flew over Ireland. Dinner was a salad, beef brisket, muffin, red wine, and a nice slice of pie. Breakfast was a cheese sandwich with strawberrie yogurt and orange juice.

They turned off all the lights in the plane and I managed to sleep over the ocean. I fell asleep flying over the U.S. East Coast and woke up 20 minutes out from the Irish coast. While flying over the Appalachians I looked out and saw only burning clouds. The sight reminded me of Mordor, the cities burning bright beneath black clouds like the furnaces of mount doom covered by its own exhaust. Shadows in the clouds, perhaps some chemical or maybe just heavy rain filled the clouds, I’m not sure but the effect was captivating. Where the city light broke through it was muddied, red-brown with a yellowish taint. The outcome was Beautiful but eerie.

After my delightful nap and wake up call for breakfast we flew for another hour and a half before arriving in Heathrow five minutes early. Took me another half an hour to go through security, it seems I wont go through customs until Milano. The whole shoe thing seems global now, never had to take off and put my shoes back on so many times in such a short period of time.

It seems Public WiFi here at Heathrow does not work. Only the locked routers appear to allow connection. Unfortunate but I refuse to pay one of the businesses here to log onto their systems. I’ll wait until I am in Milan. Done writing this journals its 3:44 – Plane boards at 5:30 Can’t get the gate number until an hour before… foolish, makes me feel like I’m rushing when I’ve plenty of time.

PHX-Heathrow.