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Published: February 22nd 2009
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Saturday Feb. 14th My friend Astrid and I had made plans about a week ago to make a trip to IKEA because I told her that I had never been to one. Astrid is from Lyon, France and she is one of my friends from the Arcobaleno residence. She has a car in Milan because she drove from France, so we took her car. It was a little bit of an adventure because on our way there we were on the wrong side of the canal for a few kilometers, but eventually we found a bridge to get over it and were able to make it to the store. Astrid could not believe that I had never been before and she was extremely excited for me to finally experience the pinnacle of Swedish culture. The first thing we did was stop at the enormous cafeteria and ordered some chicken nuggets, swedish meatballs & potatoes, bread and salad. After building up some energy, we hit the store. We walked around the 'exhibition' part of the store on the upper level so that I could get the true experience. Astrid made it clear that the best deals were on the lower level of
the store, so I made sure not to immediately start filling up my gigantic, yellow IKEA bag. After about 2 hours and only 32 euros later, I had purchased a cast iron pan, a bath towel, a set of 4 mirrors, a pillow and numerous other things.
Later that night, a group of us went to Club 69 in downtown Milan. Actually, I do not remember the name of the club that we ended up going to. (We were supposed to go to Club 69 but it was too crowded.) It was a great night with a very fun and diverse group. The group that night consisted of myself, Astrid (France), Tess (Australia), Vincent (Holland), Reagan (Ghana), Sujan (India) and Giueseppe and Sergio from Italy. It was a matchbox sized dance club that had two levels with two different types of music. On the bottom level was a band playing live rock music, and on the upper level was a DJ playing R&B and techno music. We chose to party and dance up on the top level for the majority of the night. At around 2:15am, Vincent and I decided that we were hungry and wanted to go to
the local McDonald's. Unfortunately it closed at 2am and the manager told us that we had to go elsewhere. We wandered south of Piazza Ventiquattro Maggio and found one of the hundred or so kebab/pizza restaurants in Milano. Vincent and I decided to go cheap and split a 4 euro Margherita pizza. After eating, we headed back to the club for another 45 minutes or so. On our way out of the club I could not help but notice that the Italian rock band was doing a mediocre cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird". Without hesitation, I took Tess's hand and we started dancing near the small stage to one of my favorite songs. Shortly thereafter, we realized that it was awkward being the only ones dancing while 35-40 Italians looked on so we promptly left the club and then Reagan and Sergio drove the group of us back to the Arcobaleno residence.
Sunday Feb. 15th As evidenced by the length and content of this portion of my blog, Sunday was a relatively calm and uneventful day. I went to Stazione Centrale (Milano's Central Station) and took a few pictures.
Monday Feb. 16th Monday was the start of
classes and I had my first one at 8:45am. At Georgia Tech, I would usually wake up at about 7:45 for this, but I this semester I have to adjust my morning routine because campus is a 20 minute tram ride away. My first class was Intro. to Management Consulting and thus far it seems like a class that I will really enjoy. I have very different feelings about my second class of the day. It started at 2:30pm and ended 5:45pm. As if a 3 hour, 15 minute class were not bad enough, it is an Arts and Culture class taught by a professor with a very bland teaching style and a monotone voice.
At about 9pm that night, a group of us went to an aperitivo at YouNite Cafe which is only a few blocks from Bocconi's campus. Although it was very small, it is by far my favorite aperitivo that I have been to thus far. For only 5 euros I got unlimited food (pasta, pizza, bruschetta, desserts, etc.) and one very strong drink. I went to the cafe with 4 friends, but ended up seeing a lot of people there that I knew from Arcobaleno
or had met in class that day. For a while, I was talking to a cute German girl named Anna about traveling and Oktoberfest in Germany. Unfortunately, I think she realized that I was more interested in getting my money's worth from the the all-you-can-eat buffet than talking to her because I interrupted our conversation about 3 times to fill up my plate. While putting my 3rd serving of food on my plate, I looked over at Anna and she was giving me an odd stare. When I came back to my seat she was no longer sitting there.
Oh well, at least I got the last 2 pieces of pizza. After sitting down, I turned to my buddy Vincent and said
"Hey man, I think I scared her away because I eat too much. Or maybe it's just because my breath reaks of garlic and pasta sauce." I wish I hadn't said it so loud...because it turns out that she was standing right behind my chair but I did not realize it.
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Andrea
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Whoa! Had I know you had never been to IKEA, I would have dragged you there. That place is magical. Stazione Centrale is gorgeous.