The past few days have been a whirlwind of events, culture shock, and amazement. I am falling in love with this city more every minute that I am here and am starting to feel my way around and see it becoming a second home.
Yesterday we celebrated the fourth of July here in Italia by going to our first day at University of Milan. The campus which lies just north of the Duomo Piazza is like no other campus I have ever been on. The massive yellow bulding is in a square shape with a beautiful courtyard in themiddle where we witnessed several Milano students who were celebrating their graduation-a much more impressive and fun celebration than we have in the states.
Me in the courtyard of University Milano
After school we were taken for a walk through the city to a wonderful park by a local Milanese who gave us a small Italian language lesson as we people watched in the park. I noticed these older Italian men sitting on a bench right in front of us just chatting and reading their newspapers. It really gave me a sense of how the locals communicate with each other and how they take time out of their day to just sit and relax, something we don't do hardly enough in the U.S.
After our lesson we ventured over to the castle/fortress which sits within the park grounds. It is called Castello Sforzesco and used to house one of the biggest and wealthiest families in Milan. It is a beautiful sight and we were lucky enough to have time to stroll through the grounds before moving on to the next activity. We are returning there soon for a more formal tour to learn about its history. One we left the park we went to a picnic hosted by the University of Milan and had the chance to mingle with other abroad students in the program. My roommate and I met a guy from Spain who was studying Italian and a girl from Bulgaria who was very happy when we commented on how well her english was. She said she couldn't wait to tell her friends back home.
I am finding it is becoming much easier to meet and talk to people while I'm here even though I barely know the language. Everyone is really friendly and always open for conversation. I feel welcomed and do not feel as lost as I thought I would be being thrown into a foreign city. I hope that as the trip progresses that I learn more of the language and can communicate with the locals more.
Inside the castle grounds
Statues inside the castle walls
Beautiful view inside the grounds
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