Old school nostalgia.

Last day of school today. Everything seems to have gone by too fast! It feels like only yesterday that we arrived in Milan in dreary winter, italian crash course and being completely foreign in a new country.

Here's Bocconi, painted in nostalgia:

In between classes where everyone crowds at the doorway smoking you have a hard time going through. Smokeeyyy.




The most well known myth of Bocconi: Anyone who walks through the entrance in between the two lions wont graduate! No one walks through really. I was walking out of school with Julienn and heading towards the middle when he pulled me to the side!


On our way to school / the bus-stop



Fashion class with our fashion teacher -she's got the flattest tummy ever.

The new school building: Study corners outside the classrooms (with immovable chairs) / cafeteria

Old building's cafeteria which has loveelyyy chocolate brioches & veryvery thick hot chocolate :)

Taxi Blues! A cafe near school where all the Bocconi students hang out to eat and talk.

Too bad we didn't get a picture of the computer lab in school. The printing there is crazy and a huge headache. Everyone crowds around one printer and it's really messy with papers strewn everywhere. The printer shoots out a paper with the printer logo, time etc in between each print job so you can imagine the amount of paper wastage!

Anyway Sister Jo told us the other day that Bocconi came out in the top 5 of some university listing and that it's really well know in Europe. Yay to us :)

You give me fever

helloooo SUMMER SUNSHINE.

The thing I love about Milan is that something new's always happening :) Sunday was filled with light tans under the glorious sunshine, sports carnival at the castle and iceless ice-skating!

some of my cathecism class kids/lunch.

the sports carnival: horse-riding/ice-skating/swimming pool (can't believe they set a real one up!)/archery

soccer:

donna and i ice-skating : )

On the way back, we caught Andrea Bocelli practising at the duomo square for his outdoor concert the next day:

Goood sunday with the girls. Milan's pretty cool, imperfections and all. I realised we got to see three seasons - winter, spring and now, SUMMER. it's been a lovely&awesome transition. I'm all ready to take on the world when im back!

Sunny island, hear me roar.

The makings of a good aperitivo:

So once again, it's the lead up to exams where restlessness is a plague. Expect a lot of blogging from me, especially about Milan and Italy :)

We went for an aperitivo after class the other day! Aperitivo is Italy's happy hour from 7-9.30pm at restaurants/bars/pubs. You can buy a drink (alchoholic or non-alchoholic) for about 7euros and get a whole buffet spread for free! They dont cheat on the alchohol because of the price so it's a really gooood deal. There's a wide range of aperitivos ranging from italian (duh), mexican to japanese.

I'm gonna miss this when I go homee. Here's pictures of a good place we found! The spread's fantastic and there are waiters coming around offering you pizza fresh from the oven, yum. Common dishes are pasta, bread, salads, risotto, pizza, stew, chicken, desserts etc.

The golden arches.

I think McDonalds gives quite a good illustration on the difference between Italians and Singaporeans. I was standing in front of their counter the other day with Bren, waiting to order and observing. While Singapore's Macs have time turners that grant a free burger if the sand runs out faster than they serve us, Italy's Macs take all the time in the world. The italian guy that took our orders dawdled his way three times to pick up our burgers and put them into a paper bag.

I've gotten used to it by now but it still is rather interesting. Everyone takes things really slowly here and they're all very laidback. No wonder people I meet here tell me Singapore is really productive, efficient and organised. I guess you only realise the extent of it when you have a basis for comparison and you see it in action!

The irony (sadly) is that my productivity level currently stands at one chapter a day.

Forza Inter!

The soccer season's ended but before it did, we got in on some of the action! Went down to San Siro on the day Inter was playing against Sienna with Donna, both of us decked in our Inter jerseys -true bluee fans.

The atmosphere was crazy. The fans were already pumping up the tram(on the way to the stadium) with their cheers, which btw sounds very cool, the kind you want to stand up and cheer with even though you dont know the words. Here's a short pictureless soundclip I took.. It isn't the cool cheer that I like but it was the only one I could capture cause they didn't repeat the cooler cheers after I took my cam out.




Watched the match at a nearby bar and it was fun! It was completely packed with people sitting on the floor. Quite an exciting match. The whole bar jumps up cheering, shouting, hugging each other and pumping their fists in the air whenever a goal is scored. I got beer sloshed all over my feet ( by an over-enthusiastic fan) and got sprayed with a shower of beer later (by an angry and frustrated fan) when Inter was clearly drawing with Sienna near the end of the match 2-2.

Milan kinda stops in action during an important match. The entire duomo (city centre) area is packed with street stalls displaying inter flags, shirts etc and there are satellite stands set up everywhere so that people can tune into the radio and listen to the commentator on the match's progress. Bars with television have people standing outside watching through the glass panes (top right). The whole city comes to a standstill, listening intently and waiting with bated breathe (top left).

Inter's match against Sienna was clearly a bummer, leaving fans ready for a celebration going home with downcast faces. Anyway wearing inter jerseys makes for an interesting day. Throughout the day, we had people coming up telling us another team was better, trying to get us to say we prefer another team etc, was quite funny. After the match, we got asked at least 5 times for the score! Yay to our limited italian understanding.

Last week's match -Inter vs Palma was a different story though! With a triumphant win of 2-0, the whole city erupted in a celebration -very large scale one. Champions of the first league! Gooo inter, all the waaaay. The fans were out in full force at the duomo, cheering in the rain! We watched at a bar again.. first half was really boring but second half had all the kicks :)

I have some videos somewhereee, will post it when I find it!

Step into my summer paradise:

Long overdue posts. We went to cinque terre a few weeks back, a place which consists of 5 islands by the coast. It was full blown summer paradise. I think George Clooney(or some other famous celebrity) has a house there.

We went to two islands -Monterossa and Vernazza. Clear blue waters, sandy pathways, golden tans and colourful houses and boats - makes you want to jump into the waters and forget the world.. which I would have if I had extra clothes!

well worth the 3hours plus train ride :)

My happy ending,

We chanced upon a fairytale today -a full, complete rainbow glistening in the aftermath of the rain. It was beautiful beyond words. I could see the entire arch, from one end to the other! Like if I just peeked beyond a bit more, I'd see the golden pot at the end of the rainbow.

Magical moment :)

Even more magical when we realised that we're staying at Arcobaleno(which is italian for rainbow) Residence!

Here's a video taken and narrated by Jac, you can hear my voice sometimes! Haha. The video doesn't do it justice, it's muchhh prettier.