rude? or not rude?

in Italy....

eating in public......rude
For example, no one walks down the street with coffee, snacks, anything. You eat in private, or where you're supposed to eat, such as at a restaurant. So today when I was eating a candy bar in the metro station, I felt really weird.

sitting on stairs or on the floor........rude
The first day, we had just gotten to the school building from the airport after a 15 hour trip. We were waiting for a bus to take us on yet another 2 hour trip to where we were staying, and we were exhausted so we sat on the stairs. oops...we were told to get up.

walking down the street and expecting everyone to get out of your way.........not rude.

bumping into people...............not rude.

making eye contact with a stranger and responding with a blank stare...............not rude.
no one smiles at strangers.

cutting people off in traffic, driving recklessly or aggressively.................not rude.

killing pedestrians..................not rude.

there is no such thing as a line here....not when you wait for a taxi, not when you are in a restaurant, not when you buy tickets at a train station. there's no such thing as a line, and if you act like there is, and patiently wait your turn, you'll die before you get what you want.

strange.

I'm HERE!

Well hey friends! I'm officially here, in Milan Italy, and this is my first attempt at writing a blog for all of you who have asked to follow my trip. We'll see how it goes :)

Follow the link on the right that says "picasa" to view pictures of my trip.

Okay, here's the first week......

On the way to school from the airport, we took a train, and then decided to walk the last 3 blocks to school instead of pay for a cab. Bad idea. There were 7 of us, each with backpacks and 2 huge suitcases. In Italy, pedestrians don't have the right of way. So a long train of tourists with rolley suit-cases are targets for crazy italian drivers. The adventure begins!

As soon as we got to school, they took us up for orientation to a little tiny town to stay at a farm with a vineyard. Every meal was 4-5 courses and they served the wine that they made. yum! The pasta is unbelievable. Lots of meetings and information for the first two days. Jet-lag combined with sitting down listening to 3-hour presentations or meetings is not good.

Wednesday - we came back down to the city and moved into our apartment. Kelsey (my friend from school) and I were in the taxi on the way to our apartment with all of our luggage when we got in a car accident. yup. Crazy italian drivers.
Our apartment is really nice and big and super cute. But there's only one bathroom for 6 girls. Oh, and you have to turn the key 6 times to both lock and unlock the door. :)

Thursday - we went on a tour of downtown Milano, and saw all the beautiful old buildings and churches. We also walked through a fashion district and saw Armani, Gucci, Prada, & Louis Vuitton. You have to have an appointment just to go into the store. Thursday night we all went to an "aperitivo," which is a restaurant where you buy a drink then get unlimited appetizers.

Friday - Classes started! Our Italian teacher speaks mostly Italian in class, while she's teaching us Italian. Oh well, I guess we'll learn fast.

Saturday - walk around town, see La Piazza del Duomo and go inside the Duomo (see my pictures). This is the biggest cathedral in Milan. When you walk inside the door, it's absolutely breathtaking, with huge marble pillars and rows of enormous statues and stain-glass windows several stories high. Saturday night we went to watch the Italy vs. France soccer game with the local Italians.

Sunday - Go to mass at the Duomo, then walk to the top - see pictures!