Experiences of Week One

My first week in Milano has been very very busy, and filled with many new, exciting, different things!

School

Despite my life-long pledge that I "would really love to change schools and meet all new people!", when I walked in on my first day at Emanuela Setti Carraro and stood infront of a room of people I had never seen before, I. Was. Terrified.

The school decided that for my first week I would be put into Alice's class to "get settled", however Alice was ill on my first day, so in any event I was left to find the way around on my own. Luckily for me, I met a number of very friendly people in Alice's Class (the 3rd class; grade 10 equivalent although they are all turning 17) who made me feel super welcome:)

The view from Alice's classroom window onto the courtyard the school is built around

The main hallway which leads to some of the school's classrooms, including Alice's

A photo I very sneakily took of the classroom on my first day

The school is completely different from St. Columban's, in so many ways. Firstly, the school hours are from 8am until 5pm, with one ten minute break at 11am, and one one hour break at 2pm where we are provided a cooked lunch in the cafeteria downstairs. Many students warned me of the "terrible food", but I have come to the conclusion that, as they are italian, they just have higher standards than I. The lunch tends to consist of some kind of meat (fish on Fridays), vegetables, pasta, bread, a piece of fruit and a salad. And on Tuesday, we even got ice cream!

Day one lunch (before anyone had told me it was acceptable to take the fruit from the fruit bowl)

Day 2 - Pizza Day!

Although there's no pasta on pizza day, there is ice cream!

Another key difference is that in Italian schools, students don't change class at all. Rather, they sit in one classroom with one group of people (that they stay with for the 5 years of high school) and teachers come to them. This also means that they don't get to choose their subjects! They choose which type of high school they want to go to from a number of different types; Scientifico, Artistico, Classico, Linguistico, etc. and from there the subjects are set. The school I am at is, in fact, three schools in one: a Lingustico, Classico and "Classico Europeo". Classico Europeo is a type that is not found in many places in Italy as it is much more difficult than the other kinds, but it gives students the option to graduate with not only an Italian diploma, but a diploma from another European country, such as France. Alice attends the Classico Europeo, which means that I do as well, and they study 13 subjects: Italian, French, English, Ancient Greek and Latin, Maths, Physics, Law, Geography, History, Art History, Biology, Religion and Gym (PE).

Only in Italy would the maths textbooks be dessert-themed

The remnants of a French lesson that I COMPLETELY understood...

Things got even better on Tuesday when Alice joined me at school as she is always willing to translate things for me, so I could start to grasp at least 20% of what was happening.

Sneaky-classroom-photo of Day 2

Then on Wednesday, something cool happened! Alice's class went on an excursion to a "local" (just kidding, a 45 minute walk away) university as a part of what they are studying in Biology. Although I understood nothing of what was being said or done, I thoroughly enjoyed assuming my alter-ego "Dr. Cooper", wearing a white coat and safety goggles and using a scary-gun-type-looking syringe, the name of which I'm sure someone told me many times, to play with some blue liquid and clear jelly-stuff (note my sophisticated use of the English language here...and imagine how great I sound speaking Italian).

Myself and Nadia, professional as ever.

On Thursday nights Alice attends a Parkour class. Parkour is technically a type of dance, however the object of the sport is to get from one location to another in the quickest, most effective way possible, so they practice jumping and climbing up and over different obstacles. As my coordinator has asked me to investigate what kind of after-school activity I would like to be involved in, I went along to watch Alice's class. It was a really cool class to see, especially considering how different it is to the ballet classes I took for 12 years!

A busy street in Milan as Alice and I wait for the bus to go to Parkour

Parkour!

After Parkour on Thursdays, Alice stays the night at her friend's house, which means that on Friday morning I was met with the challenge of travelling to school on my own. To get to school, I begin with the subway, changing from the green line to the red line at a stop called "Cadorna" where there are a lot of people and a strong smell of chocolate croissants that I am yet to find the source of.

This week I became a true Milanese as I purchased my public transport card!

The red line is always very spacious at 7.30am

I then get off one stop after Duomo, at a place called "San Babila" and walk about 700m to the school.

Although I'm 99% sure I took a wrong turn, this is a street next to my school that I took to arrive on Friday

Arriving at school it's often interesting to see other students who travel by other, more interesting, methods of travel.

This girl legitimately attends my school, and is dropped off by her Dad in this electric "car" every day

I felt so proud of myself for finding my way through Milan on my own for the first time that I didn't even mind jumping into my "Italian Verb Drills" while the rest of the class had Greek and Latin.

A general idea of what my desk looked like this week; verb conjugation drills and the occasional letter-writing home :)

At least I made three new best-friends this week

Finally though, five o'clock came around! And my reaction went something like this:

Working super-hard, as I do ;)

"Oh! The bell rang!"

"YAY IT'S THE WEEKEND AND WE'RE HAVING PIZZA TONIGHT!"

And, we were having pizza that night! To celebrate surviving my first week at an Italian school, my wonderful host family took me to the best Pizzeria in Milano to enjoy my first real (as the school lunch pizza did not count) Italian pizza! After a very, very long time spent deciding on which kind of pizza to order, I settled on Magherita Ricotta. And I could not possibly be any happier with my decision, as it was without any doubt in my mind THE most incredible thing I have ever tasted. Ever. Ever ever ever.

My face before the Pizza even came, as I enjoyed the appetiser

MY FIRST EVER ITALIAN PIZZA

Aaaaaaaand it's gone.

The Massettis even taught me the proper way to cut, hold and eat a pizza, a technique I think it is safe to say I have now mastered. Especially after dessert...

Max Brenner, eat your heart out

Chocolate-coated profiteroles, don't mind if I do

The Weekend

A panorama of the backyard and house on Saturday morning

Much like the previous Sunday, I awoke on Saturday to a beautiful, clear, sunny morning which I spent Skyping home and watching italian television; an ever so interesting sport. Here I will note that, in Italy,  they rarely use subtitles to translate English series and films. Instead, everything is voiced over. And I almost wish I was exaggerating, as for about two and a half hours I had the tv turned on and found myself watching...wait for it...JUNIOR MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA. THAT HAD BEEN VOICED OVER IN ITALIAN. Could somebody please explain to me in what world Italians, of all people, need to learn to cook from small Australian children?

That night, I was taken bowling by Alice and some of her friends! It was a lot of fun as I haven't been bowling in many, many years and it was nice to see one way italian teenagers like to spend their weekends. I even managed to come third!

From left to right: Myself, Alice, Gaia, Sara and Bianca :)

Today, Sunday, was beautiful as my host family, Louise included, took me to a small town about half an hour drive past Noviglio called Cusago to have lunch with some close family friend's of theirs, the La Selva family.

Louise's favourite place in the car

Alice and I in the park with the La Selva girls, Francesca and Beatrice.

While Massimo and Filippo went to play tennis at the tennis court in the town, Chiara, Silvia, Francesca, Beatrice, Alice and I went for a walk about the adorable little town with the dogs and stumbled across a small market, where I found some interesting things.

Part of the tiny little market

Babushka dolls!

A beautiful old sewing machine

Chiara and I stopped at one of the stalls as the nice man asked us to try some of his cheese. As it was the most amazing cheese I am yet to taste in my life, and Chiara liked it too, she purchased some of it! Her and the man then got to chatting and he realised that I was Australian, although unfortunately he didn't speak English. But as I had enjoyed his cheese so much, he very kindly gave us some Panecotta (a sweet cream cheese dessert), free of charge, for me to try later!

The nice man at his stall

Incredible cheese

Afterwards we went to a nice pizzeria for lunch where I had a speciality of Milan called "Cotoletta", made of pork, although to me it looked and tasted a lot like chicken schnitzel. It was a very beautiful day to sit and enjoy lunch, especially when Gelato followed :)

A very badly-taken panorama of where we sat for lunch

Gelato, my love
Trying some new flavours; Baci nut chocolate and banana

On the way home from Cusago we made a number of stops, one of which was at a shopping mall, called Carrefour. There I made my very first purchase from Zara, which I think officially makes me a Milanese fashionista.

My first ever Zara purchase!

Fashion

Which brings me to fashion; a topic a blog about Milan would not be complete without. In my first week I have seen a number of things which confirm everything I had heard about Milan before coming. Firstly, I walk past a number of brand names stores, including (one of my favourites to look at) Guess each morning on the way to school. Secondly, they really do use Marc Jacobs bags as school bags. Thirdly, there are a lot of fashionably dressed people on the streets; I especially love the older generations who love wearing fur! Forthly, I think I am the only girl in the school does not own Tiffany and Co. jewellery. And lastly, even the dogs wear fashionable coats.

A fashionably dressed puppy dog on the tram
I have now made it my mission to collection photos of dogs in fashionable coats

Noviglio

Last, but not least, in the past week I have fallen in love with Noviglio. This tiny little comune is so close to Milan, yet coming home each evening feels like it is a completely different part of Italy as it is full of wide open spaces, small little houses and spectacular sunsets.

Terrible iPhone photos of a very beautiful sunset as we drove home after school

Terrible iPhone photos of a very beautiful sunset as we drove home after school

The view of our street from my bedroom window as the sun went down on Friday evening

The view of our street from my bedroom window as the sun went down on Friday evening

And now, sitting after dinner enjoying my Panecotta (which is very, very, very tasty), I have been informed that tomorrow it is going to snow. I have never crossed my fingers so tightly!

Wonderful panecotta from the nice cheese-selling man

The snow is coming!!