Milan! Milan! Solo Con Te

I wish I could have the AC Milan soccer team’s anthem playing in the background of this blog. Youtube it, it’s catchy.

This past weekend, some Cimbas attended the soccer game in Milan (Milan AC vs. Atlanta). The bus, arranged by Alberto, left Paderno on Sunday and the game was at 3:00. My group decided we would head to Milan on our own Saturday morning and just take the bus home. As always, it was an adventure traveling to our destination. In the future, I am going to write a blog with all the travel tips I have learned throughout this semester. For now, I will just recommend that when you are planning to arrive early to a train station, plan to arrive even earlier than you thought. We had to take a bus to a train station, a train to another train station, and then another train to Milan. Needless to say, we missed our final train from Vincenza to Milan and had to pay extra. We encountered many issues finding all those stations and stops, but I’d like to think we used the Keptner Tregoe problem solving analysis to figure everything out. (Current Cimbas will get that joke). Future Cimbas, prepare to be immersed in Keptner Tregoe.

If you are ever in Italy and have the opportunity to attend a soccer game, you gotta do it. I really do not watch soccer but whenever we are at a bar in Italy and a soccer game is on, Italians go nuts. I wanted to experience an intense soccer game and it was so much fun. Italian soccer fans are the most intensely devoted fans. So much, that they had to put the other team’s fans in a separate section, enclosed in glass, so that they could not throw things or riots start. We decided to buy some jerseys before the game to get into the spirit. I bought a David Beckham jersey, although I realized at the game that the Italian fans are not very fond of him. I wasn’t sure what they were saying about him, but you know when an Italian is mad. The game was suspenseful and the fans went wild whenever AC Milan scored, as did the Cimbas. I think that we all had an awesome experience. Below is us in our jerseys and some pics of the stadium.

Although the game was very fun, we had an interesting hostel experience in Milan. We have been very lucky with the hostels we have stayed at so far, but our luck must have ran out. Since we were only staying one night in Milan, we opted to save money and stay at a lower priced hostel. However, the hostel turned out to be in sketchy part of Milan, our room did not have a lock on it or a place to lock our bags up, and there were socks left in the room from the people there before us. It was quite an experience and we all slept fully clothed in jackets and shoes that night on our sheetless beds. I would definitely recommend spending a little more than you typically do on a hostel when staying in Milan. It is definitely something we laugh about now, though. We also had a fun night out in Milan at a club that played an interesting aray of rock music (Nirvana, White Stripes, even the Beatles). However, the soccer game was by far the highlight of our weekend.

Last night we attended a Cimba seminar where they had a panel of expatriates (people who have moved to Italy to work from the U.S. and other countries), and they talked about what is was like to pick up and leave and just move to Italy. It was pretty interesting to see how brave these people were, moving somewhere they did not know anyone or even the language. If I had heard them talk about there lives before I studied abroad, I would have thought, “Wow, they are crazy. I could never do that.” Being here now though, I could relate to a lot of what they were saying and it was kind of inspiring. One lady lived in Thailand, Switzerland, and now Italy. I do not plan on permanently living in a foreign country when I am older, but I am interested in having the opportunity to temporarily work abroad one day. I have also learned that it is something I am brave enough to do. I don’t think I would feel as confident or as brave without the experience I am having now. Last semester, I visited Minneapolis for our Beta Alpha Psi professional trip. We heard a woman speak at the accounting firm we visited and she said that she worked in Switzerland at the firm’s branch there for some time. This is something I want to consider during my career. I love the U.S., but I could never imagine not coming back to Europe for some time.

What lies ahead..
This weekend is our first three day travel weekend. We are going to Trapani, Sicily which is on the west Coast with the mediterranean ocean boarding it. I am so excited to pack some flip flops in my book bag. We have done a lot of sight seeing so far, so it will be nice to relax this weekend. This sounds silly but I am looking forward to doing some nature hiking. It looks beautiful there and I will definitely be exploring this weekend and going to the beach. Definitely beats being at Iowa.

Well I must get back to studying for my exam, yes we still have school. It’s hard to believe that we are halfway done with the program. I can’t imagine what it will be like saying goodbye to everyone at the end. We definitely have a fun crowd here. Two of my friends down the hall said they heard the song “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey playing outside their window, and when they looked out, a Cimba was dressed up in a suit with a rose and holding a sign asking another Cimba to marry him. Apparently she said yes and I may be blogging about a Cimba wedding sometime in the future. Although everyone knows it’s a joke, I heard there might still be a reception taking place at the Pizzeria in town.

Cimba love is in the air.