Karma

First off, and I can't believe I haven't mentioned this yet, but I have a roommate. After a few days of uncertainty, my roommate finally arrived Thursday sometime in the afternoon. His name is Mark Wilson, he's a junior from Ohio State, and as far as I can tell, he's a really good guy. We went out into the city together today, but I'll get to that.

Last night the international students continued the pre-classes party by heading to a club known as Karma. Around 11 last night, everyone was excited and ready to go out - only then did we realize that we had absolutely no idea how to get there. Thankfully we somehow got the address and its marking on a map. Our first Metro adventure was about to begin. For whatever reason, I somehow was thrown into a leadership position on this voyage, perhaps because I had the map, or possibly it was my keen sense of direction. It's kind of hard to explain the journey, but essentially we had a to go northeast of our dorm, around a 15 minute drive. However, having no cars and girls in high heels make this difficult, so we had to take 3 different metro lines (these are the big subways in the city, there are only 4 lines) to get there. Way out of the way going north, then east, and finally south. 

We managed to make it to our desired stop, got out (there were around 20 of us I'd say) and became completely disoriented. Not only did the street appear undeveloped, it was completely vacant. "Josh, where did you lead us?" It did not feel right, but I knew this was where we had to be if the address was correct. We asked the only two women who were in sight where the club, if it existed, was (Dov'e Karma?). They assured us that they also were going there, so we began to walk with them down a dirt road. To the right of us was a forest, to the left was what I can only explain as WWII army barracks. It was super shady and if I weren't so trusting, felt a little bit like a trap. Soon we began to hear pulsing music down the road though, and when we turned the corner (past the infantry camp) saw a huge crowd of people waiting to get into this outdoor bar. 

We got in ahead of everyone (being a Bocconi student is like being a celebrity) with similar deals to the night at Old Fashion. The club was insane - 5 dance floors, many, many places to purchase a drink, and oddly enough, go-go dancers. That's right, there were at least 7 different hired dancers shaking their behinds on small stages. If I didn't know better, I'd say I entered a hip-hop video. 

We got back late and stayed up later. Only a few of us had the stamina to sit around and talk after the club, but it was great to discuss American politics with students from Canada, Britain and Turkey. It was an intimate discussion on politics, healthcare, Hemingway, "English Brutes" (hooligans in small English pubs that do whatever they want and get away with it), religion and Istanbul. Before we knew it the sun was up so we watched it from the roof of our building. Quite a night and morning.

I woke up after 4 PM again though. I really have to stop doing that. But right after I woke up I talked with Mark (my new roommate) and we decided to head into the city. I really wanted to snap some pictures of things I'd seen and share them with you all, and he was all for it. We actually were trying to figure out how to get to Lake Cuomo (really easy, 1 hour train ride from Milan), but after just checking the weather report, think we will put that off until another day. It's raining there. Anyway, we walked all over the city and took pictures of everything. The Duomo was great again, we found a castle everyone had told us about, and then walked all the way to Navigli, which is a street adjacent to a canal with plenty of restaraunts, bars and vendors. We sat down for Apertivo, which is like the Italian chilled out version of happy hour. You pay around 7 euro for a drink and that comes with a buffet of appetizers. I think the bartenders knew I was a tourist when I took a picture of the appetizers. Anyway, it was a great way to get a meal, so we got to know each other a little bit drinking Becks and eating tomatoes, mozzarella, chicken, and other good stuff.

We got back a little while ago and I think tonight are just going to hang out outside again, continue to meet people and hopefully find a new destination for tomorrow, our day off. 

Final thing, I think pictures should now be available. I'm trying to figure it out, but I can share pictures with you through Flickr. Look for a link on my blog - I don't know how it works, but it should be simple. 

Ciao from Milano.