Milan, Italy – July 5th

This morning I was determined not to miss breakfast again so I got up extra early. Downstairs I had eggs for the first time since being here, and the kitchen must have cooked them special for us because the other non-American student’s breakfast bar did not have any.

Due to a schedule change, we did not have class today but instead Dr. Wright took us to the largest market in Milan. There we walked up and down the street looking at the vendor’s wares. I couldn’t find anything worth buying so I bought a few tomatoes to make spaghetti tonight and then came back to the dorm.

After about an hour of being back at the dorm, the group got on a bus to an old church on the outskirts of town. The monks who usually keep watch over the place were all on vacation at the time but we still were able to walk around and admire the beautiful fresco paintings and bell tower.

When we were done at the church, we rode the bus back to the dorm. We relaxed for a short while and then when it came to be dinner time, we gathered in the campus’ kitchen to make spaghetti. At the market, everyone had bought a vegetable or spice or sauce to put in the mix. I helped chop tomatoes and onions while Gary did most of the cooking. Took a while to get everything ready because of how tiny the cooking space was and we sipped on wine the whole time. By the time the food was ready, the whole group was tipsy off vino. The food was delicious because of the fresh ingredients and I had many helpings. When dinner was over we continued to drink wine until we decided to take the party upstairs to the balcony in one of the girl’s rooms. There we stood on the balcony and enjoyed a view over Milan at night. Somehow all our Italian student friends living in the dorms found out about our get together and about twenty of them joined in. They set up turntables and began dancing. Our little party turned into an Italian discotheque and before long we got a noise complaint from the hotel across the courtyard behind our building. All of us filed out and a few of us went to another room where we played games and continued drinking. I learned a lot of interesting things about some of the people on this trip tonight and had a whole lot of fun doing it.