Exam Time

Exam season is in full swing here in Milano. Unlike in the States where you have a week with all of your exams crammed together, here they take about a month to do exams. My first exam was on the 18th Physiology. I also have Histology on the 4th of February and then Dynamics of Movement on February 13th.  Also different from home, here if you do not like your score most often you can try again. So due to the fact I was less then pleased with my Physiology score I will be retaking this exam sometime at the end of February or beginning of March. That being said other then the shopping last weekend as a study break, life here has consisted mainly of studying, eating and sleeping. Once exams are over I plan on seeing a little more of Italy and will have much more to write about.

Till we meet again.
-M-

Buon Natale

BUON NATALE (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

It is that time of year. Christmas is here. This is by far my favorite time of year. This year was no different. Being that Milan is in Italy, a Catholic country, they go all out for this holiday. There is so much to do and see. They really make the city look beautiful.

One of the most unique things I think this city had to offer was there muscial advent calander in the Piazza Duomo. Leading up to Christmas starting Dec 1st a sheet with the date on it was removed from the window of one of the main building in the piazza. A muscian would emerge at 6 and play christmas music from 6-6:30. Every night another muscian was added. Thus by Christmas eve there were 24 muscians playing wonderful Christmas music. The following clip is from the 6th day I believe of december. Count the lit windows and see if I'm correct.

As we all know it just can not be christmas without a tree. So a few friends and I, with the help of our special friend Jim, had a small get together to decorate Gavin's Christmas tree. We had some food played christmas music and basically had a great time.

About a week later I attended the Christmas concert at the Duomo, Cathedral of Milan. I found out about the concert from this app I have on my phone that list all the stuff going on in the city, from plays, to music, to exhibition. Its call eventi milano. I highly recommend it if you are planning a trip to Milan ever. This concert happens every year. See a little clip I managed to grab.

Although all of my friends left for the holidays, I made the best of staying in Milano. I even tried my hand at making my mom's famous Ricotta Cheese Cookies. They turned out ok, a little over done but they tasted good so thats all that matters.

A friend of mine from school is from a town right outside Milan called Cremona. It is only an hour by train so, her family invited me for Christmas. What a wonderful way to spend my holiday. I left Christmas eve around 5 I think. The train was fun. It was warm and quiet not may people traveling here on christmas eve I guess. This year that is probably because Christmas was a tuesday so people took the whole weekend off to go home. Christmas in Cremona was great. Lilliana's Family made me feel so welcomed and at home. We had dinner on Christmas eve then watch a Christmas Carol, opened presents and just hung out.

On Christmas Day I woke up to Christmas cake for breakfast. Yummy.  Lilliana and I drove in to town to go to mass at a special church were her religion teacher was the presiding priest. It was also interesting as this church had cloistered nuns. It was one of the most beautiful churches I had ever seen. After mass we went back to Lillian's home for Christmas "lunch". Once again her mom did not disappoint.  I am still not quite sure what the meat was. I thought it was turkey but then they called it a chicken and then some other bird but never the less it was very very tasty. Lilliana and I then retired to the living room where we watch TV and did homework.

On the 26th we woke up and had another cake thing for breakfast this one was a wafer thing with Nutella filling dipped in hard chocolate. SOOOOO good. Then in true mama style Lilliana's mom packed me a lunch bag of stuff to bring home and eat. There was enough food for a few meals :-) . And then I was off back to the train station to head back home. It was really the most perfect way to spend my holiday, in the country with a bunch of wonderful people.

A few people from home have recently asked me of how the best way to give me some money for school and so I found this website called go fund me. On this site you can set up an account for what ever you want. A lot of people do use it for education purposes. So, I set one up. Feel free to give whatever you would like. You can give it anonymously or with your name. Just follow the link below.

http://www.gofundme.com/1r6rzg


May God be with you and your family in this wonderful season. Filling your heart with joy and life. Until we meet again.

-M-

Artisan Fair

A few weeks ago we had a long weekend due to the feast of the saint of Milan. So I had two options. One was to make good use of the day studying. The other was to go to the Artisan Fair that was at the fair ground. Lets think really hard about which option I would choose.

Yes I chose to attend the Artisan Fair. This was such a good decision. The booths were organized by country. First we check out Italy but only for a bit. We ate so many samples of which one was fresh Torrone sooooooooo good.  We then moved on to mexico I believe here we had reallllly good margaritas on the rocks. We walked around south american countries for a while and then moved on to india. Where Gav bought an elephant incense holder and I got a new scarf :-) I later found out that elephants are good luck in asia as well as the number 6. The incense holder has 6 elephants win.

THEN ... GERMANY

We then entered october fest. We had brats and sauerkraut. This was of course followed up with beer. Many different ones. Some good some not so good. There was a pooka band that played edelweiss with glass of water. So cool.

We also made our way to France were I ate cheese from a monk. Need I say more. There were a lot of really good looking sea food but we were going to meet people for dinner so we opted out. next year. I did however try some sparkling white wine from Italy on our way out that was tasty so I bought it only 4 euro winnnn. All in all it was a great way to spend my day.

 Oh did I mention it also was the first snow of the season. Could a Minnesota girl ask for much more. I think not. Next year I think I will do most of my holiday shopping there. It was very fun. Well I'll post again soon with Christmas updates..
Till we meet again

-M-

Gobble Gobble It's Thanksgiving Time

This year was the first year I spent thanksgiving away from home. It made this holiday a bit sweet one. It gave me a chance to reflect on what I am thankful for.

First and foremost, I am thankful for my family as well as friends back in the states without your love and support I would not have become the person I am nor would I be able to be here doing this type of work.

Second I am thankful for the opportunity to come here for school. It has been an experience so far that I would not change at all. I have met so many wonderful people, from many different backgrounds and I am grateful for everything they bring to my life.

My day here on thanksgiving started with Italian class followed by my traditional 5K run. It was a great run even if I did it alone. I finished my 5K in 25 min :-) personal best. The weather was perfect for a 5K. It was a little cool out yet the sun came out at the end :-). I then went home and showered and got dressed for dinner.

 By 2:30 I was over to Luca's apartment where the cooking had already started. Although of course Thanksgiving could not happen without some hiccups. We had to cook with the lights off because in order to use the stove and the oven at the same time the lights had to be off or the power would go off.


We also have no cars and lots of cooking to be done. So, people took a few trips on the metro to get all of their stuff to the apartment. We only had one battle wound and one small fire but noone was hurt and my finger healed just fine, darn chestnuts.

I was able to FaceTime with the family in Minnesota which was very nice. All in all, I think my second family in Milano had a wonderful time and enjoyed the food. No matter if it was their first thanksgiving or their first time cooking for thanksgiving it was a wonderful evening, with lots of food, friends, music and laughing.

Till we meet again,

M

Most of these photos are from Marco Thanks they really captured the evening :-)

Hit the ground running

Over the last two weeks I have been crazy busy. After that last exam you would think I would get some time to breath.... think again. I have been in class basically everyday Monday through Friday since I last posted. I did get a long weekend after halloween as it was a national holiday (all Saints day).

That same weekend my cousin Joe came to visit for a few days. It was nice to see someone from home and show him were I live. :-) I think he enjoyed his time. We did most of the tourist things including going to the aquarium, which was cool as I didn't know Milan had one.

On another cool note I got to fashion a lab coat and gloves during dress up day, Monday. This day was also known as heart dissection day. This was very fun to get to do a little bit of surgery even if my patient was dead.

This week I had to go to the police station to get my permissio (permit to stay). Luck would have it that I had to go to the station in Mascova. This station is the only one that does not do appointments, which means I spent 7 hours and my entire Thursday waiting for an appointment, which took 5 minutes total. Luckily, Nicole was there helping me out so I had someone to talk to and it made me think of the following picture my mom sent me. I showed Nicole and she agreed.

This weekend I decided to stay in as much as possible to get some needed studying done. However... I thought I earned a night out Friday so we went to play some pool. When we got to the pool hall someone pointed out all the car plates on the walls. Check it out :-)

Then it rained all weekend so I got that studying in I needed to. One of the positive things about being at the police all day Thursday Nicole showed me where the catholic english church was. So, at 9 am this morning, I headed down the metro and found it again so I could go to mass. It was nice. It was different from mass at home, with less music, but it was nice to feel a little bit at home even tho I am half a world away.

This week I only have classes three days.. they are full days but still only three :-) so until next time.

-M-

First Exam

Today I had my first exam in medical school.

It was on electrostatics. I was crazy nervous. I'm not sure why. I tots prepared for it. I was up all night studying and going over stuff but still. Anyways the exam was on a computer so I got my score right away :-) acted it :-) so pumped what a great way to start the weekend.

tell next time

M

Hockey

With week one under my belt I was informed that Milan has a hockey team, Milano Rosso Blu :-). Which is pretty cool as if I was back home there would be no hockey to watch. So, last Saturday we took the metro to the other end of the world ( or the end of the red line) to the hockey rink to watch my first Milan hockey game. It was crazy fun. Different then a game in the states but still a lot of fun. The rink reminded me of the rinks by brother use to play at. There were a few pucks to the face, overtime and a dramatic shoot out. We ultimately lost the game but it was quite fun.

Sunday as most things are closed here I went down town for sushi lunch yummy my favorite. We then just walked around Duomo to enjoy the sunday. I noticed that there were very few cars on the road but I thought it was just because of the nice weather. Then I found out that its a thing here in Milan. There are certain days during the year that people are not allowed to drive their cars unless they are taxis or police. This is to reduce the amount of pollution in the air... Interesting. I  tried to imagine the mayor of New York City trying to the Manhattan that guys today no cars. Some how Im not sure they would buy it.

I am now nearing the end of week two of classes and yesterday to my dismay I woke up with a sore throat. That has now turned into a full blown head cold. So I am trying my hardest to fight it off but we will see. Until Next Time....