Week six was a relaxed one, as I decided to take a miniature break from traveling and stayed in Milan for the weekend, but it was fun filled nonetheless.
I must say, I feel really spoiled here because I only have four classes, and on top of that they're all in the afternoon. To take advantage of my basically empty schedule during the week, I've been testing out the various forms of Milan's nightlife, which roughly translates to paying way too much for cocktails, eating my weight in gelato, and shamelessly frequenting my new favorite burger joint. I've also been enjoying trying different aperitivos around the city, which is basically an Italian "happy hour" consisting of all you can eat food and, if you play your cards right, all you can drink wine. Let's just say that Prosecco and I are becoming fast friends.
On Friday a few friends and I went to the Expo, which is essentially the new World Fair, or so I'm told. Basically countries from all over the world came to present on this year's theme, Feeding the Planet, and the point is to walk around the different presentations and learn about sustainability and such. We were given free tickets by our school, and after contemplating selling them (they're worth 40 euros!) we decided to do the moral thing and check it out. The fact that the theme is about food definitely had nothing/everything to do with it.
If I'm being honest, I was completely underwhelmed by the whole thing.
To start, it was a lot more complex than I expected; it took a tram, two metros, one security screening, and a whole lot of walking to even get there. And it was mobbed. I'm talking crowds that rival Disney World during spring break mobbed, except the majority of the people there were Italians, who happen to completely lack skills in organized walking (you know, the stay to the right system that is pretty much universal knowledge in America).
Also, although the different countries put amazing efforts into their displays - you can see from my pictures - none of them were worth the wait time to get in to see them. Japan's line was five hours long. Five hours. Ain't nobody got time for that. We were able to see the U.S.'s display, however, and it was nice to experience a little bit of home, even if it wasn't for long.
Although it was somewhat disappointing that we didn't get to make it into many displays, we were really just there for the food, which was disappointing in itself. You would think that a world class exhibit about food would have gotten this part right, but they failed miserably. True to any tourist attraction, the prices were super inflated, but my friends and I expected this and were willing to pay insane amounts for anything other than pasta. To start, we went to China's restaurant thinking it would be like the authentic Chinese food that we all know and love, which it kind of was, just at a much lower quality than we're used to at home. It was also the most ridiculously overpriced thing that we ate all day; The kung pao chicken alone was sixteen euros, and came on a dish the size of a dessert plate. This wasn't nearly as bad as the Thai food though, which was literally just freezer meals that the workers would microwave for you.
We did strike a little bit of gold with our Mexican food, however, and I am actually looking forward to recreating the recipe at home. There is a picture above, but we got tacos with pork, pineapple, onions, and cilantro on corn tortillas and they were mouth-wateringly good, especially after squeezing some lime on top. Okay, I'm drooling now.
Anyway, after a few hours it started raining and the temperature dropped a good ten degrees, which we were not prepared for. We did manage to escape the rain in favor of some tiny cappuccinos and Iranian tea, but you can only drink so much before the nice guy serving you stops refilling your cup for free, and ended up calling it a day.
The rest of my weekend was pretty much spent in bed, as being in the rain and completely under-dressed for the weather left me with a less than enjoyable cold. One major plus, however, is that I figured out how to stream Netflix here (cue Hallelujah chorus) and may or may not have finished the entire first season of How to Get Away with Murder, which affirmed my thoughts that Shonda Rhimes can do no wrong, Honestly, I highly recommend it; it's officially in my top three favorite shows.
And that's pretty much all for this post! I'll be traveling again this weekend, so stay tuned for next week's post because it will likely be much more interesting than me complaining about crappy not-Italian food.
Hayli
P.S. I'm currently trying to convince my mom that she needs to come visit me, and so far I'm failing. If you wanna help a girl out, go harass her a little bit. She'll love it, I promise.
P.P.S. Mom, don't kill me.
I must say, I feel really spoiled here because I only have four classes, and on top of that they're all in the afternoon. To take advantage of my basically empty schedule during the week, I've been testing out the various forms of Milan's nightlife, which roughly translates to paying way too much for cocktails, eating my weight in gelato, and shamelessly frequenting my new favorite burger joint. I've also been enjoying trying different aperitivos around the city, which is basically an Italian "happy hour" consisting of all you can eat food and, if you play your cards right, all you can drink wine. Let's just say that Prosecco and I are becoming fast friends.
On Friday a few friends and I went to the Expo, which is essentially the new World Fair, or so I'm told. Basically countries from all over the world came to present on this year's theme, Feeding the Planet, and the point is to walk around the different presentations and learn about sustainability and such. We were given free tickets by our school, and after contemplating selling them (they're worth 40 euros!) we decided to do the moral thing and check it out. The fact that the theme is about food definitely had nothing/everything to do with it.
If I'm being honest, I was completely underwhelmed by the whole thing.
To start, it was a lot more complex than I expected; it took a tram, two metros, one security screening, and a whole lot of walking to even get there. And it was mobbed. I'm talking crowds that rival Disney World during spring break mobbed, except the majority of the people there were Italians, who happen to completely lack skills in organized walking (you know, the stay to the right system that is pretty much universal knowledge in America).
Also, although the different countries put amazing efforts into their displays - you can see from my pictures - none of them were worth the wait time to get in to see them. Japan's line was five hours long. Five hours. Ain't nobody got time for that. We were able to see the U.S.'s display, however, and it was nice to experience a little bit of home, even if it wasn't for long.
Although it was somewhat disappointing that we didn't get to make it into many displays, we were really just there for the food, which was disappointing in itself. You would think that a world class exhibit about food would have gotten this part right, but they failed miserably. True to any tourist attraction, the prices were super inflated, but my friends and I expected this and were willing to pay insane amounts for anything other than pasta. To start, we went to China's restaurant thinking it would be like the authentic Chinese food that we all know and love, which it kind of was, just at a much lower quality than we're used to at home. It was also the most ridiculously overpriced thing that we ate all day; The kung pao chicken alone was sixteen euros, and came on a dish the size of a dessert plate. This wasn't nearly as bad as the Thai food though, which was literally just freezer meals that the workers would microwave for you.
We did strike a little bit of gold with our Mexican food, however, and I am actually looking forward to recreating the recipe at home. There is a picture above, but we got tacos with pork, pineapple, onions, and cilantro on corn tortillas and they were mouth-wateringly good, especially after squeezing some lime on top. Okay, I'm drooling now.
Anyway, after a few hours it started raining and the temperature dropped a good ten degrees, which we were not prepared for. We did manage to escape the rain in favor of some tiny cappuccinos and Iranian tea, but you can only drink so much before the nice guy serving you stops refilling your cup for free, and ended up calling it a day.
The rest of my weekend was pretty much spent in bed, as being in the rain and completely under-dressed for the weather left me with a less than enjoyable cold. One major plus, however, is that I figured out how to stream Netflix here (cue Hallelujah chorus) and may or may not have finished the entire first season of How to Get Away with Murder, which affirmed my thoughts that Shonda Rhimes can do no wrong, Honestly, I highly recommend it; it's officially in my top three favorite shows.
And that's pretty much all for this post! I'll be traveling again this weekend, so stay tuned for next week's post because it will likely be much more interesting than me complaining about crappy not-Italian food.
Hayli
P.S. I'm currently trying to convince my mom that she needs to come visit me, and so far I'm failing. If you wanna help a girl out, go harass her a little bit. She'll love it, I promise.
P.P.S. Mom, don't kill me.