Day 2 -- Commence primary ignition

Sorry to drop the ball on last week everyone, I promise I'm going to get to it right now.
Before I do...OMG THE EURO'S DOWN TO $1.41!! EVERYBODY PARTY!

So, you know about day 1. I arrived, felt gross and disoriented, got to the IES center, felt even more gross and disoriented, met a bunch of people with whom I randomly wandered around, thus getting even more disoriented and gross, and then was whisked away on a bus to an agriturismo outside of town, supposedly so that we might better orient ourselves to each other and the rules of the IES road.

Whether or not this was actually a successful ploy...remains to be seen. I will tell you that the agriturismo that we stayed in was light-years nicer than the one my family got stuck in outside of Firenze in December of 03. First of all, it had running water. Well, okay, when I say "running," I mean that when you got under the shower head you had to choose between running water and hot water. Apparently the two don't go together. But hey, at least the shower had curtains.

Second of all, the food was incredibly delicious. Apparently the trattoria there is actually well-renowned, and I'm not surprised. With the exception of breakfast, every meal had multiple courses and great wines to accompany them. The place even had the most gorgeous pool I've ever seen, plus a little mini soccer field, and an adorable little farm, and this great guy Sergio who gave us free wine at 2 in the morning.

In terms of actually meeting and bonding with people, I feel like this was marginally successful, at least on my part. Being forced together with 103 other people for three days with no where else to go and not much to do except talk, walk, and swim compels you to meet people.

So, cool people I've met thus far (non-comprehensive list):
Anne, my roommate.
Kazarae, my roommate.
Sarah, who goes to Bowdoin
Rachel, another singer who goes to Kalamazoo and with whom, it turns out, I went to Interlochen.
Travis, a classical guitarist from UDenver
Michael, a composer from Iowa
Jocelyn, another singer
Tera Reid. No, she's not named after the actress.
John Deppe. No, he's not named after the actor and he will smack you if you call him Johnny.
Kristen, the only other person who's staying for a whole year.
Emma, a very sweet girl in my Italian class.

Also, I couldn't help but notice a few things:
1) The ratio of guys to girls in this ensemble is about 1:362. Okay not quite, but you get the idea. Why? Well, it's Milan, fashion paradise. As Travis said, "Every girl wants to spend Daddy's money on new shoes and purses." I will admit I had entertained the idea, but I find window-shopping to be a lot better than actual shopping. No money involved, and you get nicer daydreams. Stop having a heart attack now, Dad.
2) Almost every single girl here own a pair of what I am going to call "thong-flops." They're sandals that seriously look like thong underwear. I had never seen, or at least never noticed them on people until I got here, and suddenly it seems absolutely unacceptable to wear anything else (please note, I do not, nor will I ever, own a pair of these shoes).
3) Something I was not expecting, probably because I was so incredibly zoomed in on my own agenda and goals: the vast majority of participants in this program at NOT music people. About 90% are majoring in some combination of business, marketing, communications and economics. There were 4 or 5 other psych people, but again, they are here to take business courses. Somehow I was expecting that the music program was going to be the most competative thing ever, what with La Scala being right here and all. But no, there are, like, ten people out of the 100+ who are here for music. Cool.
4) I didn't remember nearly as much Italian as I thought I did.

So on day two, we were basically put through a grind of extremely long, hot stuffy informational meetings. It was all good information that we needed to know, but the combination of jetlag, weather, and disorientation did me no good. Really, all I remember is some information on how not to get raped (this would be a good thing to know, yes), and the repeatedly emphasized sentence, "DON'T HAIL TAXIS!" Apparently, hailing taxis is not done here. If you do, the cabby will automatically know you are American. This is not necessarily a good thing, especially if it's late at night, and your treatment will depend on how the cabby feels about Americans and whether or not you support Barack Obama. I'm barely kidding.

So we sat. And we sat. And we sat some more. Everyone was fanning themselves and falling asleep. All we needed were some flies buzzing around and we would have had one of those still lifes of the rotten fruit. Finally, when we had some free time. Kazarae and I were hanging out in our room with our other roommate, Andrea, and suddenly, outside our window, we hear these cars pulling up and two guys shouting at each other in Italian. Curious, we open the window and Kazarae leans out.

Okay, before I continue this story, you have to understand something: Kazarae is gorgeous. Originially from Jamaica, she's actually multi-ethic, which looooong black hair, brown perfect skin and about size zero thinness. She's one of the most exotic-looking people I've ever seen, and she definitely sticks out in Italy, where 80% of the population has my type of coloring.

So Kazarae leans out the window and starts chatting with the two guys outside. Like, actually chatting, in italian, despite the fact that she swears her italian is no good. The conversation's not very complicated, I have no trouble following it, but despite it's placid tone of "Where are you from?" "What are you doing here?" the guys definitely ended up asking Kazarae out.

Public Service Announcement: Italian guys are creepy. During the "how to not get raped" talk, the woman speaking told us about this saying her grandfather used to have: "If a lady says 'no,' she means 'perhaps.' If a lady says 'perhaps,' she means 'yes.' And if she says 'yes,' she's not a lady." I'm dead serious. I've been here a week not and this is how the guys still think. If you say no, they think you're joking.

Continuing the story, Kazarae actually did end up haning out with these guys that night until about 6 in the morning. I chose to keep my mouth shut.

Other more positive and exciting things that happened on what were the three longest days of my life:

I'M GOING TO GET TO PLAY CELLO!
Seriously this is the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. Long and complicated story short, the director of IES Milan, Roberto Andreoni, also happens to be a very well-reknowned composer and teacher and is thus incredibly well-connected. When I went in for my music interview, the first thing he asked me was. "So, I see you are here for voice. That's good, but why do you not want to pursue your cello also?"

The answer to that question is actually a bit complicated, stemming from the fact that since about age 15, I've started to feel far more superior to others in terms of my voice, and far inferior in terms of my cello. Basically what I told Roberto was that I'm just really trying to focus more on my voice right now, and plus I didn't really want to drag my cello all the way across the ocean...

At this point he interrupts me and says "Oh, we can get you a cello here."
Oh...........really now?
"Because you know, as a cellist, you would be courted by all the orchestras and chamber groups in the area. You could really have some great opportunities."
*freakout*

He then proceeds to get on the phone with this guy, Silvio Righini, who is apparently one of the greatest conceritzing cellists out there right now, and convinces him to give me private lessons. All of this, the rent of the cello, the lessons, both for cello and voice, the orchestra and the choirs are all on IES's tab.

*song and dance of joy and joyesness*

So I'm getting my cello on Friday. As in two days from now. As in I can't wait to be playing and studying soloistically again.

That evening I ended up hanging out with John (Deppe, the one who's not the movie star), who's a very sarcastic and funny person, in sort of the same way I am. We convinced a two other guys to play hearts with us. PSA #2: I officially suck at hearts. This minor detail, however, is not going to stop me from having a great time here. Plus the guys got to feel superior the "The Harvard Girl." Whatever. I make no apologies for being smart. I just happen to suck a strategery.

The agriturismo was fun, but it really honestly felt like camp, especially emphasize by the fact that we weren't settled in yet, thus creating the feeling that I wasn't actually going to be here for a whole year. I kind of felt like I was going to be here for a week, maybe two, and then go home. the reality of distance and time had yet to sink in. That changed the next day when we returned to the city and finally, finally, moved in.