Birthdays, Pavia, Museums

This weekend was really fabulous. Friday night we kind of got a late start. Two of my roommates and I went out first to hear some live jazz music at the Arco della Pace which is at the edge of this huge park where there is a massive and intricately carved arch that was built when Napoleon had power of Milan. It was so great, this little stage of the jazz band in front of the huge arch. So beautiful, great juxtaposition. From there we met up with two other girls from our program to get dinner. We went to a very nice restraunt where my roommate and I split a pizza. I don't think I can eat out at a place like that for another month, though. They charge for water here. Even worse, they charge per tablecloth. So basically you pay money just to sit down. Bahhhh I need to be economical! The street we went on had a bunch of bars and clubs and things and people were spilling out onto the street. So busy. After dinner my two roommates and I went to try and find this club where one of my roommates had left her shoes a previous night. We asked a group of Italians for directions and it turned out one of the guys was celebrating his 23rd birthday. We were actually at the same spot the jazz concert had been at, on the steps in front of the huge beautiful sculpted arch. So they invited us to hang out with them and we spent a few hours talking to this group of young Italian people. One of them was originally from Canada, one of the was half french and half japanease. I ended up just speaking in my super broken Spanish a lot. It was really great to meet some Italians our own age. Around 2:30 or so in the morning, when the group was dying down and had shrunk a considerable amount we came home.

Saturday a whole group of us took the train to Pavia. I posted pictures in my previous post. Pavia is a smaller city about a half hour train ride from Milan. It only cost 6,10 euro for the round trip. It is so beautiful. The streets are much smaller and it is full of little shops and places to get coffee/panini's/apertivo. I fell in love, I want to live in Pavia. It is the cutest city. I got sandals (finally) for ten euro at a little shop. There was a street market and I got this really pretty blue scarf for seven euro. We got panini's for 3 euro. The street market was really cool. Some stands had racks of clothes, some had tables of jewlery, some sold bags, and some just had random knickknacks like plastic toys and clothespins. After the street market we ran into a Renaissance reinactment fair where people were all dressed in elaborate costumes and they fired a cannon. It was cool to see a Renaissance reinactment in Italy where, you know, the Renaissance actually happened. After that we took the train home and made dinner.

Today we all slept in really late. Finally, my roommate and I went to an art museum nextdoor to the duomo at a museum called Palazzo Reale. We saw an exhibit by an Italian woman who painted in the 1930's and 1940's. After that we walked around the area around the duomo some more and came home. Tonight is my friend's birthday so I think we area going out to celebrate after I get pizza with my roommates and my RA. Italian class tomorrow morning! But it was a beautiful weekend.