Hostels and Classes

Well, today is my last day of class. Ever. Assuming I don't hit any snags applying for graduation, but let's just assume I don't. I just got finished critiquing my magazine spread with my professor Alessandra and Giuseppe from Domus magazine, and his comments were really insightful. I wish I had a Pocket Giuseppe™ to lug around with me and ask "What do you think of this?" and he would respond, in Italian: "You killed the photo here." But yeah, I wish the class were more of this, doing work, getting it analyzed by professionals with amazing credentials, using the analysis to make improvements not only on the design but on the way I approach design. Too bad we only get it at the end.

I've booked myself rooms in two hostels for the next three nights. Tonight I'm sleeping my last night in the Hotel Arcobalena here in Milan. Tomorrow I'll be at the City Hotel Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland, which was very highly recommended on Hostelz.com. Then Saturday and Sunday nights I'll be staying at the Hotel Armstrong in Paris, which got a pretty good rating on Hostels.com. Please note, Hostels.com and Hostelz.com are totally different. Don't ask me why.

I was pretty concerned about going to Paris. Paris is a big tourist-filled city, and therefore a big pickpocket-filled city. And I have a laptop with me, not to mention a crapload of luggage since I was here a month. After talking with my dad about it, I decided to splurge and get private rooms instead of staying in dormitory style housing. In a perfect world, dorm style hostels are so cheap and usually no problem, but having to drag my Powerbook with me to avoid having it stolen from my room is a pretty unexciting prospect. And then worrying that someone might steal my bag complete with Powerbook, etc. I will have my camera and my wallet on me when I'm out and about, but they're a lot easier and cheaper to deal with.

I'm really excited about visiting Geneva and Paris. I feel I have gotten a lot of time here in Italy, but I really haven't seen anything of European culture outside of the Mediterranean. Given, I'm going to miss out on a bunch of places no matter what I do, but I am excited to see how the Swiss and the French live, and to try and dust off my French skills a bit. Goodness knows they could use some help. Geneva is on the French border so hopefully a lot of French is spoken there. Visiting Paris I think becomes mandatory once you've taken a few French classes. My mental itenerary includes the obligatory Tour Eiffel, Centre Pompidou, probably l'Arc de Triomphe and le Jardin de Tuilleries. I'm sure I butchered the spelling of that. Oh well. More tonight...or for you guys this afternoon.