Post Birthday Festivities
Well, yesterday was my birthday, and my friends here in Italy did right by me. People asked me what I'd like to do, so I organized a trip to a Tex-Mex restaurant here and then found a bar for some of us to go to later. We had BJ from Taiwan, Diego from Columbia, Paolo from Michigan, Melissa from California, Brittany from Florida, Nicole from Philly, and Louisa, Farai, Courtney, Sarah, Lindsey F., Lindsey Z., Gina, Ashley and myself from WVU. We had quite a bit of trouble getting everyone together, but we made it to the restaurant and to my surprise easily got two tables big enough for all.
Dinner was delicious. Brittany and I split fajitas, and they're a lot like ours in the U.S. but the salsa is a little different. Now, in Italy, they bring your dishes as they come out of the kitchen, not all at the same time. No one else got fajitas, and we had to wait so long for them that every single person in our groups had finished their food and one table had paid already and most of them were about to leave. Pretty ridiculous. We also had a major mosquito problem since the place was right next to a canal. I'd say all of us got about five bites apiece, even though I, for example, was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans.
My friends all turned a postcard into a birthday card, since Hallmark shops are a little hard to come by here, and to top it off they even paid for my meal. Are my Morgantown friends listening? A bunch of people went home to keep working on their class projects but a group of about half of us went to a bar I'd learned about. Lindsey Zanardelli's mom has been visiting and she met us at the restaurant and walked to the bar with us.
Now, I have known about this bar since before I came. I did some research and it looked like my kind of bar. Of course, I wasn't sure if it would be anyone else's kind of bar so I wasn't planning on going, until I decided well, it's my birthday, they can get one drink even if they don't like it much. But the thing is everyone loved the place beyond any expectations I had, myself included.
Rocket is not far from our hotel and right next to a tram station that goes to our hotel. So points right there. The decor is modern and really cool looking, so much so that my friends, fashion and interior design students, took pictures of every little decor element before even getting their drinks. There's a medium sized bar room and behind the bar the biggest array of liquor I have ever seen. Some steps lead down to a spacious lounge area with nice chairs, a small elevated dancefloor and a big DJ booth.
Mrs. Zanardelli got the first round, and I decided to order something unusual so I got a hot mojito, which was rum, mint leaves (right in the drink!), a lemon and an Earl Grey tea bag and some piping hot water. Maybe not the best choice given the weather but I thought it was damn good. Kind of like drinking some mint gum with a hint of alcohol. One of the bartenders was telling Brittany it was very American of me to get the hot drink on a hot day, but when she pointed out that they still drink capuccino on hot days he didn't have a response. But generally the bartenders - one girl and one boy, were super nice.
We adjourned to the lounge and the DJ was spinning some glammy britpop, so I went up and asked if they could play some T. Rex and they were all too happy to oblige. After a bit they played this crazy cover of "Yellow Submarine" in Italian and some of what I assume is Italian psychedelia and the occasional Beatles tune. Later they played the Killers, the Bravery and Dogs Die in Hot Cars and some dancepunk stuff I didn't know off the top of my head. Actually the DJs were pretty fun, but no one was really dancing so we didn't.
I bought a beer of my own, which everyone chided me for since they didn't want me paying for drinks on my birthday. But it was a hugish pint glass full of some Scottish ale I forget the name of, for 6 euros, which for Milan isn't bad at all. Some of the girls were drinking Budweiser which may have been cheaper. It started getting more crowded with various Italian subtypes - some goths, a guy who looked like a '70s film mogul, etc. We met some Canadians who were there but eventually we decided to head back to the hotel. I should mention that Lindsey's mom didn't let anyone to buy their own drinks until she went home, which was amazingly nice.
Most of us went to my room in the hotel since I don't have a roomate. We called some of our friends as we had agreed to do but they were all sleepy or in bed. We opened some sparkling white wine (they drink it in place of champagne here) and had a few beers and some red wine as well before everyone went home. All in alll, one of the best birthdays I've had since I can remember.
Today we had a teacher named Giuseppe who worked at Domus magazine with a graphic designer who went on to join Pentagram Publishing, which is the most well-respected design firms in the world, hands down. Domus is a very established, very old architecture etc. magazine in English and Italian. We got some interesting insight into the world of magazines, and we were all supposed to get our works critiqued, but it's quarter til five and they're still on the first guy's project, and they've been there since 4pm, so it doesn't look like I'll be getting any feedback. Oh well. I'm going to figure out the hostel situation for Switzerland. Ciao.
Dinner was delicious. Brittany and I split fajitas, and they're a lot like ours in the U.S. but the salsa is a little different. Now, in Italy, they bring your dishes as they come out of the kitchen, not all at the same time. No one else got fajitas, and we had to wait so long for them that every single person in our groups had finished their food and one table had paid already and most of them were about to leave. Pretty ridiculous. We also had a major mosquito problem since the place was right next to a canal. I'd say all of us got about five bites apiece, even though I, for example, was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans.
My friends all turned a postcard into a birthday card, since Hallmark shops are a little hard to come by here, and to top it off they even paid for my meal. Are my Morgantown friends listening? A bunch of people went home to keep working on their class projects but a group of about half of us went to a bar I'd learned about. Lindsey Zanardelli's mom has been visiting and she met us at the restaurant and walked to the bar with us.
Now, I have known about this bar since before I came. I did some research and it looked like my kind of bar. Of course, I wasn't sure if it would be anyone else's kind of bar so I wasn't planning on going, until I decided well, it's my birthday, they can get one drink even if they don't like it much. But the thing is everyone loved the place beyond any expectations I had, myself included.
Rocket is not far from our hotel and right next to a tram station that goes to our hotel. So points right there. The decor is modern and really cool looking, so much so that my friends, fashion and interior design students, took pictures of every little decor element before even getting their drinks. There's a medium sized bar room and behind the bar the biggest array of liquor I have ever seen. Some steps lead down to a spacious lounge area with nice chairs, a small elevated dancefloor and a big DJ booth.
Mrs. Zanardelli got the first round, and I decided to order something unusual so I got a hot mojito, which was rum, mint leaves (right in the drink!), a lemon and an Earl Grey tea bag and some piping hot water. Maybe not the best choice given the weather but I thought it was damn good. Kind of like drinking some mint gum with a hint of alcohol. One of the bartenders was telling Brittany it was very American of me to get the hot drink on a hot day, but when she pointed out that they still drink capuccino on hot days he didn't have a response. But generally the bartenders - one girl and one boy, were super nice.
We adjourned to the lounge and the DJ was spinning some glammy britpop, so I went up and asked if they could play some T. Rex and they were all too happy to oblige. After a bit they played this crazy cover of "Yellow Submarine" in Italian and some of what I assume is Italian psychedelia and the occasional Beatles tune. Later they played the Killers, the Bravery and Dogs Die in Hot Cars and some dancepunk stuff I didn't know off the top of my head. Actually the DJs were pretty fun, but no one was really dancing so we didn't.
I bought a beer of my own, which everyone chided me for since they didn't want me paying for drinks on my birthday. But it was a hugish pint glass full of some Scottish ale I forget the name of, for 6 euros, which for Milan isn't bad at all. Some of the girls were drinking Budweiser which may have been cheaper. It started getting more crowded with various Italian subtypes - some goths, a guy who looked like a '70s film mogul, etc. We met some Canadians who were there but eventually we decided to head back to the hotel. I should mention that Lindsey's mom didn't let anyone to buy their own drinks until she went home, which was amazingly nice.
Most of us went to my room in the hotel since I don't have a roomate. We called some of our friends as we had agreed to do but they were all sleepy or in bed. We opened some sparkling white wine (they drink it in place of champagne here) and had a few beers and some red wine as well before everyone went home. All in alll, one of the best birthdays I've had since I can remember.
Today we had a teacher named Giuseppe who worked at Domus magazine with a graphic designer who went on to join Pentagram Publishing, which is the most well-respected design firms in the world, hands down. Domus is a very established, very old architecture etc. magazine in English and Italian. We got some interesting insight into the world of magazines, and we were all supposed to get our works critiqued, but it's quarter til five and they're still on the first guy's project, and they've been there since 4pm, so it doesn't look like I'll be getting any feedback. Oh well. I'm going to figure out the hostel situation for Switzerland. Ciao.
posted by Brian at 10:16 AM
1 Comments:
Brian-As you probably guessed, my e-mail was written before I read your posting about your birthday. Glad you had such a memorable occassion.
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