Ferroequinologist

I am a proud ferroequinologist.

As I learned from watching  way too many episodes of my new favorite comic detective series, Psych, this means I am a train enthusiast.


I love riding trains. I love being able to read without getting carsick, I love that I can walk around if my legs feel cramped, I love that I can buy food or water whenever I want in case I get hungry or thirsty, I love that my friends and I can have a whole compartment to ourselves, and I love that I don't have to breathe in the sickly stale air of an airplane while doing this.


I do not, however, like booking hotels. I'm not sure if there's a word for this, I'll have to watch more Psych, but booking hotels turns out to be quite exacerbating. You have to think about budget - of you and your friends - you have to think about location (distance to the center, to the activities you plan on doing), you have to think about ease of transport from where you are to where you want to be, you have to figure out how to get European hotels to let you have four people in one room, you have to read reviews to make sure the hotel isn't falling to pieces, you have to decide how much stock to put into each review and weigh the options of ignoring a comment and living in a rat-infested swamp for a weekend or taking every comment too seriously and end up paying for a five star hotel. But the weekend is over, the hotel I booked worked out fine, and we got to go to a Deadmau5 concert and an AC Milan soccer game while in Milan this weekend, and that's what really counts :)

So here's the beloved stadium! Did I mention it was pouring? There was shelter in the seats, but with the wind it didn't help too much... thankfully by the time the game started the rain has cleared out :)

This was for FAC Board - we abroad-ers try to take as many pictures in our FAC shirts in as many cool places as possible :)

But over my FAC shirt I was wearing my new AC Milan jersey! Number 7! Go Paco (he didn't play this game)! L-R: Caitlin (roommate), Susan (suitemate), Allison (roommate), Me, Julie (friend from Duke on the program)

Somehow the Milan team knew we were missing our Duke Blue Devils, so they came out with their mascot... tiny baby devil?

Roomie picture! Caitlin, Me, and Allison in our seats

The teams shaking hands (red and black striped are the good guys)

More (ridiculous) friends! L-R top row: Chris (BC), Matt (Duke), Matt (NYU)


So even though we tied 1-1 it was a really fun game, I got into it by giving all the players nicknames:


#9: Nonove --> Sinove, 'nove' means 9 in italian, he started out as "no - nove" because he missed a really easy goal, but then got promoted to 'si-nove' when he scored our first (and only) goal of the game
#10: Calveci, a mix between "calvo" meaning 'bald' and "dieci" for his number, 'ten'
#11: Fancy Feet, he was wearing bright yellow shoes
#23: OJ. He was wearing orange shoes
#27: Ouomo: O for "oh wow, what great footwork" which turned into "oh wow, you just very obviously pushed those other players to the ground" and 'uomo' simply means 'guy'
#77: Doubs short for double, because he was my number (7) but twice. He turned out to be my favorite.
#80: Dreads, because he had dreadlocks. Matt (duke) pointed out to me later that he just had really long hair, but I like to think he had dreadlocks. 


So the game was really fun with me yelling nonsense nicknames out to the players, and an older man near us shouting obscenities to the entire field in italian (which matt would occasionally translate for us)


With the downpour and the unfamiliarity of the city, getting there was quite an adventure, but I learned a lot about speaking around my missing vocabulary to get the point across. I ended being our translator that trip because Caitlin and I are the best speakers in the group, and I'm more aggressive about asking natives (motherly looking natives, as my mom taught me, not sketchy guy natives) for help and directions. So my italian has already improved quite a bit and I'm glad I have the chance to use it!


That's all! Hopefully our trip to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend doesn't get rained out, and I'll have a host of new photos and stories then!






ps. I also love kebabs. And jumping onto moving trains, which I also got to do this weekend.