Fancy Buildings...

Fancy building number 1: The Duomo

The Duomo has to be the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen! Unlike most buildings of its size, it is made from a very pale stone and therefore in the sunlight is astonishingly beautiful. Inside is equally as beautiful... apart from the dead guys, they're not that pretty. Note to the ladies - If you want to actually get inside the cathedral then you better hope its on a day you fancy 109 layers. I was refused entry on two separate occasions due to wearing an insufficient amount of clothing. My mum was also refused entry because she had a bottle of perfume in her bag.

Fancy building number 2: The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Right outside The Duomo is The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Home to stores such as Prada and Luis Vuitton. The first time we visited The Galleria was during the week of living in a hostel and struggling for permanent accommodation, in the mall there is a small hole in the floor where it is considered good luck to spin around three times on the heel of your right foot - maybe this is what shone the light on our amazing apartment!?

Fancy building number 3: Statue outside The Borsa Building

Also in Duomo is The Borsa Exchange Building. God knows what they do there, but I like their style. They have literally plonked a huge statue of a middle finger facing the opposite building. Charming, I know. However, it has made it on my 'must see' list!

Intensive Week.

The most exciting part of studying abroad for me is that i shall be mixed with students from all over the world. I see this as a huge opportunity to realise how different cultures and backgrounds encourage students to work and how it compares to myself.
Although it's incredibly daunting (studying fashion in the fashion capital) I just couldn't wait to be set the first project and crack on with some work!  - mainly because I feel a little out of my depth and secretly can't wait to compare my skills to other people who are fighting for a spot in the fashion industry the same as I!

During the first week at my new university, NABA Academy, we were set a project which was due to be complete within a week. We had to come up with a concept, design a capsule collection of t-shirts and make 2 prototypes of the garments. I promised myself that when I moved out to Milan that I was going to use this experience to try new things when designing and discover specifically what I am really good at and bad at, in hope of finding what it is exactly I want to do when I leave university and into working life. With this in mind, I chose to experiment with menswear for the t-shirt project. I was very happy with the outcome of my project and so was our tutor! (Happy dance)

I was overwhelmed with how impressed my tutor was for this project and instantly lost any feeling of concern that I may not be good enough to be here... I'm definitely in the right place.

If you're moving to a foreign country, do not do the following (trust me).

Lesson number 1: Do not move to another country unable to speak their language and think you can find somewhere to live within a week - just don't, because you can't...

After arriving into Milan we dropped our stuff off at the hostel which was to be our home for the next week and went out exploring and to spend some euros on some good Italian food and wine. Be-Bop was the place, the best pizza I've ever had!
The restaurants here all look incredibly average from the outside (and sometimes inside) but the focus is in the food. I love that they don't feel the need to over-do their appearance to draw people in, they thrive from word of mouth.

For the rest of the week we looked steadily for somewhere to live whilst enjoying copious amounts of cheap wine and pasta. We did come across a few hiccups along the way - believe it or not, the supermarket we found sold only corked bottles of wine but no corkscrew! Not one! using the creative minds we have, we found other ways to get the bottles open. For safety reasons I wouldn't advise our technique, however, lets just say it's a two man job but with a meat prong on a knife, anything is possible!

After a couple of days we were dying to get out of the hostel.. 3 girls, 1 shower, 1 mirror, in 1 room is a lot to deal with! By this point we had had our first day at our new university NABA and used the amazing team at student services to find a new apartment. I honestly don't know where would have ended up without them! - You see when you live in England and you're used to efficiency, finding an apartment in a week sounds like a plausible idea. However, for one we weren't in England, and two, we didn't speak one useful word of Italian! (apart from 'vino').
It was now Wednesday and we were due to move out of the hostel on Thursday, luckily we found a four bed apartment just a five minute walk from university and everything we could possibly need surrounding for a decent price and moved in the next day - somebody must have been watching over us!

Moral of the story - do not expect anything from the Italians at a speedy pase. Or at all really.
I'm still deciding whether or not I admire their lack of enthusiasm for anything other than time off.

Day one of my Milanese adventure.

Today is 3rd October 2013. Turns out I  had agreed to pack my bags and move my student life to Milan, Italy for a whole academic year to pursue my studies in fashion design...  So here I am, at Birmingham airport saying goodbye to my beloved mum and dad about to jump on a plane with one of my best friends for an awesome experience... Oh and I can't speak a word of Italian. But that stuff sorts itself out right?..
Goodbye gravy, goodbye Topshop, and goodbye to the much less sophisticated student life in Coventry!