My plan today is to be as productive as possible - but don't I think that every morning? Well, not really, actually. Sometimes I start the day planning on being productive in general, but that general-ness doesn't translate well to reality. Then I sit at my desk and think "Productive... so, math? Or paper writing? Or practicing juggling? Or writing a really good blog entry? What direction should my productivity take me!?!?" But today, I won't have any of that silliness. Today is math and blog writing and general apartment tidyness. :) I can handle that. Look at that, I'm getting two done already.
So, what I really wanted to write to you about was this weekend. Guess where I was?
MILAN.
Why was I all of a sudden in Milan? Well, it's a rather simple story, actually. A few weeks ago, C went with her mother to a Bruce Springsteen concert in Cologne. Before that as well as after, C has been rather excited about Mr. Bruce and his music, which (besides the few obvious classics - Born in the USA, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark) I was not at all familiar with. The week before and the week after her concert, C had been playing for me her favorites of his music and explaining the dynamics of the band and how awesome the concert was. Then, just on a whim, she looked online to see where else he was playing on this tour. Oh, it was only Sunday morning and the following Thursday, he was going to be in Milan. And there were still tickets. And the flight on Ryanair was cheap. And, look at that, there's a youth hostel near the stadium where the concert is. And Thursday's a holiday this week anyway, so C didn't have to work, and I didn't have class. And ---- there we went!
We left our apartment at 3:15 a.m. to catch the bus to the tiny airport that Ryanair flies from. We got into Milan at about 9 in the morning (bus to airport in Germany, airport to another tiny airport an hour away from Milan in Italy, bus to Milan, subway to hostel) and got to the hostel around 10:30. Outside our hostel, we ran into a rather nice guy. He grew up in Australia but had been living in Italy for a good while and he was just getting ready to head over to the stadium for the concert. The concert started at 8. The doors opened at 2.
These fans are so intense! Eventually, we decided to walk over with this guy and another older Italian gentleman who happens to live next to the hostel and know his way around and was spending his day helping tourists get from that hostel to the stadium (since the way wasn't completely intuitive). He couldn't speak any English and C and I couldn't speak any Italian, but with our new Australian friend, we communicated quite well. We got to the stadium at 1 in the afternoon and got in the already VERY long line to get in. C and I, you understand, had tickets for here:
The big orange rectangle is where the band was and the small one is where we were - -but this picture is from some game, and for us? There was NOT A SEAT FREE. And the entire field that you see down there? Just a sea of people. 60,000 people were there. It was incredible. Of course, when we arrived inside the stadium at 2, there weren't 60,000 people there. The people who had actual reserved seats didn't need to come until 7:30. But we had to stay there for six hours to make sure that our seats wouldn't be taken away! The waiting got pretty tedious after a while (sort of like a long plane ride - you're excited at first, then you realize you'll be there forever and ever and you hate it, and then all of a sudden, there's only an hour left to go and you get excited again) but we kept each other company, each took a few power naps (as well as you could in those plastic chairs) and we watched the stadium fill up.
Our seats turned out to be incredible. At first I thought we were way to far away and high up, but from there, we could see every instrument on stage, had a view of all the screens that displayed close-ups of the band members AND we could see the entire crowd that was right in front of the stage - we watched them all moving in unison, all take out their lighters during the ballads, all jump up and down at the same time, all reach their hands forward to touch Bruce's guitar as he walked out into the crowd. Watching them was amazing! (Plus, I think where we were, we had a better view - neither C or I is very tall, so standing in that crowd down there instead of up on raised seats, I definitely think we saw more this way!)
I don't know if I can explain how amazing the concert was. I just have to say that I have never seen or felt so much joy in one place before. The fans were SO excited to be there, the energy of the band was incredible and infectious, and the time just few by. There were at least three different generations of people there, I heard English, Italian, German, and French around us - it felt like the whole audience just wanted to embrace the band the whole time. There's so much understanding between the fans and the band after all the years that they've been playing. I know, I sound like a total convert now, but man - I don't think you can go to a concert of his without coming out one of that crowd! (I think this sign explains just how excited some of the fans were! :D)
The other thing? The man is over sixty years old, as are most of the band members. And the concert was 3 hours and 45 minutes long. WITHOUT A BREAK. I was exhausted by the end and I wasn't even running around the stage and singing my heart out, either!
Okay, I can actually talk about something other than the concert now, but WOW. Incredible. :)
--
Milan was also nice. :P We did see the amazing cathedral in the center of the city, one of the many gorgeous city parks, and the mini-Venice in the Naviglio area of the city. Yes, we had pasta, we had gelato, we had the coffee.... oh my goodness, the coffee. The gelato. I get kind of sad thinking about how I can't get it here. It was SO delicious and the people were SO nice and - it was wonderful. It was also kind of funny because C mentioned when we got there "It's funny, I really feel like I'm in a foreign country for the first time in years." What does she mean by this? Well, think about it. In the last two years, she's been in France, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, and Germany. And in each of those places, she can speak the language (or at least understand them, in the case of the Netherlands). But in Italy? It was amazing how stupid I felt on the first day. It's been a while since that has happened to me, too. But eventually I remembered that I'm not stupid, that we actually have quite a few languages that they could have used with us - it just so happens that we didn't have Italian in our arsenal. But maybe soon. I liked it! :)
Yesterday, C's mother came to stay with us for the night. She happened to be in the area at a chess tournament and with train connections and whatnot, it made more sense to stay with us for the night and then head back today than to try and get the trains back to the north yesterday. And that was great for us! We had some delicious carrot cake with coffee in the afternoon, took a walk through the city and then tried out another Thai restaurant in Mainz that we had never been to before - and it was fantastic. I spent a lot of the time eavesdropping on the waitresses' conversations (my normal pastime in Thai restaurants) and giggling as I remembered more and more words, but then still being too shy to talk to them in Thai! But I'm absolutely certain I'll go back to Thailand. Preferably soon. I miss it.
And now we're back. Normal week starting again. Papers and math homework and going grocery shopping and doing laundry. But it's not so bad. I just love it here. I don't love the fact that it's June already. I mean, I miss California and my friends and family, but - everything's finally in order! The apartment, the language skills, I have friends and places to go - why would I leave now?
At least I still have another month and a half. And I know I'll be back. It's in my heart now. :)
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