First week in Italy

Hey! I figured I would go ahead and post since I'm close to the end of my first week in Milan.  I'm so excited to be here and haven't had any trouble adjusting.  Victoria (another IRES student) and I were on the same flight from Chicago to Heathrow and ended up sharing a hotel room together in London.  When I got to Milan, I had to go to the Uni housing office near city center to check in... the person I needed to talk to was away for the morning so I ended up leaving my bags at the office, went to the Duomo, and did some sightseeing. Since I don't speak Italian, the doorman brought a bunch of residents down to translate when I arrived which helped me meet everyone in the building and make friends... I guess American ignorance has its perks (haha). Most of the people that live here are Erasmus students that have been here side September so they've been showing me around.  My roommate is a PhD candidate from Delhi and seems great. We have a limit on the amount of Internet we use each day so I can't put pictures up until I go to a cafe but I'll try to post again ASAP. Everyone in the lab is really friendly--we eat lunch and get coffee together everyday and are going to a big horse race outside Milan on Sunday.  For the first few days I just observed procedures, but I will be working with Donato starting Monday.  I can't wait to hear from everyone else!   Megan