After a long travel day (or should I say weekend) we arrived to la bella Italia! Many of us had our first real Italian cappuccino, gelato, latte, pizza and pasta. A lot of us, especially those of us from North America, had our first culture shock experiences, beginning with the language barriers. I think that my most used phrase here is “piano perfavore” which means slowly please, so I could understand a little and try to communicate in Spanish/Italian. I learned that doing promotion in Italian is very hard- how do you explain Up with People (or Viva la Gente as it is known here) in Italian? This week also seemed to be my alarm week- as I kept setting them off. One day, as we were doing promotions on a University Campus, I was in the restroom trying to flush the toilet. In Europe, many of the toilets have irregular flushers- some buttons, handles, knobs, pull strings- every trip is an adventure. Anyway, after using this particular toilet I saw a string in front of me and pulled it down. The next thing I know loud alarms were going off which could be heard throughout the whole building. Someone rushed into help me, as I had activated the emergency alarm, not the flusher. How embarrassing! Later that night in my host family, my roommate Lesley and I got a little hungry before bed so we decided to go downstairs to the kitchen to get some food. When we were halfway down the stairs we activated the burglar alarm and our host mom had to come “rescue” us! Another “alarming” experience in Italy has been the transportation. Confusing streets, train schedules and maps have caused many of us to lose our way in Milan. Plus, getting directions in Italian doesn’t always help! But, it always works out and I’m sure in many years we will look back and see how funny it is that we were always lost in Milano. Overall, I had a great week in Milan; the people are very charming and even if they don’t understand you they’re always trying to help, the food is delicious and the cities are awesome. One of my favorite parts about Milan is that when you walk down the street it is like a fashion show- everybody dresses so trendy! Tonight, we are preparing for our first European. We are expecting a sold out show and are excited to perform 2 songs in Italian- “Di Che Colore” (What Color is God’s Skin” and “Viva la Gente” (Up with People) as well as our first encore! Sunday we have a free day with our host families and Monday we depart for a new country already- Switzerland!