Tutto per "Sex and the city"

I am flying home to Finland for a short visit on Wednesday. I needed to go there before the summer and I desided that the perfect time is exactly when my favourite TV-series appears as a movie. So I am going to the premier of the film in Helsinki. (I can not hear Carrie speaking Italian to Big, that is not acceptable). To go there I will of course need a new dress. Luckily I was able to make it as a project of school... (yesterday). It is a cute little black dress made of silk and linen. I will wear it with my super cool Sonia Rykiel-heals.

I know I needed to find the perfect necklace to match the dress, so we visited the Naviglio- market today with Irene. I found just "the one" made out of Bakalite. That is a kinda plastic which hasn`t been made since the 1940`s. My new vintage necklace would make even Sarah Jessica Parker jealouse...

Shopping and walking in rainy canal made us so hungry that we found ourselves from a pizzeria eating and drinking some red wine. For a dessert we stopped at my local Gelateria for ice cream. So sweet to be known in the stores close to my house. Makes you really feel homie....

Il forno

On Thursday I finally signed the rent-contract for this apartment. I knew already that my landlords` son was nice... (and cute), but I didn`t know that his parents were extremely nice as well. In the beginning of the week I got a message saying "Mamma" and a phonenumber. I thought that it was a spam, but on Thursday when Mamma called, I understood. She was my new landlord and the owner of this apartment. She came to visit me and to find out what I needed to live here.

I told her that I need an oven to cook and bake. There is no use of a microwave for me, I need to bake brownies for M and lasagne for my little brother when they visit me. On Saturday the parents arrived with the cutest oven I have ever seen, it is size of a microwave. They also brought me a ventilator, promised to get me a TV and they had bought me a big mattress which will arrive next week. I couldn`t have been more happier with my new landlords... I feel that if there comes a problem, they will help me out for sure.

La settimana senza Lara

The entire week has been quite strange. All of our Fashion Design classes were cancelled, because our teacher was out of Milan... I guess working in Moscow. That means we have had free time more than normally. Why do I still feel that I have been extremely busy the whole week? Despite of having no drawing classes I have tried to practise almost every day. Coloring with Pantoni is really hard and I feel that I need to do every picture at least three times to even being able to say that "it is mine". Just to color one image takes about three hours and before that you have to sketch it. It is a lot of work...

On Wednesday we were in Bvlgari-hotel for aperitivos like normally with Irene. Great to have routines here... Bvlgari on Wednesdays and Noon on Fridays. These pictures are from Noon. In the first one, my best friends Socrate and Irene. Here with me, Anne. We were supposed to have only one aperitivo, but we were kinda shocked with Irene how much money we have spent, so we desided to make it a party. ;o) The place owner likes us going there, so he joined us for a while as well...

Socrate likes Cosmopolitans. I guess I will be having them on Wednesday when I will fly to Finland for the Sex and the City movie premier in Helsinki... Can`t wait!!!

Vicinanze

Neighbourhood. Every evening I need to go outside and shutter my windows. In the mornings I usually open them up when I come home from a run. (YES, I still go running in the mornings, except when I have slept in...) It is amazing to see and hear how your neighbours live. I lived almost 7 years in my last apartment in Finland and I barely knew who lived next to me. Here it is all so close... On Sunday I heard loud and clear that Inter Milan won Serie A and I don`t even own a TV. The same afternoon my upstairs grandmom stopped by my window and started to chat with me while I was drawing in the kitchen.

This morning before going to school, our portiere, Eugenio stopped me and told that I have got post in the mailbox. In the afternoon when I opened my very first electricity bill here and was shocked, I run to Eugenio to check out that it was correct. The bill for the first 10 days living here was 67 euros. If someone is saying that Milan isn`t expensive is definatively lying.

It has been raining for more than a week now. The weather is humid and the metro-trips in rush hours are annoying. I don`t know if it is because of too little sleep or just that I am happy, but I felt extremely giggly today. My Digital Design teacher was just loosing it with me... On the way home at Duomo station, I started to laugh aloud when I saw some guy singing and dancing alone while waiting for the metro. The old lady next to him had a disposable showerhat on, to cover her locks. Next woman of her had a quilted jacket on and it is only +23 celsius outside. Only in Italy!!! I really can`t tell if it is Monday or Friday or something between... ;o)

Rimango a Via Vigevano

I finally know that I don`t have to move anymore. I am staying in my boheme home in Porta Genova. I like it here, so I am happy that I don`t have to pack and unpack again...and so is my friend Socrate who doesn`t have to carry my luggages. This week at school I realised that we will have a lot of work to come. Homeworks are already taking time from my sleeps. On Monday morning I slept in, I guess you need more than 4 hour sleeps...

This is how they take care of moving here in Italy, funny! I had to stop and take a picture while running in the morning...

This picture is from one of my favourite aperitivo-places, Noon. We like to go there on Fridays, the owner of the place is extremely friendly... I guess he likes Finnish blond girls. (Lucky me and Irene!) On Wednesday we were in Bvlgari hotel for aperitivos. Luxurious! We will return there for sure. I liked especially the night-blue Porsche 911 Carrera convertible parked in front of the entrance. I know what I want for my next birthday... ;o)

Il compleanno di Anne

My second weekend in Milan we celebrated Anne`s 30th birthday. I was invited to the preparty at her friend`s house as well. From there we left for this disco outside of Milan called Fellini. It was a big villa in the middle of no-where...or maybe there was a tiny village?!?

We had fun, but I remember all the guys being until my shoulders. What happened for all the tall men?? I finally got the pictures from the party, that`s why the late publishing time...

There is a cutie in front of this pic... I wonder who he was? Maybe I had too many mojitos then...

Solo in Italia

On my way home one afternoon I saw these friends. I thought, that only in Italy this is normal. I guess they were going shopping to La Rinascente. Hmmm... Talking about normal...

For the last weeks here I have experienced things, that I would have never ever imagined while living in Finland. One of my best friends here is a Greek gay guy. He is a famous singer back home and now he is here studying with me. He helps me with drawing and I help him in photo shop and pattern making. Nice symbiosis! We only speak italian together which I like... and he likes to cook me great greek food.

I don`t usually like to "click" with the other Finnish peope while living abroad, but here I have met some great friends. On Wednesday I saw Teemu, my designer friend from Bottega Veneta. We went for a pizza and we had a blast. He is so much fun to be with...

Friday evening we went for aperitivos to Noon (which will become our Friday place) with my two other Finnish friends Irene and Anne. It was fun to see Anne for a long time and her friends. I planned to end the evening short, but we got other friends joining us and we ended up to Living. It is a famous club at Piazza Sempione. It reminded me of Finland (Sibben puisto) because you orded drinks inside and you hang out outside on the street chatting and drinking.

Il giorno libero

I would love to hang out with the girls after school more often, but I just don`t have time. My life here in Milan is as busy as it was in Finland. Really!! I am just trying to be in two places always at once.

Thursday I finally desided to relax a bit. We went for a late lunch to Chinatown with Monica and Daniela. Ristorante Jubin was good. Having chinese food after pizza and pasta was an awesome idea. We will definately go there again, but I still have a dream one day to return to The Peninsula Palace in Beijing. The food was amazing there, like the aromatherapy I had...

After lunch we visited an art gallery hosting Audrey Hepburn`s postercollection. It was a private collection of all the italian movieposters with her. We met the collector as well. I love Audrey`s movies!! Who wouldn`t want to have Breakfast at Tiffany`s or Vacation in Rome????

Living la vita Milano

I am finally able to join pretty normal life here. The first month I spent hunting apartments, doing all the byrogracy stuff, but now... I am loving it here! The weather being +28c for the last week has maybe something to do with it as well and my new home starting to be all arranged.

On Tuesday after school we went shopping pantoni`s with Monica. We use pantoni (color-pencils) for coloring all the drawings. I have started to walk past Duomo on my way to school and back. I enjoy watching people sitting in the stairs and turists taking pictures. ( I have gotten this awful habit of taking a picture of me with Duomo in the background...you will see later.)

I wore my beautiful Sonia Rykiel highheels to school this day and was loving the attention of being 185cm tall. ;o) Poor italian men!!!

Il derby a Milano

Today I went to see footboll in San Siro. It was the local match against AC Milan and Inter Milan. My friend Davide took me there. It is always a surprise when he picks me up... (One time I did have the tiniest miniskirt on, at least people driving behind us liked it... )

I tried to find tickets before on line, but found out, that they are extremely expensive. You also need to inform all the personal information because of the security. When entering the stadium I saw that even getting in isn`t that easy.

The match was a blast! The sun was shining (I hopefully got a bit tan) and atmosphere was great. AC Milan won and we were happy. If I understood correct, they moved up to fourth spot in Serie A and they will play in Champions League now. Hey... I am just a blond girl from Finland, the land of hockey.

Via Vigevano 41

I have finally unpacked my luggage at Porta Genova. I actually moved back to the same house where I stayed for the beginning. This apartment was supposed to be just for a month, but I think I might stay here. I like it here and the metro is just 50m away. For the last three days I have made this place livable. Here was nothing when I came on Wednesday... You can guess how many hundreds it needs to buy everything. Think about cooking, drinking prosecco, taking shower, sleeping. I had to get it all. Now I can have friends over for dinner (max 6 though, that is how many plates and glasses I have got...)

This picture is from the courtyard. My apartment is in the second floor, I have my own entrance.

This cargobox has given lot of people headaches. It was sent from Finland in the beginning of April, but I couldn`t receive it because I had no permanent address. After many many many phonecalls, I finally got it on Friday. Luckily it didn`t rain (like on Wednesday when moving) when I had to unload it by myself to the second floor. I haven`t been so happy in a while when I opened the bags and found my Alessi-fruitbowls, my own covers, towels and ballerina-shoes. It felt really good to get everything from home.

Now I feel that I can finally start concentrating on school and start waiting for guest to my own place here. Baci tutti!!

Olandese

Late Monday night I got a visitor from The Netherlands for a few days. Sweet! That meant sleeping in a real bed, instead of the filthy divan and getting nice hot bubblebaths with sparkling wine while reading the latest Vogue. Nice, eih?

We had a relaxing mini-vacation. Tuesday I went to school only in the afternoon, I could not have missed Andrea`s Digital-lessons... After my school we enjoyed Via Montenapoleone, Via della Spiga etc. (That means Burberry, Gucci, Moschino, Chloe...) I guess this was the first time I didn`t shop anything with him... Believe me or not!! It felt good not having to rush anywhere. For dinner we went to Naviglio for some italian food. I have to admit though, that Officina 12 was a disappointment compared to Monday night`s Maio restaurant in La Rinascente`s 7th floor. Luckily there is always Il Gelato to save your night. Around Duomo you can find the ice cream- places open late at night...