A different evening

Among the programmed activities during my visit in the area of Milan, one, in particular, turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening.

I was invited to be a guest at a dinner meeting at a student community about one hour ride outside of the city, where I was expected to talk about me, my family, and my current plans, which involve the small, but unfamiliar (to many) country of Albania.

The thought intrigued me because of the setup. The place was created almost 30 years ago to provide an unusual environment where young people, attending schools in the area, could learn, away from home, to be independent, manage themselves, their lives, and their studies, and cope with life in general with the support and counsel of some professionals, who had preceded them in this experience.

The comfortably modern, well equipped, building was donated by a local family to this, self created, institution, which houses co-ed students, from 13 to 20 years of age. They share the same central facilities, which include bedrooms, kitchen, lounges, a library, study and play rooms, and a large basement for extra curriculum activities. This property overlooks a beautiful lake, has a parking lot, and lots of land around, which includes a vegetable and fruit garden, maintained by the students.

The daily schedule is planned by the student community, under the guidance of some, living in, instructors. The same goes for food shopping, meals preparations, house cleaning, extra and leisure activities. Among the latter ones are field trips, cultural visits at museums, fencing and painting classes, chorus practice, and evenings, like the one I participated in, with guests from a variety of fields, from anthropologists, to artists, reporters, poets, etc.

The students’ day are long and busy ones. They arise at 6:45am and retire after a late dinner. Depending on their age, they may not participate into the night activities.

The dinner I ate, simply served family style, was healthy and delicious, including an elaborate dessert. Afterwards, we moved into a large, comfortable living room area, where the burning wood was crackling in the fireplace. There I was able to make a couple of presentations, by projecting onto a large screen, slides from a CD I prepared, and I talked for over an hour, responding also to questions raised.

It was a wonderfully behaved group, which took pictures of the event, and made me sign their guest book. During the car ride back to Milan I continued to furnish additional answers to the couple that invited me. They had attended that institution a few years ago; there they met, eventually graduated (he is a well known architect and she is the board chair of her family’s 200 year old company), and their 3 children now are going through that same experience by being part of this institution.

Finally back at my hotel by 1am, I was rethinking the event and wishing that such an interesting, and obviously successful, setup could be duplicated also elsewhere. These students are indeed lucky to get such broad learning opportunities!