When In Florence

Ciao people who are interested in what I have to write!

As you may or may not know, I have had the wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Florence (or Firenze), Italy for this spring semester. Even though I’ve been mentally planning studying abroad for years, actually applying and preparing for months, and now physically being in another country for a couple weeks, it still doesn’t feel real. It’s hard for me to fully imagine the fact that I am going to be living here for a full semester.

And in order to help me come to terms with the fact that I am living here, I will attempt to keep up a blog to let you see what goes down in Italy and things that I am learning. I am a big believer in living in the moment, but I feel that I too often live in the moment then move past it without taking any pause to commit to my memory how amazing an experience is. Remembering things is not one of my strong suits, so thankfully words are a thing I can use to help me.

I’ve had a full week of classes, and I’ve gotten comfortable in my neighborhood and apartment. I’m thankful for how easy it is to find with and without a map. Though I do like to check my phone’s map for directions, most of the time I like to just walk around and try to find my way. This area of Florence isn’t huge, so it’s easy to get around and not get too lost. If you can make your way to the Duomo, you’ll definitely be able to find your way home. The only major problem I’ve had with directions is trying to get to IKEA, which is about a 30 minute drive from the center of Florence. Let’s just say that you shouldn’t try to find transportation on a Sunday if you don’t know what you’re doing.

While most people talk about culture shock, tonight I’ve been thinking about three different kinds of “shocks” that come with being here in Italy.

Cultural:

Culture is a huge component that everyone has to get used to when going to a new place. I don’t think I’ve had the extreme “culture shock” here, but there are instances that I have to start getting used to. Like for example eating is a very big deal here in Italy. Eating is the best time for enjoying some wonderful food but also socializing with your friends. Because of this, eating or drinking in front of someone else is something that is not done at all. A person at the university described it as the equivalent of putting on deodorant in public: not technically wrong, but still kinda weird. 

Another thing that the people at the university told us was that Italy is a very high-context culture. This means that most information comes from implicit means, and that is drastically different from America's low-context culture. It's pretty nerve-wracking to think of all the unspoken cultural rules and cues that I have yet to learn here.

Adult:

Next up is adulting. Doing adulty things. Adult stuff. It’s all very confusing at the best of times, much less when you’re doing it for the first time and in another country. Things like buying groceries isn’t too bad, but realizing how often you have to buy groceries is a little worrying. Being conservative with power and hot water is natural, but having the power go out and not want to come back on is an entirely new playing field for me.

I’ve been making a lot of meals on my own, and I’m fairly sure that I could sustain off of meat and cheese sandwiches for the rest of my life. Thankfully pasta is plentiful and cheap here, so I think I can expand my palate to sandwiches and noodles (Just kidding, I am eating so much great food here. I'll talk about food another time. I could go on forever about all the food I've eaten). Also our apartment already came with a coffeemaker and tea kettle, so I've made a lot of tea and coffee the past couple days. I never drank coffee back home, but when in Rome-- I mean Florence.

Student:

And finally the reason I’m here in Florence: School.

This is something I’m probably the most nervous about because it’s the basic purpose for traveling (besides gaining an amazing cultural experience). Every school is different, and I get very anxious about attempting to learn the nuances of this entirely new university. I’m what you call a procrastinator perfectionist, so even though I expect the absolute best academic performance from myself, that rarely happens. Therefore I get overwhelmed very easily. But I am hoping that I will be able to do my best towards learning from some incredible professors. And thankfully I am taking courses that are very interesting to me. I am in an anthropology, art history, Christianity history, digital photography, and photojournalism class. And I have classes every weekday except for Friday, so I get a nice little treat of a 3 day weekend.

In anthropology there is a concept called ethnography. It is the study of people and cultures, most typically through participant observation for an extended period of time in the natural setting. It’s kind of like what I’m doing with study abroad. I could have just visited Italy for a week and experienced little bits and pieces, but unless I submerge myself in Italy for a long time, I can't fully experience the culture. I have to get used to this new culture and adapt in order to feel a deeper connection with the Italian culture, and I am so looking forward to it.