The First Days

Italy has been quite a learning experience already. I was expecting to have some problems switching from living in an area that I was born and raised in to a foreign land that I know very little about in a language that I did not know. When I arrived in Florence, I picked up my bags and there was no security whatsoever. No one checked who I was, what I am doing here, and what am I bringing in. This is very different from if someone here was visiting the US, where a series of questions would be followed by finger prints among other things. Randall, who works for CET Academic Center and is our group leader, picked me up and we took a taxi to the hotel that we stayed at for the first night went to the hotel.

Going to the hotel, I realized how different transportation is here. Everyone drives motorinos (similar to a moped) or these tiny cars (picture a VW beetle cut with the back half cut off). These vehicles are prevalent because gas is significantly more expensive then in the US and they need efficient vehicles to keep costs lower. The motorinos and cars zip around on larger roads that have no set lanes and also the narrow windy roads that go through parts of Florence. These I dropped my luggage off at the hotel, and walked over to the CET building. It’s not as I expected, but what I expected does not really matter because we will only be over there for a couple hours each day, at most. When we got to the hotel, I had problems with acclimating myself. I couldn’t figure out how the shower worked or the toilet or the lights. Everything is different here.

Later in the day, when everyone from the group arrived, we went out to dinner with Randall and Professor Cooperman. We learned how to order food here and also learned common phrases and customs we would need to know so we can try to assimilate into the culture. After dinner, a group of us bought some wine and got to know each other better, and then I went out with another group to a Japanese restaurant. I tried sushi for the first time here (I never got around to trying it in the US, but it was there so I went for it) and we split a bottle of Sake.

The next day, we went to the apartment we will be living in for the next 3 weeks. The place is incredible. All of us joke that we are on the Real World because that is how nice our set-up is. It is a communal living arrangement, with 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, a common room, a dining room, and a huge terrace overlooking a gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church.

Well, I am about to leave, so I am going to wrap this up. I have a lot more to write about my first 5 days. Not only because I am required to keep this blog for the course but because I would like to give everyone the chance to feel like they are a part of the incredible experience I am partaking in. A lot more to come…