The past few days have been a whirlwind to say the least. Everything was smooth sailing traveling to Italy and my greatest worry of whether or not I would be able to navigate through London’s airport was actually one of the easiest parts. On the plane to London, I even made a friend with the guy sitting next to me named Paul. He was from London and went to Miami for vacation. We bonded over our love for Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black. It was awesome and everything was great. However, when I got to my gate in London, about to board the plane to Siena, when the lady scanned my ticket, she told me something was wrong with my luggage. She said my bags never made it out of Raleigh. My heart stopped and the combination of being extremely exhausted as well as potentially having none of my things, I almost broke down and cried. Almost. The whole way to Pisa was spent imagining how I am going to survive this situation; borrowing clothes, not showering, other gross stuff like that. Landing in Pisa, I went directly to baggage claim where I would have to fill out missing luggage paperwork. I didn’t even look for my bags, assuming that the people in London were correct. After about 20 minutes in line, after the bags from my flight were sent down, I see two dark green bags still on the belt. I may or may not have screamed when I saw my things. Why they told me that they had been lost in the U.S I do not know, but I was the happiest person in the world when I realized they had made it.
Once I was in Pisa, I realized that most of the people I had the flight from London to Pisa with were other students doing my same program. A lot of them already knew each other because the two main schools that send students to do this program are both from New York. I slept most of the way from the airport to Siena where we would meet our host families. One of the people in the program, a man named Mike, originally from the United States told us that if we all got off of the bus at the same time, the Italian families would all grab at us and want to take us home, even if we weren’t their host student. Once my name was called, I met my host mom, Ms. Brogi. She immediately asked me if I spoke Italian, and I barely knew enough Italian to tell her that I didn't. We spent most of the ride home sitting in silence with me pointing at stuff out of the window. We arrived at her house about 5 minutes later. She lives in a small but beautiful apartment a little outside of Siena. The floors are made of marble and everything is spotless. She showed me my room and the balcony that looks out over the city. She helped me unpack all of my things and hang all of my clothes up, which was so nice of her. Still all the while, not being able to understand a word that she was saying. Good thing I’m really good at charades, because that’s basically how we could communicate.
After I unpacked, my mom made me my first Italian meal, and let me tell you, she went all out. The meal first started with a pastry of some sort, it reminded me of pie but with jam instead of fruit. Then after that, we had pasta with HOMEMADE, yes I said it, HOMEMADE pesto sauce. After the pasta dish (where I thought the meal ended) we has Bruschetta. Real bruschetta. Made with real, good, fresh, bread. After that, we had the main course, Zucchini Frittata and Chicken. At this point I’m not sure if I can eat any more, and then she brings out dessert which was fresh peaches. I’m not sure how I fit so much food into my body, but I did it. After dinner, I showered and got to bed early since I was so exhausted from traveling.
One of the funniest things about where I am staying is that the shower isn’t an actual shower. The showerhead sticks on the wall right above where the toilet is and the water from the shower goes directly onto the floor. The floor has a small drain. Other than that, there is really no sign that there should be a shower in there at all. Something that was hard to get used to at first is turning off the lights when I left a room. In the United States, or at least at my house, I hardly ever turn off the lights when I leave a room. But here, even if you leave for a minute, the lights should be turned off. Another thing that is funny is that even though I can’t understand what my host mom was saying, I knew she had a good sense of humor and was a pretty witty lady, which I like a lot. Just the way she communicates with other people, you can tell she’s just about as sassy as I am.
Today, we had our first Italian lesson for only an hour. After that hour, my Italian has improved so much. I’m able to actually carry on a small conversation with my host mom and understand at least a small amount of what she is saying. It’s funny how when the instructors began teaching us Italian, they weren’t like “Okay, here we go, let’s starting learning Italian.” They treated it like a conversation, refusing to speak in English until we understood what they were saying. It wasn’t until half way through that I realized they were giving us a lesson. That’s what is cool about this type of learning… You don't realize you’re learning it just happens. After Italian lessons, we got a practical tour of the city. They took us to all of the important places around the city. The plaza, the pharmacies, the banks, and the best gelato shop in the city. After the tour, some friends and I went back to get gelato. I got Opera gelato, a type that looked like a Snicker’s bar. Imagine the best ice cream you’ve ever had, and multiply that by 10 and that’s how good this gelato was. Our night ended with a Cocktail party for the students, staff and families. They had wine, champagne, sandwiches, pastries, and cheese. I ate until I was stuffed, and on the way home, my host mom told me that she had made dinner. Not wanting to be rude, I ate another meal when I got home, which was equally as delicious as the first. Pasta, Bread, Potato Pancakes, Peas, Chicken, fruit and pie. And yes, I ate all of it.
So that's my past few days summed up. What I’ve written doesn’t even come close to doing justice to how amazing Italy has been so far. And I can’t even begin to explain how gorgeous the city is. My next mission is to get Wifi at my host mom’s house since she doesn’t have any. Tomorrow I’m looking to buy a portable hot spot and use that while I’m home, that way I can talk to my family and friends and use google translate. That would help me out a lot, although I think I’m learning pretty quickly. Until next time.
Ciao a tutti! (Bye everyone!)
Once I was in Pisa, I realized that most of the people I had the flight from London to Pisa with were other students doing my same program. A lot of them already knew each other because the two main schools that send students to do this program are both from New York. I slept most of the way from the airport to Siena where we would meet our host families. One of the people in the program, a man named Mike, originally from the United States told us that if we all got off of the bus at the same time, the Italian families would all grab at us and want to take us home, even if we weren’t their host student. Once my name was called, I met my host mom, Ms. Brogi. She immediately asked me if I spoke Italian, and I barely knew enough Italian to tell her that I didn't. We spent most of the ride home sitting in silence with me pointing at stuff out of the window. We arrived at her house about 5 minutes later. She lives in a small but beautiful apartment a little outside of Siena. The floors are made of marble and everything is spotless. She showed me my room and the balcony that looks out over the city. She helped me unpack all of my things and hang all of my clothes up, which was so nice of her. Still all the while, not being able to understand a word that she was saying. Good thing I’m really good at charades, because that’s basically how we could communicate.
After I unpacked, my mom made me my first Italian meal, and let me tell you, she went all out. The meal first started with a pastry of some sort, it reminded me of pie but with jam instead of fruit. Then after that, we had pasta with HOMEMADE, yes I said it, HOMEMADE pesto sauce. After the pasta dish (where I thought the meal ended) we has Bruschetta. Real bruschetta. Made with real, good, fresh, bread. After that, we had the main course, Zucchini Frittata and Chicken. At this point I’m not sure if I can eat any more, and then she brings out dessert which was fresh peaches. I’m not sure how I fit so much food into my body, but I did it. After dinner, I showered and got to bed early since I was so exhausted from traveling.
One of the funniest things about where I am staying is that the shower isn’t an actual shower. The showerhead sticks on the wall right above where the toilet is and the water from the shower goes directly onto the floor. The floor has a small drain. Other than that, there is really no sign that there should be a shower in there at all. Something that was hard to get used to at first is turning off the lights when I left a room. In the United States, or at least at my house, I hardly ever turn off the lights when I leave a room. But here, even if you leave for a minute, the lights should be turned off. Another thing that is funny is that even though I can’t understand what my host mom was saying, I knew she had a good sense of humor and was a pretty witty lady, which I like a lot. Just the way she communicates with other people, you can tell she’s just about as sassy as I am.
Today, we had our first Italian lesson for only an hour. After that hour, my Italian has improved so much. I’m able to actually carry on a small conversation with my host mom and understand at least a small amount of what she is saying. It’s funny how when the instructors began teaching us Italian, they weren’t like “Okay, here we go, let’s starting learning Italian.” They treated it like a conversation, refusing to speak in English until we understood what they were saying. It wasn’t until half way through that I realized they were giving us a lesson. That’s what is cool about this type of learning… You don't realize you’re learning it just happens. After Italian lessons, we got a practical tour of the city. They took us to all of the important places around the city. The plaza, the pharmacies, the banks, and the best gelato shop in the city. After the tour, some friends and I went back to get gelato. I got Opera gelato, a type that looked like a Snicker’s bar. Imagine the best ice cream you’ve ever had, and multiply that by 10 and that’s how good this gelato was. Our night ended with a Cocktail party for the students, staff and families. They had wine, champagne, sandwiches, pastries, and cheese. I ate until I was stuffed, and on the way home, my host mom told me that she had made dinner. Not wanting to be rude, I ate another meal when I got home, which was equally as delicious as the first. Pasta, Bread, Potato Pancakes, Peas, Chicken, fruit and pie. And yes, I ate all of it.
So that's my past few days summed up. What I’ve written doesn’t even come close to doing justice to how amazing Italy has been so far. And I can’t even begin to explain how gorgeous the city is. My next mission is to get Wifi at my host mom’s house since she doesn’t have any. Tomorrow I’m looking to buy a portable hot spot and use that while I’m home, that way I can talk to my family and friends and use google translate. That would help me out a lot, although I think I’m learning pretty quickly. Until next time.
Ciao a tutti! (Bye everyone!)