What a strange reality I live in. What other time in my life am I going to be single, exploring Europe with nothing to think about besides school? If I want to go to Germany or Paris for the weekend, I just go to the train station and am there within hours. In the states, I would be planning the trip for months in advance. Sounding so cliché, this is pretty much the time of my life. No kids, husband, job or anything to think about besides myself. I can be selfish. Mi piace! It’s majorly good to get it out of my system in these couple months!
Something a friend said the other day struck me, he said, “There are no parents here. We have to take care of each other.” It seems like such a basic thought, but is something I had never heard or tried to put into words. There are no parents here. There are no adults, we are the adults and people treat us as such. If someone needs to go to the hospital, which was the case in this particular example, we as the friends need to be the ones to go with them and comfort them. Other than our host families, which many students don’t have, there really are no people that play a significant role in our lives. Even our host families don’t truly know what goes on in our lives. Maybe this will change with time, but they treat us as completely independent adults as well. At college, we at least have people on campus we could go to or mentors in various organizations we are involved in, friends of the family, etc, but it’s different here. The only other people I can truly say that are involved in my life and have any significant role in it, are my peers. We are totally and completely the adults. Parents are (extremely) hard to reach for multiple reasons, faculty are not incredibly personal with the students, and anyone outside of SUF is regarded as a stranger. There literally are no adults here other than us. It seems like it would be intimidating but the fact that I haven’t gotten myself killed yet truly helps.
Life has defiantly settled down here meaning I have a norm. I no longer get excited returning to Florence after being away. It’s my norm and as any norm, I just do it automatically. Not saying I love the city any less, I’ve just adjusted to my current reality. I don’t miss home nearly as much as I did. As with school, it takes several weeks to a month or so to adjust to the new norm, which is the same here. I understand how to handle common situations with the different culture I experience everyday. I have learned to handle tiny waves of homesickness I get and how to prevent it. The newness is gone so daily life happens.
Fun stuff: This past weekend I went to Cortona and Perugia. Cortona is a tranquil hillside town on the border of Tuscany. It was authentic Italy while still touristy but not nearly as much as any place I have been. It is so much quieter than any place I have been also. I think what made the whole weekend for me though was the people I was with. We had so much fun just being together, and really silly. I’ve learned a lot of what determines how much I enjoy something is the people I am with, and they are wonderful. I seriously needed a goofy weekend!
Sunday, we took a train about 45 minutes from Cortona to Perugia for the Chocolate Festival which puts Perugia on the map for everyone around Europe, for a week anyway. There were roughly 150 vendors selling all sorts of chocolate items. Although I tend to be a vanilla girl, it was really interesting to see people carving giant chocolate sculptures and all the different things you can do with chocolate….believe me, there are a lot! We could have spent major euros trying the chocolate but there was a special pass we bought for very cheap that allowed us to go to several designated vendors and get free samples, many of which were whole chocolate bars and very nice. The only damper on the day was the rain and cold. We had planned to be there most of the day, but around lunch time it started raining heavily and got noticeably colder. At first it was an adventure and we didn’t mind the weather, but after the rain soaked everything in our bags, and everything on us, it was time to go home. There were so many people there we literally had to shove our way everywhere. I think the max number of times I said “permesso” in one minute was 20. Not kidding.
One challenge I have found with the language: it’s hard to joke with Italians. The languages, as with all languages, don’t translate literally. Little sayings and phrases that are funny in English, aren’t in Italian because they don’t understand the meaning behind it. Italians have phrases also. Example, we stopped to ask where a tabacchi was so we could buy bus tickets. The woman said what literally translates as something close to “200 foot steps up the hill”. After thanking her and walking out the door, we quickly realize 200 steps up isn’t going to lead us to anywhere. Later, we learn it is a phrase that means “a short walk”. Little things such as that give the culture much for character and makes the culture more appealing.
While sitting at an outdoor café in one of the major piazzas near the duomo, I realized how spoiled I am here. Cute little outdoor cafes are one of my favorite things at home so I am in heaven here! A good friend and I were drinking hot chocolate with whip cream and a complimentary sweet bread to dip in the drink when I thought of this. I couldn’t drink even half of it, it was just so chocolaty. I didn’t realize how much our American food is influenced by Italian food, but I discover more is everyday, literally. Hot chocolate really isn’t, it’s just thicker and less milk, but I don’t know how I am going to like returning to the states while knowing there are better forms of the same food in Italy. We have the fake stuff in the states, usually with preservatives. Many of my classes are site visits around the city such as Medici palaces and villas (and all things Medici because they basically built Firenze) so we don’t actually have “class”. One the way back from a photography class, we stop in for gelato. We travel around Europe on the weekends for fun. My host mom does EVERYTHING for me. All these and much more things make us incredibly spoiled, and I love it!!
Sarah
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