Thursday, September 4, 2009
During orientation, our administrators told us that studying abroad could be a frustrating cultural shock that springs you back and forth between infatuation and total hatred of the culture. This is true...but I'm in love.
The past several days have been an absolute whirlwind that a "type A" person such as myself finds remarkably stressful. But today I applied for my permesso di soggiorno, bought a phone, found a hair dryer and straightner, and got internet! Great succesa! I had a short panic attack when I couldn't find an ATM that would accept my debit card and the bankers in their oh-so-modern-space-age banks (seriously, I had to give my fingerprint to get into one place) rambled on in Italian that my card would not be accepted...but it's all been fixed and I ended the day at an aperitivo. What is an aperitivo? A wonderful concept, that's what. Buy one drink (a glass of red wine for me) and eat as many of the delicious Italian appetizers you can. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be followed with dinner, but for poor college students such as ourseleves, it is dinner. Wrap up the night with a panna cotta gelato that melts in your mouth and you've got the most perfectly relaxing meal ever consumed. No wonder Italians are always so calm.
Tomorrow, I hit the coast for a day on the beaches of Follonica. Yes, it's love.
During orientation, our administrators told us that studying abroad could be a frustrating cultural shock that springs you back and forth between infatuation and total hatred of the culture. This is true...but I'm in love.
The past several days have been an absolute whirlwind that a "type A" person such as myself finds remarkably stressful. But today I applied for my permesso di soggiorno, bought a phone, found a hair dryer and straightner, and got internet! Great succesa! I had a short panic attack when I couldn't find an ATM that would accept my debit card and the bankers in their oh-so-modern-space-age banks (seriously, I had to give my fingerprint to get into one place) rambled on in Italian that my card would not be accepted...but it's all been fixed and I ended the day at an aperitivo. What is an aperitivo? A wonderful concept, that's what. Buy one drink (a glass of red wine for me) and eat as many of the delicious Italian appetizers you can. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be followed with dinner, but for poor college students such as ourseleves, it is dinner. Wrap up the night with a panna cotta gelato that melts in your mouth and you've got the most perfectly relaxing meal ever consumed. No wonder Italians are always so calm.
Tomorrow, I hit the coast for a day on the beaches of Follonica. Yes, it's love.
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