Friday, February 19, 2010

Cultura, Cultura, Cultura!


Here are just a few things about life in Italia. I make these comments with the utmost love because things here are just different, and you can’t qualify them as better or worse.


Cultural notes, etc.:

· Italians do not appear to use notebooks. The only notebooks available are filled with graph paper. I have no idea why.

· There is a bakery on every corner.

· Florence is mostly comprised of four groups of things in this order: shops devoted to food, clothing stores, churches/ museums, and hotels.

· Italians walk like they drive: aggressive. If you want to make it in this town, you better be walking with a purpose.

· Bikes, vespas, and cars all coexist and operate on the road together. Though it’s not legal, bikes frequently go against traffic. Smart cars are nearly square and frequently park perpendicular to the curb in parallel parking spots.

· For a foreigner, trains are the best way to travel the country on a budget.

· There are (almost) no bagels here.

· There are no commercial food chains other than the occasional McDonald’s.

· Blondes are a hot commodity.


Living in an Italian apartment:

· Be prepared to cook like you have never cooked before. We have a gas stove. No problem… until you want to use it. There isn’t a pilot and the burners are very temperamental to light. You may, or may not, nearly light your hand on fire the first few times.

· The oven only cooks on the top. Plan accordingly.

· The washer holds a maximum of one outfit. Each load takes 2.5 hours to do and even after it has finished, you have to wait until the door actually wants to open (what!?!?!). Needless to say, there are no dryers and you do actually line dry your clothes. It’s not just in the movies. Love it!

· You can always see your neighbors. Without fail, I see an old man open his window every morning and stare down at the street for at least ten minutes. Occasionally, he will see me as I’m making tea in the morning and just watch as if I’m the weird one. I swear that one of these days, I’m just going to yell, “Ciao!” and see if he responds.


Things I’m super excited about:

· There is a cafĂ© called “Mama’s Bakery” that sells bagels… and cream cheese… and American coffee. I dearly love espresso and cappuccino, but sometimes I just want drip coffee with cream (as opposed to milk).

· I have found, by our definition, a supermarket. Otherwise, you go separately to your baker, your butcher, and your produce guy.

o Some interesting things about the supermarket: it is always mobbed, you pay for bags, and you always pick up fruits and veggies with plastic gloves to put them in the bag.

· The Duomo is real. It looks that beautiful all the time and is, in fact, not a blow up toy about to be popped at any moment. I don’t ever let myself walk by without looking at it because there will one day soon where it will no longer be on my route to class.

· Almost everyday, and especially at night when all the buildings are beautifully lit up, I have an epiphany about how lucky I am to be here. It always seems unreal that this city is my home.

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