First Impressions

This week has been a complete whirlwind. Starting in Charlotte I was able to successfully make it to Philadelphia and then to Frankfurt, Germany without any travel hiccups. Although our time was limited in Germany, it was quite an adventure to be surrounded by such a large collection of foreigners all at once.  This was my first experience in a foreign country and I quickly realized that my "accent" was extremely difficult to understand.  An employee in the Frankfurt airport bluntly told me that he could not understand my "American accent".  What American accent? All these years I was certain that they were the ones with the accent, not me. I wasn't sure wether to be insulted by his remark or proud of my American roots.
   Once in Florence I found my three other roommates and the four of us seemed to blindly navigate ourselves to our apartment.  It is apparently in a great location which I am sure I will appreciate more when I better understand the layout of the city.  The first thing I noticed after lugging all our crap up two flights of stairs was how cold it was in the apartment. I thought for sure the heat must not have been cut on yet because there's no way I should be shivering cold at one o'clock in the afternoon inside my new home. I was wrong. All the roumers I heard about Italians using less heat in their homes were exactly accurate. After realizing this delimma my immediate reaction was to crank up my heated electric blanket to ensure I didn't freeze to death before dinner time.  After fumbling with converters and setting up the blanket I was ready to plug that baby in ASAP.  Unfortunately my over excitement cost myself and my roommates electricity for the rest of the day because my blanket blew a fuse.  We also soon realized that we were locked out of all wifi connections making it somewhat difficult to contact our families.  Four girls, no heat, no electricity, no Internet- stranded in Italy. It certainly was an interesting start to the trip.
   Anyways, we managed to get our power back on and my blanket working (thank God), and after a necessary four hour nap I woke up ready to grub on some real Italian cuisine.  We walked around Florence hungry and excited to see the town we will be living in until May. Walking around we saw magnificent buildings decorated with beautiful sculptures.  I attempted to take pictures of the scenery but the images do absolutely no justice to the  beauty of this place.  Also while touring around searching for a place to dine we encountered our first taste of harassment by many Italian men desperate for us to eat in their restaurants. Feeling very out of our element the four of us felt naturally pulled to eat at a bar located close to our apartment. Our first meal consisted of pizza and beer (how American).  Later we were able to purchase three bottles of wine for only ten euro (what a steal!).
   So here I am at 4:29 am (my time) writing this from my iPad on a note because we still have no Internet and I cannot sleep because my body has never been so confused in her life. But what the heck I'm in Italy!!!!

Anticipation!

     Surprisingly, packing for a semester abroad has not exactly been a top priority as I wait for January 24th to roll around.  Instead I have been panicking about what to expect as I am emersed in Italy's culture.  Considering I don't know a single Italian word, the language barrier alone ought to be a laughable struggle to overcome.  Besides learning a new language I am also anticipating I will have to learn an abundance of new social norms.  Through my Google research efforts, I have discovered a variety of differences in social behaviors between our culture and Europe's culture. First off, I found that our country's idea of personal space is much different from that of Europe's.  Where American's tend to exploit the "don't touch me" attitude as they interact with each other, apparently Italians represent the opposite end of the spectrum and are extremely comfortable with a hands on approach as they communicate.  Learning a different culture's socializing norms should allow for plenty of awkward moments and confusion to come.
     Beyond the differences in communication styles, and much more importantly, the biggest challenge I will face over the next four months will be enduring a life without peanut butter.  Despite my constant denial, it's true, there is "no such thing" as peanut butter in Italy.  How these people survive without PB& J's or Reese's peanut butter cups is beyond me, and is a tragedy I am not yet willing to accept.  Anyways, besides leaving behind some of my favorite Jiff enriched snacks, I am eager to start a life in Europe filled with new friends, new places, and lots of studying (that last one is for you, Mom and Dad).