Arriving in a new country and knowing that you will be living there for three months can be overwhelming for most people but for me, I was so excited to fully emerge myself into the Florentine culture. I had heard so much about how beautiful Florence is and I couldn’t wait to call such a beautiful place, home. When I first ventured out of my apartment and started exploring the city with my roommate, I was surprised with how busy and chaotic the city was. I wasn’t seeing the beauty that people had been talking about. Everywhere I walked I felt like I was either going to be run over by a person, biker, moped, or car. I felt as though there was no order to how people maneuvered the city and it was at that moment that I felt like something was wrong. I didn’t understand what was happening because I had expected every inch of the city that I explored to be beautiful, just as everyone had told me. I didn’t let this get me down though and I just kept walking around the city to try to take it all in. There was one class in particular that made me realize that I was not the only one feeling this way. The first week of my cross cultural psychology class, the teacher asked us all to write about our first week in Florence as if we were writing a letter home to our parents. Shockingly to me, when we shared our thoughts in class almost everyone said that they were surprised by how chaotic the city was and how everything is kind of just stacked on top of each other here. There is definitely no wasted space in Florence. My teacher tried to make us understand that what we were experiencing was not “weird” it was just different than what we were used to and we needed to look beyond the surface. She was right. As the days passed by I spent more time taking in my surroundings and I began to see the beauty that everyone was talking about. Florence is filled with art and it only takes a few extra seconds to notice just how amazing the art is. A lot of it dates back to the Renaissance period and it’s amazing to see the architecture that they did that long ago. The Duomo is the center point that my friends and I used to figure out how to get around the city because it is SO huge (you’ll run into it eventually if you ever get lost) and SO amazing.
In particular though, our second day in Florence (Saturday September 9th) we had orientation for school(CAPA) in the morning. We basically just learned about the rules of the school and got to vaguely meet the other students. Orientation felt like foreverrrrrr but when we finally got out we explored a little more and then went to the bar right next to our apartment. We learned that they had just opened a week ago and didn’t even have a name yet. Grace and Giacomo are the owners and the sweetest people ever. We got a casual drink there and then headed to Reverse before going to our first club in Florence. Of course Santi was at Reverse and gave us some free shots. Overall it was a decent first night out but then all my roommates and I slept until 2:30pm the next day because we clearly had not adjusted to the 6 hour time change yet. That seemed to be the sleeping pattern for the entire first week in Florence though. Monday was the first day of classes and I had Italian and Psychology, both of which I really enjoyed. The classes were pretty typical and standard but it just felt better obviously because I’m in Florence, Italy. That night we went out again(to Bamboo) because apparently Monday nights are the night to go out in Florence. I don’t know if they do that because Mondays suck and they are trying to make them suck less but I really enjoy the tradition. It makes the start of the school week a positive thing rather than something to dread. We ended up finding where the grocery store was this week and luckily it is close to our apartment since we have to carry all our groceries back with us. Unlike in America, Italians don’t do their grocery shopping for a whole week. They go to the store every day and buy just what they need for one or two days. I don’t particularly like that but I also can’t carry back much groceries at once so I had to conform to their ways. There is also a nice farmers market behind our apartment that I can see from my bedroom window that has fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, bread, pasta and so much more. It’s awesome!!! It is so cheap too and the workers are super nice and help us out because we can’t speak Italian of course. Although, I am learning a lot in my Italian class so I feel pretty confident with a good amount of words and phrases for someone who has only been learning for a few weeks. I’m quickly falling in love with this city.
Oh… also CAPA took us on a hike in Fiesole which was not a very hard hike but it was so nice to be in nature again and get some exercise. I have been so busy to the point where I haven’t been able to work out much so I really enjoyed the hike. The views at the top were also amazing and our school leader (Lorenzo) brought his son and dog who lead the hike the whole time, it was adorable. Speaking of dogs, I swear EVERY Italian has a dog but they’re not as open to letting you pet their dogs so that’s kind of a different to me. At the end of the hike Lorenzo brought us all to an amazing Italian restaurant with pizza and pasta. I got a pizza that he recommended to me and honestly I’m not entirely sure what was on it but it was very very very good. BUT it was not as good as Gustapizza, which is right in Florence near the Arno River and it is hands down the best pizza I have ever had. They make it so fresh and fast because they use a brick over. I wish I could bring some back for everyone to try. Overall, these first two weeks could not have gone any better in my opinion. I love how everything is going and I haven’t felt homesick at all yet. The biggest message I’ve taken away from the first two weeks is that Florence is all about art and food.
Europe Through My Lens 