The Good The Bad and the Italian

Location:

Saci definitely had something against us when they gave us our housing, we are the only ones to be on this side of town and the only people who have a twenty minute walk to get to school. Now this wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that we have to walk through the market to get there, the very market that at orientation the school tells you to avoid if possible and not to walk through at night. Well, that’s going to be a little hard seeing as I have a class till 8pm and cabs are ridiculously expensive here so that is not an option. They pretty much can charge extra for any little thing, time of day, number of people etc.

Apartment:

Luckily I have my own room, but having six girls in one apartment makes it very cramped. The first day we moved in we paid our landlord 20 euros to be able to use his wifi, which was awesome. Until the next day when it no longer worked and we had to go sit in the hall to get any bars, but for now it seems to be sort of working if you sit really close to the front door. Another problem with the apartment is we have no hot water, which needs to be fixed asap, since I hate cold water. Finally, my other gripe is over not having an oven, even though I don’t really cook it would be nice to have, because this is the one place that might inspire some culinary skills.

Getting Around:

It took me four days but I can now successfully find my way around the city, for the most part. This was the part I hated the most and was causing lots of frustration. As I mentioned we live further than anyone else and the streets here are very confusing because some of them change names half way down. Today A and I went on a long walk in every which direction getting lost on purpose so we could really learn the city. We went to the duomo and the ponte vecchio and over to the rose gardens.

It’s a very disconcerting feeling not knowing where you are or how to get to where you want to go. Something we found out on our first excursion to Ikea. Via the internet we discovered there was a free shuttle to the store., so we asked at the reception desk at school. They told us it left from the train station and says Ikea on it, which sounds simply but was not. We get to the train station and walk around searching for this bus. We cant find it so I go in the station and ask someone where it is, they tell us it’s across the street on via Nazionale. By this time we’ve missed the bus so we decide to walk in that general direction and get a snack. I then end up asking, in Italian mind you, the gelato guy where the bus stops, all I can understand is straight ahead and on the right. So as it comes closer and closer to the time for the next shuttle we begin frantically searching for it, however we can’t find it. We ask two other places, one tells us its bus number 30 the other tells us its in front of the tour busses. By this time we’ve missed the shuttle again. Just as we are about to make the trek home we see people with Ikea bags who helpfully point out the bust stop which is in none of the spots we were told. I think Saci needs to be a little more organized and helpful with these directions.
First Impressions

For the first couple of days I didn’t even feel like I was in Florence, or another country. Probably, due to the fact that I’m living with all people I know from home so it felt like I was just in Boston. I like that we are all together, but t I really wished they had put me with people I didn’t know so I could have met new people. When I wrote this a few days ago I was feeling slightly negative about the whole situation. I was sick of living so far away from everything and constantly being surrounded by people. But, I’ve finally adjusted to it after walking around and taking in the sights.

One other very overwhelming experience was going to the supermarket, where of course everything is in Italian. It took me the longest time to decide what to buy and finding milk was the hardest because all I could read on the bottle was fresh pasteurized milk, so I had no idea if it was skim or what not. Also it was so crowded but I managed and I’m sure it will be much easier the second time.