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Friday, January 31, 2003
And finally I arrive with my first update from Italy. I actually have written about four pages of notes from everything that went on in Rome, so this will just serve as a quick update of where I am right now.
We got to Florence on Wednesday, two days ago. The city is fantastic, and I already like it much more than Rome. Everything here is much more managible, friendly, and beautiful (in its own respects). It's a bit confusing to find my way around everywhere, but at least the city itself is fairly small and managable - you can make it most anywhere in the city within 20 minutes, and you get to see some great sights along the way.
Unfortunately, my apartment situation is quite horrible at the moment. I'm rooming with one other guy, David, who is actually pretty much the only other guy I get along with on the program (there are only five other guys, all of which are the fraternity types I would avoid at home). It's the apartment itself that is the slums: dirty, old, no privacy, and absolutely tiny. Things may have been different if everyone in the program's apartment had been like this, but everyone elses apartments are absolutely beautiful, places you might picture in Beverly Hills, with shining polished hardword floors, chandeliers, sprawling cielings, dozens of framed paintings, and terraces overlooking sights like the river Arno or the Duomo.
Me and my roomate complained about this issue, and got immediate results, as one of the staff members here called and found two studios for us within five minutes. We looked at those yesterday, and while there's no question that they're better, they are still a bit small - it is very nice though to have the option of having my own apartment. At 4:00 today we'll be looking at another place, which may be the last as it sounded like there weren't too many other options around. I really hope this place today is good, though I wouldn't be too upset if I end up with my own studio.
Every day I feel like I'm getting more and more of a feel for this place, whether it be finding essential places or learning how to deal better in shops and cafes. Me and Leanne have only been out to eat alone once, and that time the person spoke English, so we haven't truely been tested in terms of our ability to deal in Italian, but I'm sure we'll have to face that soon enough. As of today we've been eating out with a group of people where at least one of them speaks Italian fairly well, but I think that's a pretty good introduction to the culture. The Italians have been extremely nice so far, and I've felt little to no anti-tourist (or American) sentiments, and I try my best to speak Italian and be respectful. My experience in the Spanish language has been very helpful so far, and I'm getting along fairly well in places with just a little Italian. Also, the phrase book that I bought has come in very handy.
I really hope to settle into an apartment soon, because the general market here is fantastic, and in any case I need to start cooking to save money from going out every evening. You can get a filling lunch here for under $2.00 quite often, but dinners always run at least $10.00. Then again, that includes an entire bottle of wine for $6.00. This is often the house wine, which is fantastic. I never used to like red wine until I came here, and the price is unbeatable. Oh, and being able to actually order it by myself is quite nice.
That's all I will write for now. Expect a very large update of all my Rome experiences in the next day or two. Also some very good news is that I'm pretty sure I'll be able to put up pictures fairly soon! Chao.
posted by Jon at 2:03 PM
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