ottobre...

2/10/08
Soccer game against Italians
Some Americans in usac have formed a sort of soccer team to play against other Italian students on Thursday nights sometimes. Soccer is like the sport for Italians.. except that the girls rarely play, which I found weird. Today we went and watched a game while eating some pastries we bought on the way (doing clearly the opposite of all the players in this game.. sitting around eating sugary things). While soccer may be in the Italians blood, I think our usac team still won a match, so that’s exciting!

3/10/08
Tonight we tried to cook dinner in our “kitchen”. Our kitchen has 4 hot plates, 2 of which work and even those 2 don’t work well. Caitlin put in a load of laundry and the water hadn’t started boiling until her second load was almost done (45 minutes)! So even our simplest dishes of pasta with tomato sauce and some type of pre-cooked chicken patties took fooorrrrreeeevvvveeerrr. After it was all cooked it was nice to eat.. but it took so long that we never really want to do it again, so its back to eating out ever night for us. Too bad we don’t have a microwave/oven!

4/10/08
Today we went to Roma! Specifically for the purpose of going to the Euroma 2 mall, probably because we heard they have an h&m and we were looking for some store where we knew the clothes would fit and be reasonably priced, since Italians are tiny the clothes here tend to be tiny and the cheapest stores are these stores run by Chinese people with random imported stuff from china, where I have found a bunch of good stuff, but that run really small because Asian women are particularly tiny! So we took the train to the metro to the bus stop to the mall. The mall was huge! It had three floors and lots of stores, mostly ones I hadn’t heard of, except they did have a huge Coop on the bottom floor that was so much better than ours and cheaper! If Viterbo was closer to the airport then maybe all the import fees added to our favorite American foods wouldn’t be so high! Anyways we started at the top floor, with the food court, to get some lunch before shopping. They had Chinese food, sushi and subway! I was so happy to have a turkey sandwich for the first time in forever. Later, a couple floors down, we had gelato, mint stracciatella! Then we walked around the huge circle mall for like 5 hours.. buying a couple things each. I got a sweater and a shirt. It was really crowded, maybe because it was raining. After we took the metro back into Rome, walked around a bit to the Trevi fountain, and found a restaurant to eat in before heading back to the train station and going back to Viterbo.

slow down

where is the time going?!!?! seriously, this post was supposed to be entitled "i can't believe it's already october", but apparently we're like reaching mid-november now. i have been so busy its not even funny, partly with massive amounts of schoolwork (seriously, italy.. i thought this school part was gonna be easy), partly with travel, which leaves no time for this blog.. but i'm trying! because i really don't want to forget anything of this amazing experience. so here is a list of italian and american differences that i've been putting together since day one.. just so i can feel productive by posting something and so i can catch up on this past month in the mean time!

Differences between Italy and the US: (not necessarily bad or good.. just different)

• Everything is smaller – I noticed this even just getting out of the airport when I first arrived. Airports at home are these huge sprawling things (I should know, I spent practically everyday there this past summer at work). Even the airport for Rome is small by American standards. Or maybe just short. Things here just seem smaller like shorter, height wise. Buildings also aren’t as tall. Cars are tiny! Roads have less lanes, shoulders are almost non-existent. City streets are narrow, shops are smaller, ceilings are lower.
• Times things are open – this is a big one. In the middle of the day things close for a “pausa di pranza” or a lunch break. Usually this is from 1-4 and includes everything except the cafes and restaurants. So a typical work day for Italians is almost like 2 separate days, because they might work like 9-1 and then go home, eat lunch with the family and take a nap, then return to work for 4-8. Those hours are approximate, however, because a lot of things aren’t even open that late, so maybe Italians just work less than us! In addition to that, everything is closed Sunday all day and Monday morning, and most things are closed on Saturday and Thursday afternoons. With us having to be in class or doing orientation activities it has definitely made it difficult to find time to go to a store when it is open.
• Italy/Italians are more laid back/relaxed – this probably seems pretty obvious since they go home and take naps in the middle of the day. Plus their meals are longer, they take their time in doing things. No one shows up on time either. This is really different than America’s get things done as fast as possible mentality. Also, no one in a restaurant brings you the check until you ask, so you can sit there for as long as you want.
• The passegiata – everyone goes out before dinner and after dinner.. actually they are always out! Just to walk around town. Stefano explained that it’s like a “to see and be seen” kind of thing. And it’s uncommon for Italians to have people over to their apartments. Instead they go out. They even have a law about quiet hours for housing everywhere in Italy. However public areas don’t count, I guess. The first few weeks, there were a ton of people out at night, even late, like midnight or 1 am, just walking around or getting gelato. I don’t know if that was more because of all the things going on for the Santa Rosa festival (fair, street vendors etc.) or because the weather was so nice. Even now that its colder, passegiata is really popular and I still see people out late (less kids though, they have school now).
• People dress nice! – In general, people dress way nicer here. Guys and girls. Guys wear fitted clothing and usually colored shirts (polos or button downs). Girls wear skinny jeans, cute tennis shoes, flats or boots, and usually wear only dark colors or black. And of course no outfit is complete without a scarf (for guys and girls)! And a bag.. man purses are the thing here. They told us no one wears jeans, but that’s not true. They also said flip flops are only for the house, but some Italians do wear them. Though, with all the walking it might not be the best idea. And even though everyone looks nice, people wear jeans for everything here! Like to work, for example I saw someone who worked at the post office wearing nice jeans or my professors.. that would never happen in the US.
• People walk a lot! – We walk everywhere, and while some people have cars, I don’t think it’s as common (you think gas is expensive in the US? You should see it here). From our dorm I think the school is like a mile and a half, and I’m going to have to be there everyday. One girl actually measured how much we walked with her pedometer and it seemed like on average we would walk like 7-10 miles a day! I can’t wait until my feet are adjusted because right now they hurt. And so do my legs. Because there are a lot of hills here and everything is uneven cobblestones.
• The sense of community – maybe it’s because it’s a smaller city, but people here seem to really come together and enjoy seeing each other on their passegiata. Plus everyone came out for all the Santa Rosa festivities. Also people know each other at the shops and stores. It’s just really cute. In Italy they are really opposed to automated things that take you away from the interaction with people. So even news stands or little things like that require you to talk to a person.
• Food – of course the food here is great! I knew it would be. Ingredients are so fresh. Their idea of fast food is like pizza, which is still better and more fresh, and I’m sure healthy, than any other fast food in the US. The bad thing is that we aren’t really supposed to drink the tap water, and it is definitely not served at restaurants, so “acqua naturale” can get expensive at restaurants. Water is usually fizzy (fizzante or gassata) here, which I hate! Naturale has no bubbles, or a really small amount. And coffee is really different! They don’t have huge coffees or to-go cups. Usually they drink the straight espresso shots and you stand at a bar to drink it because it cost more if you sit down. There are larger drinks, like a cappuccino, but even then you use the little coffee break as an excuse to get out and meet with people, not just to grab it and go. Also they eat for longer amounts of time, in more courses, later in the day (10 at night is not an unusual dinner time!) Typical breakfast seems to be a pastry (usually filled with chocolate or cream, and I like sweet things, but at that time of day even that is too sweet for me!) and a caffe/espresso. Lunch can have multiple courses (un primo piatto e secondo piatto, un contorno) or you can just grab a panini or a pizza. Dinner also has courses, but by 10 pm we don’t usually eat all of them!
• A/C – there is none! Anywhere! Ok well not anywhere, but its rare. My dorm doesn’t have it, most restaurants don’t either. I think some of the classrooms at school do, and hotels do (but you are paying for that obviously). And don’t think its not hot here! It was like 90 and sunny and humid during the day when I arrived. Luckily we have the massive amounts of gelato to cool us off.
• Laundry – there are no dryers! Homes and our dorms don’t have them. Some Laundromats do I think. Everyone just hangs their clothes outside on clothes lines to dry, which I still kind of can’t get over. Line drying just takes forever and makes the clothes all stiff! But for some reason or another (energy?) no one uses it. I think it can fit like half the load size we are used to. And everyone who has tried it hasn’t gotten it right yet, the cycle takes like 2 hours and you have to reset it to rinse or something like that so there is a possibility of the clothes coming out soapy!
• Money – using cash is a lot more common. I was expecting this coming in, but I’m so used to using my card to buy anything and everything no matter how small the price in the US that I guess it still surprises me that it just isn’t so common here. Plus I don’t really like carrying around cash. And not to mention while everyone uses cash, no store accepts/has the change for big bills!
• People aren’t as loud – they are louder than French people, but quieter than Americans... well most of the time. if they are yelling to eachother, they are definitely louder. Though, I think our group is pretty easily spotted as the group of loud obnoxious Americans. Especially when it’s all 43 of us.
• Cars are a lot smaller than in the US, but gas costs so much! And the roads are small. So people either have small cars or vespas.
• You pay for plastic grocery bags here. Better for the environment?
• Cars don’t stop for pedestrians! Corssing the street here is like like performing a death-defying feat. And if you don’t just go, no one will ever let you cross. So find an opening, don’t look them in the eye, and make a run for it!
• Salad dressing is non-existent. All the salads I have had only have olive oil on them. Haven’t they ever heard of Italian dressing?
• Self service restaurants (tavola calda) are not actually restaurants where you serve yourself. You pick something and then they give you it on a plate, you sit down and then they clean the table after you. So why is it called self-service?
• Tip is included in restaurant bill, but sometimes there is a fee charged per person just for sitting down at a restaurant. Same goes for cafes where there is an option to sit or to stand, standing is free!
• Everything is old! Because when they want to make something new here, they don’t bulldoze the perfectly fine building, they just put something new inside. The example they told us about was a store named Schenardi in Viterbo that has been so many different things over the past couple hundred years including a hotel, bar and a McDonalds. Every Italian town I have been to just looks so much older than places in the US. They have modern buildings too, but they do a good job of preserving their history (which is luckily usually sturdily built buildings) but also making it accessible to everyone (like its not in a museum where you cant touch it or understand the context.
• Vending machines have alcohol and cigarettes! (There is no actual drinking age).
• Guys and girls both wear small bathing suits!
• Most Italian towns are filled with fountains and squares, where people meet and also have, potabile, drinkable, water for everyone.
• Bidets are everywhere! Toilet seats (this one really grosses me out, apparently it’s because people steal them), soap and/or towels are not. Bidets, by the way, are expensive. And I’ve never even used mine. Couldn’t you have used that money to buy an air conditioner or something?!
• I have more mosquito bites now than ever before, thanks to there being no screens in windows and no A/C so I have to keep it wide open.
• Everyone stares, nobody smiles, and yes Italian guys can be (slash usually are) creepy.
• School supplies are so different! And at this point when we just arrived and classes started and we didn’t have anything, it was really frustrating trying to find things that were similar to stuff in the US. All the paper is graph paper, loose leaf is non existent, as are spiral notebooks. I lucked out and found some sort of lined paper but there are no margins in it and it’s hard to rip out. And I couldn’t find any folders to put things in.
• There is no ice in drinks or and there aren’t condiments included with food (for free anyways).
• They love outdoor markets! Which, by the way, sell anything and everything.
• The grading system is based mainly on the final exam and maybe another test thrown in there. That makes it way harder! Even though we are required to go to class, that participation part is only like 10 percent of our grade. Also little mistakes are worth a lot of points and trying harder grammatical constructions or writing more doesn’t get you more points here.. but making mistakes while attempting either does lose you more. Basically the opposite of everything I’ve been taught!
• They don’t refrigerate the milk here.. and I haven’t decided if I think that is ok, like as in safe. I definitely think it’s gross. Warm milk = not good.