I have now been going through my intensive Italian Course for about 2 weeks now and I have to say, I am TIRED. I knew this would happen though. I have been through the exhaustion of constantly immersing yourself in a new language. It is difficult, frustrating and you usually feel like you are gaining absolutely no ground. Here in Italy, the transition may not be as extreme when I went to Sweden not knowing any Swedish. However, it is exhausting just the same.
Let me explain how I can be exhausted even though I live in a vacation destination.
1) Because Italian is not my native language (Obviously), I constantly have to translate every word I say from English into Italian before I actually speak it. Even when I am having simple conversations it is just natural for me to think it in English and then say what I need to say in Italian. This means that my brain is never fully resting when I am out and about or even just hanging out at home. As any college student can agree to, thinking is hard! The good news is that when my Italian gets better, this will soon go away. Eventually, I will not be translating anymore. A cat will simply be un gatto, my mind will learn to function in Italian. To make it easier on myself though, I have been walking to a place in the city that has fig trees and reading. For me, spending a few hours alone with a good (English!) book gives my mind the respite it desires.
2) Living with a host mom. I absolutely love my host mom, she is so sweet and helps me with Italian as well as makes sure that I am fed and happy. She does a fantastic job of doing anything she needs to do in order to make me feel comfortable here. That being said, I am still living in a stranger's house. It is only natural to feel less at ease in a house that is not your own with a mother that you met 2 weeks ago. I am constantly making sure that I am polite and respectful of her home. Of course, this is what is expected of me and if I welcomed a college student into my home I would expect no less. Sometimes though, you just need to be in your own bed in comfortable surroundings for your mind to be completely at ease.
3) Constantly being around new people. Anyone that knows me will immediately understand why this would exhaust me. Being around so many people wears out my energy and I often find that I need a little alone time to recover. This does not mean that I hate people or I am anti-social. I am simply an introvert and even though I love the people in my program, it does use a lot of energy for me to always be around 20 people that I hardly know. I am usually at home in a group of only a few people that I know extremely well but I am getting along fantastically with everyone and I feel that as time goes on it will become a bit less difficult for me to be around everyone all at once.
4) 5 hours of anything every day is tiring. This one is self-explanatory, I have 5 hours of Italian every day and that would make anyone tired.
5) Last but not least, being away from Aaron is really difficult. I am not quite sure how to explain it but being away from him sort of makes me feel like I am never fully energized. He is the one person that understands me the best and being around him does not drain my energy because I don't have to try to be anything special around him. I am doing so many amazing things here and Aaron is always in the back of my mind because I wish I could share this adventure with him.
So even though my facebook may make it seem like my life is one never ending party, I wanted to make this blog to show everyone the reality of living abroad. It is difficult. There are things that drain the energy from you and may make you really wish sometimes that maybe one thing could be familiar and then maybe everything would be easier. For example, every day I wish that there was a shower curtain for my shower. But there isn't and that is just something that you have to adjust to, I have learned to just deal with the fact that there is a mirror right in from of me and yeah, its totally awkward.
Despite the difficult things though, there are amazing things that happen everyday that make you so happy that nothing is familiar. Because if everything was familiar, would you still be amazed? Doubt it.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
What is it like to be thrown into a new culture?
It has been a week since I arrived in Italy and I am slowly finding my footing in Siena. I can find my way around if I am trying to get to the school or the main Piazza. Anywhere else is really a guessing game though, the good thing is that Siena is so small that if you are lost you will most likely find something you recognize in less than 10 minutes. My program made us do several activities that aimed to teach us how to find out way around and they were so helpful!
The first day, our host families showed us the way to get to school from our homes. I walk about 30 minutes to get to class but I could take the bus if I felt like being lazy. I really love the walk because I get to take 30 minutes to watch and listen to Italian people. That may make me a creeper but It's a great way to observe the Italian way of life. After getting to class, we took a tour of Siena and then came back and took our Italian placement tests. I got placed in the advanced class with 3 other students, I was so surprised! Not much happened this day really but it was exciting to start talking to the other american students and getting to know my future friends.
The next day we began our Italian lessons (which we have 5 hours a day for 3 weeks). These are exhausting and go very slowly with only 4 people. I can definitely tell that they are making my Italian so much better and every day I come home with the ability to say more things to my host mom. I can now have a real conversation about my stance on American politics with my host mom when she asks. This is fantastic because all this Syria business is very important and I was very interested to know what opinion an Italian might have on the matter. Turns out, my host mom is just as Liberal as I am and completely opposes American intervention in Syria. Who knew that Italians disagree with nearly ever political move America makes? (oh, wait, everyone knows that!). It is also interesting to note that American politics makes up a large portion of the news programs here, it was also like this in Sweden. People in the U.S. sometimes don't realize that the actions of our government really are scrutinized by everyone in the world and that it is extremely important for everyone in the U.S. to be informed about what our government is doing because it affects so many people.
This past weekend wasn't too tiring but I was still getting used to the time change so I seemed to be endlessly exhausted. Thankfully I am now fully recovered from JetLag. Sunday, I got a new addition to my host family! A new student from New York is staying my my host mom and I until December so now we have a full house. This is great because there is always someone to talk to and I don't ever have to be bored. This is also a bit difficult for me because anyone who knows me well knows that I need my alone time, which doesn't really happen. Maybe when I have a more steady schedule I will be able to sneak away a few times a week and find a nice spot in the city to read for a while.
On Monday, we started our intensive Italian course and so far I am still working hard at it even though 5 hours of Italian language in a row kinda makes me want to slink under a rock somewhere. I will Talk more about this week when I post another blog post this weekend.
Ciao! (P.S. I gave up looking for spelling errors so do me a favor and ignore any that you may find!)
The first day, our host families showed us the way to get to school from our homes. I walk about 30 minutes to get to class but I could take the bus if I felt like being lazy. I really love the walk because I get to take 30 minutes to watch and listen to Italian people. That may make me a creeper but It's a great way to observe the Italian way of life. After getting to class, we took a tour of Siena and then came back and took our Italian placement tests. I got placed in the advanced class with 3 other students, I was so surprised! Not much happened this day really but it was exciting to start talking to the other american students and getting to know my future friends.
The next day we began our Italian lessons (which we have 5 hours a day for 3 weeks). These are exhausting and go very slowly with only 4 people. I can definitely tell that they are making my Italian so much better and every day I come home with the ability to say more things to my host mom. I can now have a real conversation about my stance on American politics with my host mom when she asks. This is fantastic because all this Syria business is very important and I was very interested to know what opinion an Italian might have on the matter. Turns out, my host mom is just as Liberal as I am and completely opposes American intervention in Syria. Who knew that Italians disagree with nearly ever political move America makes? (oh, wait, everyone knows that!). It is also interesting to note that American politics makes up a large portion of the news programs here, it was also like this in Sweden. People in the U.S. sometimes don't realize that the actions of our government really are scrutinized by everyone in the world and that it is extremely important for everyone in the U.S. to be informed about what our government is doing because it affects so many people.
This past weekend wasn't too tiring but I was still getting used to the time change so I seemed to be endlessly exhausted. Thankfully I am now fully recovered from JetLag. Sunday, I got a new addition to my host family! A new student from New York is staying my my host mom and I until December so now we have a full house. This is great because there is always someone to talk to and I don't ever have to be bored. This is also a bit difficult for me because anyone who knows me well knows that I need my alone time, which doesn't really happen. Maybe when I have a more steady schedule I will be able to sneak away a few times a week and find a nice spot in the city to read for a while.
On Monday, we started our intensive Italian course and so far I am still working hard at it even though 5 hours of Italian language in a row kinda makes me want to slink under a rock somewhere. I will Talk more about this week when I post another blog post this weekend.
Ciao! (P.S. I gave up looking for spelling errors so do me a favor and ignore any that you may find!)
Saturday, September 7, 2013
This is just the beginning...
Ciao a Tutti!
I have now been here in Siena, Italy for 4 days and I have to say that I am extremely impressed! I came here not really knowing what to expect. I knew it was Tuscany and it was beautiful, great, fun and all those generic descriptive words but WOW, just WOW. Siena is beyond any place I have ever been to before. It has been preserved to look nearly exactly like it did in 1500. It is filled with interesting people and many places to explore. I am so excited to get 4 months here but somehow I feel like that will not be quite enough.
I arrived here Wednesday morning after a 9 hour flight with a belligerent drunk woman by by side, no sleep to be had. She thought she made a new best friend while I thought otherwise. As soon as we arrived in Rome, my friend (who randomly ended up on the same flight as me) and I made our way towards customs and then exited the terminal to find the designated meeting place for our group. We eventually found a group of about 35 students who looked just as lost and excited as us and decided that we must belong together. Indeed we did and about 1 hour later we all found ourselves together on our bus to Siena. In just a short 3 hours we found ourselves quite suddenly given to the complete strangers that would live with for the duration of our stay.
Another girl and I were put into the capable hands of two older women who promptly kissed us on both cheeks and brought us to their car. Turns out, neither of them spoke one word of English! I immediately had a small internal freak-out but as soon as they said something about dinner I pretty much got over any anxiety. It doesn't matter if I don't understand what you are saying as long as you fill my stomach right?
Anyways, my host mother has turned out to be extremely welcoming and just plain fantastic. As many Italian women do, especially older ones, Laura makes sure that my every need is fulfilled and keeps offering even after you say no several times. This is just how they are here, to serve someone in your home is the best way of making them feel welcome. I definitely feel comfortable here, and I am being fed fantastically! One thing that has come as a surprise to me is that I have been able to communicate fairly easily with my host mother. Who knew that 4 years of Italian actually do stick in your brain? They just hide until they are forced to come into use. However, I still need a lot of work but being able to speak Italian makes it much easier to communicate with Laura. She has also hosted several students from the U.S. and she really knows what she is doing so hopefully things will continue to go smoothly.
This post isn't very comprehensive but all of my orientation activities these few days have drained my energy and I will wait until tomorrow to tell you everything that I have had the chance to do in just these few days. I just thought this would be a good time to tell all of you that I am alive, I do NOT live with a crazy person and that I can actually speak Italian. If you want to know anything specific just make a comment and I will definitely make sure to answer!
A domani,
Haley
I have now been here in Siena, Italy for 4 days and I have to say that I am extremely impressed! I came here not really knowing what to expect. I knew it was Tuscany and it was beautiful, great, fun and all those generic descriptive words but WOW, just WOW. Siena is beyond any place I have ever been to before. It has been preserved to look nearly exactly like it did in 1500. It is filled with interesting people and many places to explore. I am so excited to get 4 months here but somehow I feel like that will not be quite enough.
I arrived here Wednesday morning after a 9 hour flight with a belligerent drunk woman by by side, no sleep to be had. She thought she made a new best friend while I thought otherwise. As soon as we arrived in Rome, my friend (who randomly ended up on the same flight as me) and I made our way towards customs and then exited the terminal to find the designated meeting place for our group. We eventually found a group of about 35 students who looked just as lost and excited as us and decided that we must belong together. Indeed we did and about 1 hour later we all found ourselves together on our bus to Siena. In just a short 3 hours we found ourselves quite suddenly given to the complete strangers that would live with for the duration of our stay.
Another girl and I were put into the capable hands of two older women who promptly kissed us on both cheeks and brought us to their car. Turns out, neither of them spoke one word of English! I immediately had a small internal freak-out but as soon as they said something about dinner I pretty much got over any anxiety. It doesn't matter if I don't understand what you are saying as long as you fill my stomach right?
Anyways, my host mother has turned out to be extremely welcoming and just plain fantastic. As many Italian women do, especially older ones, Laura makes sure that my every need is fulfilled and keeps offering even after you say no several times. This is just how they are here, to serve someone in your home is the best way of making them feel welcome. I definitely feel comfortable here, and I am being fed fantastically! One thing that has come as a surprise to me is that I have been able to communicate fairly easily with my host mother. Who knew that 4 years of Italian actually do stick in your brain? They just hide until they are forced to come into use. However, I still need a lot of work but being able to speak Italian makes it much easier to communicate with Laura. She has also hosted several students from the U.S. and she really knows what she is doing so hopefully things will continue to go smoothly.
This post isn't very comprehensive but all of my orientation activities these few days have drained my energy and I will wait until tomorrow to tell you everything that I have had the chance to do in just these few days. I just thought this would be a good time to tell all of you that I am alive, I do NOT live with a crazy person and that I can actually speak Italian. If you want to know anything specific just make a comment and I will definitely make sure to answer!
A domani,
Haley
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