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Published: August 29th 2010
I cannot even BELIEVE it's been just four days since I arrived in Italy. So much has happened. I'm in a constant state of being stunned silent, confused, feeling stupid, and trying to find humor in the stunned silence, confusion, and stupidity. And I can't possibly be turning 21 on tuesday because I feel like a 2 month old. My communication skills are that of a tiny baby.
When I got on the plane, I had no phone, no internet, and no friends. I made 2 during the flight, which was rather exciting - a 26 yr old Israeli/Russian man named Boris and a 47 yr old Italian woman named Annamaria. We talked pretty much the entire flight. The first of many things that I never expected myself to do. lol
I landed at 8am, in an airport where noone could understand me. No one would be arriving to pick me up until 3pm. What the hell do you do in a foreign airport, with 3 giant bags of luggage, and no safe sleeping areas in sight, for 7 hours? Well, I found out what you do. You write in a journal for an hour, watch Friends for an hour until your computer dies, stare at the general population for the next hour, and then spend the remaining 4 hours alternately wandering the airport aimlessly, hoping your group happened to be here far too early, and sleeping uncomfortably in a small dining area, making sure to be touching each one of your bags with at least one part of your body, so you would be able to feel if someone were robbing you. I can't convey the extent of my relief when my group arrived at 3.
Rome is hot. I noticed as we sweat our way up the hill to the bus.
We drove for 1 1/2 hrs to a bed and breakfast in Farma, Italy. It's on top of a giant hill, so the view is breathtaking. There is an inground pool, but that's probably the only feature of 21st century living besides maybe the bidet. That means no Internet. I shared a room smaller than our old dorm room with 3 other girls. They were pretty cool. Devon, one of the girls, and a guy named Zach are the ones I laugh most with. They call me Giggles. There are worse nicknames.
It killed me to have no way to contact ANYONE. But at least I was making some friends. And eating very, very well. Also, Fabio (don't tell me you don't love that name) and Anya are two of the staff - Fabio is 26 I think, and Anya's 24. I like them both. Anya shares my birthday, so we're all gonna celebrate. I love it when Fabio is trying to speak English. It makes me feel less embarrassed to speak Italian. He's dating una ragazza that my host sister knows.
I got to my host family's house yesterday at 6pm here (around noon your time). Clizia is 24, and studies Political Science at the University of Rome. She showed me around Siena and knows some English, so she talked to me alternately in English and Italian. It is OVERWHELMING to go from a group of english-speakers you are just beginning to feel comfortable with, and then be thrown into the Italian ring, nearly defenseless and entirely lost. But I am lucky. Clizia is fantastic - she gave me the Italian version of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
so I can work on reading that (It's going very very slow, but I am thoroughly entertained and motivated by the challenge). She wants to see the movie with me in November, and though I am on principle against the movies, I didn't want to make the effort to try and explain that to her, and I think it'd be better to accept that kind of bonding event, lol. She loved Donnie Darko and she loves to sing and play piano. My host parents, Cristina e Eduardo, are very kind, too. I just met my other host sister today, Dafne, who is 11. She had a violin performance in Florence today that I went to with her parents. I'm exhausted now, having just got back, and slept pretty much the whole way home. Dafne studies Violin at the Conservatory of Siena. Cool, huh?
I feel shy here, and again stupid, so oftentimes I realize I'm completely ignoring what's going on around me, simply to save myself the constant embarrassment of not understanding anything. It's a lot of effort, trying to understand Italian 24/7. But I am doing my best to laugh at it. When I laugh, it makes my hosts feel comfortable laughing too, and then it's not so bad that I just don't get ANYTHING, lol. I just can't laugh all day - I need to close into myself to recuperate sometimes.
Which is where I am now, recuperating. On the internet for the first time since I left the US, while host-dad is watching Calcio (italian soccer) and host-mom and Dafne are in the kitchen. I kinda feel bad saying it, but I'm kind of counting the hours until I get to go to the Siena School tomorrow. I miss my English speaking friends. And though I DO want to learn Italian, and am so excited to be staying here with this family, it's like I said - very overwhelming. Something I need to take slowly, and with help. I need the training wheels before I can ride the bike; I need the floaties before I can swim.
Dinner is soon, I think, and then I am probably going to go to bed early. We're meeting Fabio at 9 tomorrow morning to go to the Siena School for our first day of class. For the first 3 weeks, it's only Italian language and culture - a highly intensive course that might make this significantly easier for me. At least I hope so 😊 And I'm going to study my ASS off. I'm so determined to become fluent here. I'm going to make the most progress of anyone on this program. Just wait and see.
A dopo, i miei amici!
- Lyss
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Asia
non-member comment
=)
I am so happy you have a nice host family. I was thinking about you everyday this week, "what if the family is mean? What if she hates them and is stuck for the next few months with no way out!?"" lol. But, then I thought that the family probably wouldn't sign up to take in an American if they're not nice people. So.. I am so happy for you. Take the Italian one hour at a time. If you get overwhelmed go to the bathroom, and speak English to yourself and then go back. Maybe that will help. I love you, and I look forward to your future blogs =) Love, Asia