Ciao, Bella!
So, according to this "culture shock" graph, I am in a state of euphoria at this moment in time of my excursion. EHHHH- WRONG! Honeymoon is not even close to the feelings I have right now. Don't get me wrong, Firenze is absolutely gorgeous! The view from my balcony looks like a painting, but that doesn't compare to my first few hours in this place. Let me break it down for you.
Arrivo:
After an 8 hour flight, a 3 hour layover, a second flight on a tiny plane for an hour, and waiting 3 hours for half of the students to report lost luggage (Not me, thank goodness!), it was finally time for me to go to my brand new - I use the word "new" lightly - apartment! "Wow! My university is so organized, having cabs waiting for us and arranging for our landlord to greet us at the door with our keys," I thought. Speedy Gonzales, our taxi driver, dropped us off at a lovely building with graffiti on the walls. Victor, the name we assigned our non-English speaking landlord, was nowhere to be found. I rang every door bell (ps: doorbells in Italy don't look like doorbells in America) in the complex and I called multiple university phone numbers until and lovely Signora opened the front door for us. Unfortunately, Signora, did not speak a word of English either. "Non capisco," she exclaimed repeatedly. (I mean, not for nothing, but shouldn't everyone hear speak English. This is Europe? Right?) Anyway, we attempted to chat with her for about a half hour or so. There was a lot of "stop & stare" action going on, but then she led us to a woman who works in a foreign language school. If we didn't find this woman, I don't think I would have ever come in contact with Victor and got my keys! She had me running up and down staircases and yelling for Victor out windows, but God bless this woman!
Entro it apartamento:
To enter our house, one must climb 100 steps (we counted), and then spin a key multiple times and shove one's body into the door to open it. Finally here! Woo hoo! I only cried a little bit, so this journey seems to be a success. It was about time to take a nice hot shower, & relax. Boy, was I wrong again. It is currently day 3, and the place still does not have hot water. In fact, the water is ice. My lovely 7 housemates and I are, frankly, disgusting. The hot water issue is just the icing on the cake to the other problems we are facing. The house smells like weird broccoli, one fridge is broken, dishwasher is broken, 3 out of 4 stove burners are also broken... oh, and the toaster oven doesn't toast.
So in response to the little graph above, there is no honeymoon phase! At least for me, there is not.
Despite all the problems and tears, I really do love it here in Firenze so far. Where else can you go where you have a chance of being run over by a Segway any time you leave the house?! The food is great, the bars are fun, my house is ginormous (its the only apartment with a rooftop balcony!), and its just crazy and exciting how different everything is.
I was not expecting this much chance. I assumed Europe was equivalent to America. It's not, but it's a good thing. I'm really thankful I get the chance to experience all this place has to offer! If that means, it offers sucky plumbing and broken appliances.. then I'll just have to embrace it.
That is all for now! I'll update you if I can ever bathe again. CIAO :)
Our living room decor.
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