Cultural Transitions, Studying, and the Month to Come

Tuscania from afar

Buona sera!

Or, considering you may be on the other side of the world reading this right now… Buongiorno!

… Buona pomeriggio, Buona notte… Buona…

Okay… you get my point.

So, I’m looking down at my calendar and I’m realizing it’s already the 27^th of September, which happens to be two days shy of a month since I arrived here.  It’s kinda crazy because on one hand it seemed to fly by while on the other it seems crazy that I still have three more months.  It’s funny though because on a good day three months is a great thing but on a bad day, three months seems like its an eternity.

On my first orientation day for study abroad back at Boise State we had received pamphlets outlying stages of cultural adaptation, which at the time seemed totally bogus.  It starts out with the honeymoon stage, proceeding next to the conflict stage, and ends at the critical stage.  I don’t really want to go into detail explaining each one because I feel like the names are pretty self-explanatory.

The Church of Saint Peter

But I guess my point here is that when I first moved here everything was so new and exciting, I really had no time to feel stressed, frustrated, homesick, or overwhelmed.  But now that things are all set in stone, I really have run into the routine of the day to day.  I’ve gotten used to the atmosphere and new environment that little things can more easily get to me when at first they were easily ignored because everything was just so great, new, and exciting.  After all, how can you get upset during a honeymoon?  It just simply wasn’t possible.  And it’s not like it’s a complete drop from honeymoon to conflict either, I guess it’s just an opportunity to examine things through a different lens. 

But it’s also come with its moments too.  I can’t say it isn’t difficult to spend 3 hours with a family and kids that only speak Italian then being taken directly to Italian class for another 2 hours.  It’s really overwhelming at times and sometimes all I can do is come home and crash.  Luckily though, with Dalila, a warm, cozy bed, and a bowl of honey nut cheerios, I can’t complain that much.

Well, now that I’ve brought up my schedule, I feel like I should probably mention the study part of my study abroad experience.  Yes, I’m in Italy, so it can easily be mistaken for a vacation, but I do take classes at the University, Universita Degli Studi Della Tuscia, which is luckily just a 15-minute walk from my apartment.  My class schedule currently consists of Elementary Italian, which I have Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening for 2 hours, Italian Hill Towns: history through urban form, Tuesday morning for 3 hours, and Italian Cuisine and the Mediterranean Diet, Thursday morning for 3 hours.  The hill towns class has already had some great field trips to some historical cities around Viterbo, one which was actually today.  We visited Tuscania, one of the oldest towns in Italy with a scenic view of the surrounding valleys and rolling hills.

The beautiful scenery that can be viewed form Tuscania

I am also excited for my cooking class which we have a workshop for tomorrow at a local culinary school.  I have to wake up bright and early tomorrow morning to catch a bus with the class to get there.  I’m definitely super excited!  I am also signed up for an internship where I will be going into a school and teaching/tutoring kids English.  I chose high school students since I am working already with elementary students in my paid job.  I haven’t received a schedule for this yet, but I’m really looking forward to getting started.

Well, besides classes I have mostly just been keeping busy with odds and ends here and there.  I spend a lot of time writing and even just walking around the city of Viterbo just soaking everything in.  I’m planning on joining the gym and getting in some Italian Zumba, which will probably be the highlight of my next few weeks.  But other than that, this next month with be super busy with trips planned to Florence, Pisa, San Martino, Perugia (which will host a large chocolate festival!!!), and Assisi.  So, because my calendar is pretty much full for October, I’m thinking its going to fly by.

Well, that’s pretty much all for now!  I do apologize for spelling/grammatical errors in any of my postings.  I don’t exactly have an editor!  Until next time…

Ciao! A presto!