Living In Florence - Summer 2017

Very excited to kick off this series of "storytelling."

I think the coolest part about life is being able to experience things and then turn them into a collection of stories - both short and long - that teach us not only about the world but also ourselves; even the shortest tell us about the things we remember and find important.

So we begin!

The Long Flight to Florence
I was finishing up the last quarter of my junior year at UCLA, and I was all set to study abroad for the summer quarter in Florence (for a "pre-ILP" - intensive language program) that would prepare me for a fall quarter in Bologna (where we would be taking actual courses in Italian with Italians, at the University of Bologna).

It should be said before-hand that my friends from UCLA - who were also Italian Majors and planning to study in Bologna too - were a level ahead of me in Italian (6), and in order to go to Bologna you needed 6 done before, and if not, you needed to do the summer quarter in Florence.

You're probably thinking.. "boo hoo, are you crazy? study in Florence for 2 months? that's a no-brainer!!" But all I knew was that it was the extra program was expensive and financial aid wouldn't cover it, AND (a big and..) I'd have to cancel my UniCamp volunteering that I was looking forward to in July.

Basically, this will be important to know in future stories about how Florence was an awkward transition into Italy-living.

& also the reason I procrastinated HARD, with getting my ticket to Florence (which we were responsible for). I kept thinking... "ugh this is so expensive, it'll get cheaper the later I get it."
Partially true, to be fair.

Anyway, I ended up getting a $381 ticket from LA to Gatwick
June 18 - Sunday
LAX 8:35am
arrival at Vancouver at 11:19am
wait until 6:55pm for a flight from Vancouver to Gatwick 12:40pm

wait until 8pm for a flight from Gatwick to Florence 11pm arrival for $250

I was in airports for about 15 hours of downtime... and I learned a lot about patience, and keeping myself entertained. Especially when airports like Gatwick only offer 90 minutes of wifi per email, and I only had 3 to use.

Our check-in for Florence was at 8:30am and I made zero arrangements for a place to stay (because I figured - why should I spend more money on a place to stay for 8 hours) So I spent the time at the Florence airport that was pretty much empty aside from a handful of people in this small airport and small waiting area. One guy in particular with super curly blonde hair was sitting two rows in front of me, laughing occasionally on his phone and definitely gave off a very "surfer American boy" vibe.

All of us in the lobby were asked to step outside (by security) at around 1am for a couple minutes so they could do some cleaning or something - I don't quite remember. It was this American guy, 2 middle-aged Italian men (who seemed like brothers or best friends), and I think another older lady.
So we were all just standing outside the terminal doors with our pieces of luggage, and I finally muster the courage to say: "are you studying here for the summer too?" and he says "yeah, I am! you are too?!"

& just like that, I made my first friend in Italy. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the same program as me... and his program wasn't actually in the city center like mine was.. but it was awesome nonetheless to not feel so alone. We talked for the whole 6 hours until the café inside the airport finally opened and we got our first cornetti and caffé. His name was Micah, and he was from Cali too, from a Mormon family - but with differing views on the religion. I believe he has an older brother, and I know he said he has a lot of Filipino friends and they like to make videos together.

We had a super meaningful conversation about how it's difficult to maintain friendships because people just fall out of touch and trying to stay friends can sometimes come off as ingenuine or forced. I just remember feeling like these are the kinds of conversations that I love having with people who I may have just met, but suddenly feel like I've known forever. We met up once more in the center a little later at a Jewish restaurant.. and then ran into each other at this dance club called SPACE.

Stories like this remind me why I love traveling, particularly alone, only because it allows you opportunities to really talk to people and get that feeling that the world is huge but also small at the same time. 

THE FIRST DAY IN Hell.. aka FLORENCE.

That title can be misleading, overall I wouldn't say that Florence was hell, but .. after reading this second story.. you'll understand why.

Setting: Hot and Humid Florence (apparently record high 105 degrees Fahrenheit in the time that I was there)

Working from the previous story.. it finally hit about 7am, so I left the airport in a taxi headed to the ACCENT center located in Piazza Santo Spirito. This is where we would check-in, basically just go and get the keys to your apartment and instructions to tell your roomies who would follow after (if you arrived first). So I got my keys and asked.. "should I take a taxi there?" and was told that it would be better to walk. Mind you, I have a giant luggage and a giant duffle bag.

As I'm leaving the center, I meet a couple of people who are in the program as well, Parker and Jose, who say, "let's all drop off our bags at our respective apartments and then meet at blah blah blah at this time." I didn't have my phone plan yet, so was relying on wi-fi for communication at that point - which I would have at the apartment.

I didn't know this at the time... but 20+ minutes walking would be nothing in my whole time in Italy.

So it took about 30 minutes, given the fact that I had to stop, pant, and cry every couple of minutes (in that order.) I think the biggest thing that I felt was that as I was visibly struggling - and there were plenty of people around to witness it - not a single person asked me if they could help.

I finally get to this apartment.. sweat dripping everywhere.. and these instructions say "scale B" and I complete disregard this because a) I don't know what that means.. as I look down this corridor and see 2 options - a dark hallway or brightly lit stairs, I choose the stairs. I climb all 7 flights of stairs to get to the 4th floor..picture me lugging my huge suitcase one flight, going back down to get the duffle, and then repeating this 7 times.

& finally I see that glorious sign that says "study abroad" and I'm like.. "to the cabby, go home smell ya later!" open the door (because it was unlocked) and it's this beautiful apartment with a room to my right of just study desks, and then this cute quaint living room area.. when this lady appears from one of the rooms and says.. "umm.. hi excuse me? how can I help you?" and I show her my paper and say "I'm here for the UCEAP program.. is this my apartment?" and she says.. "no, you're in the wrong place, its scale B, you need to go down and through the hall to the other set of stairs." she leads me out the door with my heavy things.. and closes the door shut.

Utter. defeat.
At this point, I'm legitimately crying as I practically just shove my luggage and duffle down these flights of stairs and repeat the ENTIRE process again at Scale *muthatruckin' B. Get to the door, nestle my keys out and... nothing. I spend the next 10 minutes or so wiggling these set of keys in every kind of method I could, short of kicking the door down, and it would not budge. I had to use my emergency international call setting on my phone to call the center.. and patiently explain to this lady who wouldn't believe me when I said I tried every different way.

"are you sure? the keys here are different... they take a little tug and push in order to work." To which I replied: "trust me, I tried. (There is nothing on earth I want more than to get into this apartment and shower)."

She finally gets there 30 minutes later - coming from the study center, carrying with her all my future roommate's keys too. She tries mine... doesn't work. Tries every single one of theirs.. doesn't work.

Finally, she gets on the phone with this guy and GOES OFF on him.. which at this time I would describe as such... but now that I think about it, it's how Italians tend to talk on the phone regularly anyway. 

This man comes and basically saws the lock and doorknob off, and installs a new one right there.. which took about 20 minutes. At this rate it has been almost 3 hours, I finally get in and shower RIGHT AWAY, and turn on our fan... because there's no AC.

Positives:

• Our apartment was super cute and modern and freshly renovated.. so it was like showering in a 5-star hotel. 
• My every-day walk to and from the study center would mean passing the Duomo and crossing the bridge in front of Ponte Vecchio - aka beautiful to-die-for views
• and it was an overall funny story to tell my roomies and friends later on about the joys of moving in and persevering through some hellish experiences. 

Grocery Shopping in Italy. 

Honestly one of the things I miss the most about Italy is the grocery stores and these baskets; here in America they are huge things you push in front of you, and the grocery stores are this big free for all with no natural outline that eventually leads to the registers.

My basic diet in Florence consisted of Apricots, Stuffed Tortellini with Ricotta and mushrooms, pan bread with mayonnaise and sliced cheese, Verso Natura strawberry yogurt, and pineapple juice (and other various mixed fruit drinks),
and my FAVORITE Paprika canned nuts from Conad.

In Bologna, it became all of these, plus this all fruit popsicle thing, plus Nutella and jelly sandwiches, + Parmesian on crackers, Plain egg sandwiches which veggie dogs.

I probably went through 2 packages of break a week... carbs on carbs on carbs. & it was embarrassingly enough, not even from pasta. I ate maybe 3 plates of pasta a month, and the rest was Margherita pizza, Chinese food (noodles) and veg sushi, my trash sandwich snacks, and then... Margherita pizza.



QUICK STORIES:

• Olivia, Kendall, Freida and I watching Cable girls in the small living room of our apartment - fan blasting towards us as we all sat on the couch with the computer in front of us.
• Our program went to Siena together and separated into two groups of tour guides, and ours was this chic blonde lady with this super eclectic stewardess looking outfit, we were all given earpieces that connected to her mic, so we can hear her talk about history and all that. We were making our way into the center part where the big horse race was going to take place and this entrance had security guards who were slowing the process of entering, and this tour guide lady of ours goes: (Italicized portions paraphrased) "this is taking forever, do I look like a terrorist? I mean come on, I have blonde hair." We all just look at each other with our jaws dropped like: "wait.. did she really just say that?"
• Olivia, Kendall, and I take this semi-hidden pathway in San Gimignano which is this small walled medieval town on a high hill, and this path takes us around the outskirts of this wall and we just see this amazing view of the country-side.. and I remember this feeling of wanting time to freeze, because that view was as perfect and it was so peaceful and quiet.. I can almost feel like I'm there, just thinking about it. (See picture below)
  
  
• Olivia stole this hot sauce from a restaurant in Siena, and the next week she was cooking (as she always did) something in the kitchen and poured the hot sauce onto the pan.. and I was in the room doing something, either homework or Netflix, and all of a sudden I just hear Olivia, Freida, and Kendall all coughing uncontrollably, and the scent finally reaches our room and I can't stop coughing either. We had to open all the windows and air everything out... but it was the first time I had ever experienced something like that.
•  I was walking home one night and I passed by this neon-lit "American themed diner" restaurant, and so for the 4th of July, I organized this dinner party at the restaurant for the people in our program. Sent out little paper invitations and had everyone dress in their best "red white or blue" hahaha. So cheesy, and so great.
  
  
  They had the fixings! Burgers, milkshakes, curly fries you name it. I opted for this DELICIOUS veggie burrito wrap thing, with a side of fries. 10/10 would actually recommend this place. "American Diner" in Florence.
  
  
• I was in charge of finding a place for us to stay for a trip to Cinque Terre,
  It was Olivia, Kendall, Freida, Will, (the cute couple) and I.
  I found a place in La Spezia... which kind of turned out to be pretty deep in the mountain.. but luckily wasn't too inconvenient for a bus ride and train to Cinque Terre. It was a situated below the house of the actual family that was renting it out (a super sweet lady with the cutest dog)
  
  
  This was us waiting for the bus to take us to the train station.
• I was too scared to jump off the cliff. Instant regret. Kendall was a BOSS and jumped off several times along with Olivia - who had a pretty bad belly flop - but that didn't stop her from going again which was awesome!
  
  At one point there was this guy at the top who was taking forever to jump, that this fun group of people to our right started a chant and eventually all of us were cheering "red shorts! red shorts! red shorts!" until he finally jumped. It was epic. Apparently, this fun group rented out a boat and were just parking it there, and visiting the different islands. Brilliant.
  
  
  That's the cliff with a guy on top to the left.
• Speaking of Will and Freida,
  they were a hot couple of our program, and it was super cute to watch it all develop into this summer romance. Freida was actually not supposed to be our roomie, because all of the people who were going to study in Bologna in the Fall were supposed to be together, but since Yadilla (the 4th one going) requested to be with her friends, we got Freida instead. I knew Yadilla (and the friends she roomed with) from UCLA.
  Kendall, Olivia, and Freida were all from UCSB.
  
  I remember one night, our program organized a group trip to watch a play, and I wanted to stay and watch the whole thing but Kendall and Olivia wanted to leave at the half, so they left me because they knew I could walk back with Freida.
  At the end of the play, we were all walking back across the bridge.. and slowly everybody dispersed into their own directions (we lived the furthest away from everyone)... I was walking slightly in front of Freida and Will, as they were being cutesy and frolicking around.. until I finally turned around after a while and they were nowhere to be seen. I ended up having to walk back alone which wasn't a problem for me until I hit the darker streets by Via S. Zanobi where these of guys were standing around and staring at me... so I ran to a crowded area and called Olivia to ask if she could meet me halfway between the street.
  
  She and Kendall were PISSED, more than I was & they instantly messaged Freida something along the lines of "it's okay that you want to go off and be romantic, but we cannot just abandon each other like that ever again." I felt bad because I definitely didn't think it was Freida's intention at all, and she was super apologetic about it afterward. But it also warmed my heart how much Kendall and Olivia cared for me.
• We had to pass this marketplace to and from school every day and we would get constant "Ciao Bella" - and in my case "Bella Cinese!"
• Olivia lost her phone on a night out at this park bar type thing, and she was super distraught thinking that she would never get it back, and Kendall was telling me on the side that she was sure that someone would have picked it up by now - but I had this feeling that she would get it back somehow, and when the two of them went they found that someone had just turned it in, and she got it back! It was a miracle.

I'll conclude at that... I definitely didn't expect to write as much, they were definitely pouring out as I'd recall one story, another one would pop in my head. So this was definitely a great walk down memory lane. Such fun times in Florence.. I can't believe that at this time last year, I was barely in my second week of living in Italy. CRAZY! I wish I could turn back time and do it all over again, but this will do. <3


xo, Camille