Ciao! & Only a Fraction of What You Need To Know About Studying Abroad... In Italy.

 

Ciao!

After a grueling semester of costuming class and draping class in the states, I have decided to continue my tortures education in the beautiful city of Florence, Italy!

 

The Wine! The Fashion! The Night life! How could I resist?! I couldn't. So here I am, sitting in my very tiny Italian room with the very lovely Peggy, sore from all the walking, and overwhelmed by my first week of classes.

Seeing as the first time I tried to start this blog it crashed and burned in my face, (ie. too much school work) let's try this again shall we?

Arno River

Balcony view onto Florence

Since I'm kind of playing catch up right now, I want to start this entry as:

Only a Fraction of What You Need To Know About Studying Abroad... In Italy.

Now I'm not sure about other places, but the process to study abroad to Italy is pretty extensive. You have to get a passport & a student Visa before you come, and then when you get here, you have to fill out a residency form and get that card as well as getting a few other official numbers for paying for your apartment. Overall, its a very overwhelming process that takes a long time to do.

Luckily, I was fortunate enough that my University in the states helped us out through a vast majority of the paper work and the nitty gritty. None of this part was fun, just super tedious and 100% necessary. After all that fun stuff comes the part that REALLY sucked. Watching a poop ton of money go towards a plane ticket.

This is the first of many times I have cringed during this journey about how much money I was loosing all at once, not to mention getting the perfect flight at a great price! My flight itinerary looked super great when we booked it, and I got my ticket for a really great price. I was super nervous though... flying from my home town to Chicago was my first flight by myself, and it was my first time going out of the country from there. I was nervous and terrified something would go wrong!

I wish I could tell you that all had gone well and that I made it to Florence with no problems, but that would be a lie. My flight into Chicago came in on time, but then I had to sit in the plane on the tarmac for over an hour! They couldn't find a place for us to dock and un board so we just sat there. I had a two hour layover and I just kept telling myself it would be fine, until I pulled out the map of how friggin' big O'Hare intl. is, and I started to panic. I was as far away from my international flight as I could be. And to top it off, I had never been to O'Hare before and had no idea where I was going.

When I got off the plane, I started to run. Thank goodness a very kind gentleman helped me figure out where I needed to go and I made it onto my flight to Zurich! After that, it was smooth Flying... until I got to Florence, but my Luggage didn't. I of course prepared for the worst and had clothes in my carry on, but it took a good four days for my luggage to arrive, and it was torture and worrying for me until it did.

MORAL OF THE STORY- Try to have a four hour layover wherever you are going (just in case) and to make sure you have clothing you can mix and match into combinations enough for a week. If you're traveling for less than that, a carry on should be more than ample space.

Speaking of luggage, you have no idea how it feels to try and stuff four months of your life into a 50 lb suitcase and a carry on. It's a very eye opening experience on what you feel is essential. For example, I packed a ton of clothing and basic toiletries in full size, makeup essentials, my camera and electronics, two books, as well as two extra purses, three planners, and a notebook.

 (Yes, three planners. I have a problem.)

Peggy on the other hand, chose to go with way less clothes and more liquids, vitamins, and many more school supplies. She kind of regrets the lack of shoes, but we're working on that.

Getting my suitcase after all of those days though was a breath of fresh air! It was just a constant worry and nagging that stopped me from enjoying what was around me! It was especially hard I think because no one really understood how agonizing it really was. You may be thinking 'It's not that big of a deal, its only clothes right?' but every day that went by, I was worried that I wouldn't have my suitcase for the whole of the four months I was here. I would have to buy all new clothes and a new suitcase and I just really wanted my stuff in this strange place okay!!

And let me tell you, Italy is totally different from America, but more on that later!

For now, I will just leave you with a familiar goodbye!

Thanks for reading!