One Month Down, Two to Go!

Salve amici,

Ah, it’s been about two weeks since I last posted. I’m about forty days into my stay here and only two months from heading back to the states – already nearly halfway done with my time here! Crazy.

The past two weeks have lacked surprises in the form of transportation strikes and losing power, which I suppose is good. Really my days have consisted mostly of class and wandering the city (without getting lost – ha!). And also eating. Mmm, Italian cuisine….

There’s not much to say other than I’ve been getting used to the city life okay. My poor navigational skills aside, Milan really is set up in a very efficient way. You have easy access to everything through combining walking and public transportation. Grocery store? Three minute walk around the corner. Metro entrance? Each one is only blocks from another. Bus stops? They’re everywhere. ATM? Every other street corner has one. Lunch/dinner out? The streets are riddled with restaurants.

I already know the efficiency and convenience of public transportation is something I’m going to miss when I get back home. I love my car, my Riley (on March 27, he’d been operating for me and my family for two years!), and he’s perfect to have in a place like Fredericksburg, but I very much like how everything is within walking distance here.

Initially this idea made me wrinkle my nose back in February – one-hour commute round-trip every day for class? No way. Not after getting used to only having to walk five minutes to get to class at Roanoke’s tiny campus. Eventually I warmed to the idea, mainly due to necessity, but only after a few days I began enjoying the long walks through the metro, listening to music and absorbing my surroundings.

One of the sometimes-neat and sometimes-annoying things about the metro are the traveling musicians that wander around playing music on their instrument of choice in attempt to earn some pocket change. I’ve seen an accordion, a guitar (with not too shabby vocal accompaniment), and a violin thus far. They’ve all sounded decent, and I’ve wanted to record some of their work just as a snapshot of my time here, but I’ve only managed to get the violinist so far. Here’s an audio recording of some of his performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmq_8bLAjn4

Another thing that is common to see in the metro are beggars holding gross cardboard signs claiming poverty or some sort of sickness (blind, deformed, limping, etc.). There’s a woman who sits in the same exact spot on the steps every afternoon who is pregnant and asking for money for food and I see her when I’m going home from class. One day after lunch on my way home, I hadn’t been able to eat my roll (they’re individually sealed in plastic), so I stuffed it in my bag. Instead of taking it home and trying to find a use for it at the apartment, I handed it to the woman on my way down the steps. I never wanted to toss money in the beggar’s cups because I share the common fear that they’re just going to use it to feed an addiction of theirs or otherwise spend it irresponsibly, so I figured there was only so much she could do with actual food.

When I bent over and gave her the bread, I didn’t hang around long to see her reaction. I just showed her a smile and went on my way. Over my shoulder I heard a sound and to this day I’m not sure if she was laughing at me or crying.

I really don’t like handouts. I observed a lot of these sorts of things during my time in Peru and it’s just unfortunate because it’s hard to tell if they’re truly hurting or not. I don’t ever want to throw fuel on the fire and make the beggars think I’ll always wander by and drop them some food, but I also don’t want to be on the end of a wrong decision when I could have made a difference between someone’s life or death. I doubt it is ever really that serious, but it’s still something I think about.

Aside from that, the city is clean and full of well-dressed people. Everyone here dresses nicely even for a quick stroll to the grocery store, which is new to me. I’m used to going to class in whatever is comfortable for me that day whether I want to wear heels and a dress or comfy pants and a big t-shirt. (Never sweatpants or leggings and Uggs, though! Bleck!) Here, however, if I went out in my pajama pants, which I was never afraid to do back at Roanoke, I would get strange looks and it would probably label me like a bright neon sign that I wasn’t from around these parts.

Along those same lines, I don’t feel quite as out of place as I did in Peru. Obviously a white face among dark skin stands out very easily, but here the difference is much more subtle. I blend with the crowd, as far as overall skin tone goes. A half-Italian, half-Spanish girl in one of my classes has told me I don’t look America, which I wholeheartedly took as a compliment. After three years of feeling like I didn’t quite belong under many curious eyes, I’m thankful for this change while being in a foreign land.

As is obvious, being in a foreign country also warrants foreign culture and ways of doing things. After a month of being here, I finally ran into the first obvious one: toilet design.

It surprised me to stumble upon this, though I suppose it shouldn’t have. While in Peru I dealt with hole-in-the-floor toilets, but the ones here in Italy are much more deliberate. In Peru it was due to the simple fact that they just couldn’t afford the whole porcelain outfit.

All in all, it’s been a good couple weeks here. Experiencing the culture and bathing in the language every day has been glorious and humbling. I can’t wait to see what the next two months have in store, but I know two things for sure: I’m going to Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet) and Venice soon! Hurrah! I’m pretty excited for those trips, hehe.

All right, well, I suppose that’s all I have to say for now. I’m sure I’ll have a post about Verona shortly after I get back next Sunday, and another about Venice, so I don’t think you’ll go more than a week hearing from me, but I can’t promise anything ;)

Ta ta!

V