Introvert Abroad
Pushing Myself to Experience the World
11/27/2018 0 Comments Gift Giving Season!The holiday season is about here! You might’ve seen all of the lights that have been slowly strung up around the streets of Florence. Some rebel streets are starting to turn on the lights before Dec. 8, which is Italy’s official start date for Christmas, but hey, we get to enjoy the atmosphere a little longer this way! Speaking of Christmas, let’s hop onto the topic of gift-giving. If you’re anything like me, you love to leave things to the last minute. You might also have a list of names that you wanted to buy souvenirs for, and you perhaps have only actually bought souvenirs for maybe ¼ of that list. If you aren’t like me, and you have all of that covered already, I applaud you! You’re a much more well-prepared individual than me. If you are like me, then good news! I’m getting ready to write down some ideas I’ve had about how to make sure I get good souvenirs for my loved ones back home!
So first, I think it’s important to acknowledge that material wealth is not the only way to show someone that you care. Not all of us have a ton of money saved up, and for some of us, all of our money went into just showing up for the semester and being able to live abroad for four months. Your loved ones will appreciate it more if you find the time to contact them while abroad. It might be kind of late in the game for that reminder, but I know that personally, my mom and dad just want me to call them more than any cool product from Italy. If you are trying to think of a cheap gift though, you can never go wrong with postcards! I know it’s expensive to mail them, so you can just do what I’m doing! Collect a bunch of postcards throughout the semester for other people, and just give it to them when you return. It doesn’t have the same feel as receiving a letter from someone abroad while they’re actually abroad, but it also doesn’t have the same price tag. Anyway, on to the gift ideas! So some classic ideas for gifts are the things that Italy is famous for! You could bring home some fancy wine or nice leather goods or interesting pasta! When you’re trying to think of where to go to get these things, it really does depend on what you’re looking for. For example, if you’re thinking of getting some leather goods for your friends/family at home, there are a few places you could go! You could always go to the San Lorenzo market for any kind of leather. There are tons of stalls, and bartering is the name of the game. It’s a place to find a good deal, but you have to make sure to be careful with your purchases. You might find some low quality stuff that’s marketed as higher quality. If you think you can discern between a good deal and a scam, I’d encourage you to head to that market! It’s a great experience to shop at a market, and you’d be able to find a lot of neat stuff in one place. If you don’t trust the market, or yourself to pick the gems out, then you could always shop from more artisanal places! If you’re looking for some nice Italian made shoes, I’d recommend Sabatini Scarpe. It’s pretty centrally located in downtown Florence, and all of their shoes are really nice quality without breaking the bank. I got some reddish-brown combat boots there for about €105. That may seem like a lot, but for the craftsmanship, the nice leather, and the guarantee of origin, it seemed worth the money to me. My roommate also went there and got two pairs of leather shoes for about €30-€40 each. If you’re looking for a nice leather bag, there’s Via de' Ginori, 23r. Yes, the name of the store is its address. It’s a great shop where you can also find some leather jackets and other items! Scuola del Cuoio is also a fantastic shop that has a rich history in making leather goods. Basically, there are a ton of options for buying leather items in Florence. I’d suggest doing some of your own research and also asking for recommendations from locals. The endless online articles on “How to Buy Leather in Florence” can get overwhelming, so I like to just take suggestions from people I trust. Another thing to take into consideration when shopping for other people is their opinion of leather. I always like to make sure that the gift I’m getting is something that the person would really like, and if they’re against leather products for ethical reasons, whether they be animal or environment related, it’d be really awkward to show up with a leather gift for them. So maybe you’ve already gone to a nice winery and picked out some wine for people back home, or maybe you don’t want to deal with having to carry that back in your luggage! (Tip, I hear you should wrap it in a trash bag, then wrap the wine bottle in some jeans to protect both the bottle and your clothes in case of spillage.) You might be like me: someone on the hunt for nice trinkets to bring back to your friends! Personally, I think the best gifts are the ones you happen upon that remind you of someone. So, my plan is to hit up some antique/flea markets! I think it would be great to find some homemade crafts or vintage items to bring back to people back home. The gifts would be one of a kind and also hand selected for whoever the item reminded you of! I know that the Santo Spirito market happens the second Sunday of the month, but there’s also the Sant’Ambrogio market and Piazza dei Ciompi market that happen more regularly! To circle back to the beginning of this blog post, there will also be Christmas markets in Florence soon! The Santa Croce Christmas markets should be opening this week, and there will be a lot of cute artisanal, Christmas trinkets to pick out for people! That, and the experience of going to the markets will be so much fun! I’m so excited to go!!! And one final, and kind of unrelated tip from me: donate items! This tip is kind of the opposite of the rest of the blog post, but it’s something to think about! To make room in your luggage for all of the new things that you want to take home, you’re probably going to have to get rid of some of the things you brought with you. You can donate items to SAI, but try not to wait until the last minute! I think those were most of the gift-giving tips that I had! I hope everyone enjoys the last two weeks of the abroad experience, and I might just see you at a market sometime soon!
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11/20/2018 26 Comments Food for ThoughtOne of the best things to take with you abroad is an open mind. Your world expands like crazy when you spend time here, both physically and mentally. New ways of thinking and doing things are constantly being presented to you, and it’s this wonderful mix of exciting and confusing. One of the new things that I’ve been the most excited about here is the food. I’m not just talking Italian food though. I’ve also had some great food experiences in several other countries! I don’t think I ever actually pictured myself eating bratwurst in Germany or fondue in Switzerland, but I definitely did those things! So, I thought it’d be really cool to just kind of talk through all of my food related thoughts while in Italy. I mean, maybe not all of them. I think about food a lot. I do want to preface this by saying that I’m not some kind of culinary connoisseur, or even really an adventurous eater. For example, poke bowls taste good to me, but I just can’t do the texture of raw fish, so I don’t eat them! I will, however, try most things at least once. (Hence, me knowing that poke bowls are good.) That being said, I haven’t made it my mission to try local or famous dishes every time that I go somewhere new. I might break some food lovers’ hearts when I say this, but sometimes it’s just cheaper and easier to buy a sandwich and fries. I do admire people who spend the time and effort to research, seek out, and spend money on interesting things to eat. Everybody’s different, and honestly, my food curiosity has mostly been settled with the tame foods that I’ve happened upon. So on to the good stuff. During my first week, I took a travel course that served as a quick cultural and historical introduction to Italy. We got to see lots of gardens, monuments, and artwork, but some of my favorite parts of the travel week was the food. We were fed incredibly well. My first moment of culture shock was arriving to Rome at 7am, ready for a heavy breakfast to give me energy to try to stay awake and fight jet leg. However, I soon found out that Italian breakfast is just a cappuccino and some kind of pastry. And that’s it. No hearty breakfast for me. This was a bummer at the time, but now that I can have coffee and fresh chocolate croissants for breakfast all the time, it’s kind of cool with me. Anyway, what really got me were the dinners they had for us. We got bruschetta to open almost every dinner that we had, and we always had dessert. It was really interesting to see how differently a full dinner is served compared to an American one. I’d never had so many different kinds of pasta in one week. And they always made sure to try to add something local based on where we were for the day. Maybe a local sauce for the pasta or a special seasonal dessert or freshly caught seafood from the beach. I personally felt like I was living like a queen, but after arriving in Florence and living life for a while, I realized that Italians just care so much more about the quality of their food. A ton of restaurants or trattorias here in Florence have some of the same caliber food, but just different kinds. It’s crazy to me that I accidentally walked past like 4 Michelin-starred restaurants in my time in Italy. I don’t think I’ve ever done that just being around the places that I live at home. I feel like Italians are so much more particular about their food. Like, our priorities are so different. Americans value convenience over everything else, but Italians really value quality so much more. And I’ll be honest, I still need a lot of help really understanding the specifics of Italian meals, but from what I’ve gathered there’s aperitivo, antipasti, primi, secondi, and other small things like salad and dessert. And I guess if you’re used to eating full course meals, then maybe this seems relatively normal to you. I think the only major differences are the fact that salad is one of the last things instead of first and the fact that they don’t really mix foods. You want steak? Ok, here is a plate of steak. No potatoes or veggies on the side. You asked for meat, here is meat. You want pasta? Here is a plate of noodles and sauce. You get the gist. That, and I feel like there’s a lot more to aperitivo than just “appetizers”. Aperitivo is like a full experience. Like, you go out to aperitivo with your friends somewhere, have a drink, eat some small things, and then you go home to dinner. This is pretty popular for younger people because they can go out and socialize with their friends for aperitivo, and still be home for dinner. I’m sure some of you have parents that always want you home for dinner at a certain time, well Italians are the next level version of that. Going out to aperitivo was actually something that I recently completed on my Short List of Things to Do Before I Leave Florence. I went to Kitsch Deux, which is known for its “apericena”. So like, aperitivo, but the dishes are much bigger/heartier, so it’s basically just eating dinner. They also have classic aperitivo drinks that apparently stimulate appetite. And! They also have drinks you have after your meal called digestivo to, you guessed it, help you digest your dinner. These fun food things that are new to non-Italians are really cool, but you can’t forget that there are also many rules. Yes, rules. I’m pretty sure food mentality is a free for all for Americans. Do we eat breakfast foods at 9am, 1pm, 7pm, and 3am? Yes? Definitely! Are you telling me you haven’t been to Waffle House with your friends at 1:30am eating those delicious hash browns? Do we eat a plate of fries for dinner? Um, you bet. Everything can be delivered and made in 10 minutes in the US. Fast food is a truly thriving industry. Italy? They have things like, cappuccinos are only for breakfast. You eat pastries for breakfast and nothing else. Anything else is advertised as “American breakfast”. You eat dinner at like 8pm and you stay for probably 3 hours, minimum. There are food classifications like IGP and DOP or DOCG to guarantee their origin. There’s just so much to it that’s common knowledge for everyone in Italy! The fact that Italians will sit down for 4 hours to have dinner somewhere and split the bill evenly and have so many rules about food is wild, but also pretty admirable. It’s cool that they care so much, and it really shows in their dishes. Italians are world known for having the best food! I’ve even talked to other Europeans who agree. Airbnb host from the Netherlands? “Oh, Italians have the best food. Easily.” Austrian supervisor at work? “Yes, Italy definitely has the best food. Very good stuff.” I will say, I think one of the most interesting things about going abroad and figuring out what to eat is the fact that we’re forced to try new things. A lot of people’s favorite brands or food items just aren’t available here, and if they are, they’re much more expensive. I’ve heard of several people shelling out $6 for a small jar of peanut butter while here. It took me like a month to find some cilantro and black beans, and I definitely bought like 4 cans of beans at once. But not having easy access to familiar things really forces you out of your shell, which is a good thing! Eating here has definitely been very different. It’s an entire experience on its own! I feel like I have a new appreciation for food after having lived in a country that values it so much. At Clemson, I mostly think of food as a chore. I’m busy, but I have to make time to eat something so I’ll survive. Almost like, “Ugh, I really have to get this work done, but I have to go take out the trash.” That’s kind of how I see meals sometimes. That, or I eat junk food for fun/socially. Now I kind of like taking the time to sit down and cook myself a proper meal, or have a dinner night with my roommates and split the grocery bill, or going out for 4 hours just to eat dinner. It’s a really nice feeling to care so much about something so prevalent in our everyday lives. That, and I’m hoping I can go back to the US and flex on all of my friends with my new pasta skills. 11/12/2018 0 Comments We're Almost There It’s November. You’ve been hit with the realization that your study abroad experience is more than halfway over. You’ve got just about a month left, and you want to make sure that you don’t waste it. After all, when are you ever going to be living in Italy again? I mean, you never know what the future holds, but for right now, we’re going to pretend that this is our last month to enjoy living in Florence ever. There are so many things that you’ve done, but let’s not forget that there are so many things you haven’t done! Time is running out! You’re going to be on the plane before you know it! You’re going to be sitting at home, filled with regret! What are you doing? Get up! Go out! See the city! Don’t spend a moment sitting and relaxing in your room! You can do that at home! Go, go, go, go- Ok. Don’t panic. Let’s stop for a second and just relax. I’m not sure about you, but this is a pretty good snapshot of what my brain has been like for the past few days. As I was looking at the schedule for my internship, I realized that I would only be going to 12 more opera shows at St. Mark’s. And then it really hit me that I’m only going to be in Florence for another 5 weeks. 5 weeks? In about two months I’ll be in Clemson again, getting ready for my Spring semester back in South Carolina. See, I was initially filled with panic. I thought that I was wasting my time by taking naps or watching Netflix in my room. I was beating myself up in my mind for not living every moment to the fullest. But I really just needed to step back for a second. I feel like something that I have a tendency to forget is that I’m not on vacation here. I’m living here. We’re all living here for months, so in order to be sane and live normal lives, you gotta have lazy days, you gotta have naps, you gotta relax. I think it’s a good point in the semester for the reminder that everybody’s study abroad experience is different and everybody has a different definition of “fun”. Some people enjoy traveling and seeing a ton of different countries when they study abroad, some people want to stay in their host city the whole time. Both are fine, and you don’t need to feel bad for “squandering” your time in Europe. After all, everyone at home is still going to think it’s super cool if all you did was hang out in Florence and go to cafes to do homework or something. Let’s be honest, the life of the most boring Florentine is still so cool and interesting. That being said, we do have a lot of time on our hands here, and Florence does have some staple experiences for the tourist. So personally, I thought it would be cool to write down a short bucket list of “Things I Want to Do Before I Leave Florence”. Here’s the short list:
And that’s it! Honestly! I genuinely feel like I’d be more than satisfied with all of my experiences in Florence if I did those things before I left. And that’s more than ok! Recently I’ve been trying to work on letting myself just live my own life the way that I want to. It’s honestly ok to just live a simple life and be happy with that. In fact, the other day, my roommate asked me if I’d noticed myself changing since coming abroad. And as cliché as it might be, the answer is yes! The main difference that I’ve noticed is that I’m becoming more ok with just being who I am and not apologizing for not being something else. And I think that’s the most important thing to remember about going and studying abroad. The whole point is to experience it in the way that makes you happy. The best thing about studying abroad is that you get to see all these new things, meet all these new people, and just soak it all in and just let it change your view of your world and yourself in whatever way it does. We’re all just here to experience and grow and learn and change and just be happy! I know that I’ll be bringing that mindset back home with me, of just trying to live my life for me. Of just trying to do what makes me happy without living for someone else. I know that I still have a decent amount of time left here, but I already want to say “thank you” to Florence for helping me grow. This post may have seemed like a lot of rambling, but it was really just my roundabout way of saying “Hey, let’s all just chill and use the last month of being here to just experience this place and be happy doing it.” I remember when I first got here and I was so blown away by every little thing that happened. Just walking down the street was wild to me. Seeing the cobblestone and the Italian signs and the clotheslines and The Duomo were all so overwhelming, but fantastic at the same time. Now I just kinda put earbuds in and briskly walk past The Duomo trying to avoid tourist groups and get to class on time. It’s almost sad how easily this place has become normalized to us, or at least, to me. So to go out with a bang, I already decided how I’ll be living for my last 1.5-2 weeks in Florence. I’m gonna go back to the beginning. I’m going to live like a tourist so I can leave remembering how incredible this city is. And I’m talking go big or go home. I’m gonna have my fancy camera around my neck and buy any last minute souvenirs and go out to eat at new places and just take the time to walk slowly and stare at everything around me. I hope I’m not obnoxious, but at that point, who cares? I spent so much of this semester trying to blend in with Italians to fly under the radar so people will stop trying to sell me flowers or something. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll definitely still be doing that for the next few weeks, but at least for my last few days, I will be a true tourist. I’m just gonna give up on trying to convince people that I’m not an American tourist because, guess what, that’s exactly what I am. I’ll let you know how it goes, but I have a feeling it’ll be awesome. 11/5/2018 0 Comments The "Study" Part of "Study Abroad"As you may have noticed, I’m a fan of lists. Not only is it a good way to organize all of the thoughts that I constantly have going through my brain, but it’s a good way to write some blog posts! Last month I spent a lot of time travelling to different places in Europe. It was incredible, and I’m so happy that I got the opportunity to do and see so many amazing things. As a result, I’m currently low on money and energy. Travelling so much is exhausting, so I’ve recently been spending my time just relaxing in Florence. It’s so nice to just hang out and take things really slowly. I know this isn’t everyone’s favorite thing to think about, but it’s also given me the time I needed to catch up on some schoolwork that I was pretty behind on. Working on things definitely got me thinking about what it’s like to be going to school in Florence. After all, half of our study abroad experience is going to classes! So here are some things to appreciate and take advantage of while being a student in Florence. 1. Museums This one’s gotta be the most obvious one. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but we just so happen to be in the birthplace of the Renaissance, one of the most significant eras for art and architecture of world history. As a result, there are a ton of museums in Florence that hold significant works of art of all kinds. The Galleria dell'Accademia, Galleria degli Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, just to name a few. It’s such a fantastic experience to see these works of art in person instead of just in a textbook. It’s surreal to be so close to some pieces that I’ve learned about in classes before. And for those science-lovers, there are some gems in Florence like the Galileo Museum and the La Specola Museum of Natural History. Not only is it accessible to us, but there are sometimes student discounts! The best discount I can think of is getting into the Gucci Garden for free with a student id. And don’t forget about free museum day! There’s free admission for everyone for certain state-run museums on the first Sunday of every month! Fantastic! These are all such fantastic resources, not just because they’re interesting, but because they’re essential for a well-rounded education. And as an art student, I’m particularly stoked about being surrounded by all of these masterpieces. 2. Architecture So this kind of goes hand in hand with the first item on the list. Architecture is a form of art after all, and a lot of the museums in Florence are impressive works of architecture on their own. But what I’m specifically talking about here are cool things like churches and public spaces in Florence. If you want to find a place to do some sketching or painting, a church or other public square is actually a pretty great place to go. Many public buildings in Florence have fantastic frescoes, sculptures, or other ornamentation that are the perfect things to study and learn from. One of the best ways to grow as an artist is to examine how the masters did it, and being a student in Florence, we’re surrounded by beauty and masterpieces. Like oh yeah, don’t mind me, my homework was just to go out and sketch this beautiful medieval building that’s a 5-minute walk from my apartment, no big deal. And even if you aren’t an art student looking for the perfect landscape, the architecture is just great to take in. Why do you think the Biblioteca delle Oblate is such a popular place to study? It’s so cool to get to sit at a patio and do homework with the Duomo right there as the view. Not only that, but Florence is full of cool cafes with other students working in them. I don’t know about you, but when I’m at work in Le Murate or Libri Liberi, laptop out and coffee in hand, I feel at least 20% cooler than I normally do. It’s the perfect atmosphere and you almost don’t even mind having to do your homework. Almost. 3. Professors Ok, so I happen to love most of my professors at my home school, but I know that normally we wouldn’t think of our professors as something really cool to take advantage of. However comma, my professors in Florence are also actually pretty cool. At Florence University of the Arts, our classes are in English, but not all of our faculty/staff are native English speakers. In fact, two of my professors are Italian professionals in the field. My apparel design and hat/bag professor are both professional designers for the Italian fashion world. That’s crazy that I get to learn from them when they’ve had so much cool experience in the international field of fashion. I would highly suggest talking to your professors and maybe asking them about their experiences. And if you’re a student looking to specialize in an area from one of our specific schools, like fashion or culinary arts for example, you have some great contacts for the future! How cool would that be to go back to the US with a recommendation from an Italian professional? Even if you aren’t looking to go specifically in an art field, it’s still so cool to get to meet these people and hear about their lives working internationally. 4. School Resources Alright, so this one depends more on how your home school is, but to me, FUA has some amazing resources. I don’t go to a fine arts university, I got to a big state school with so many different majors. My theatre department is pretty small, and my fine arts department isn’t the biggest either. I didn’t have to pay for half of the materials for my foundation oil-painting class, which can get expensive in case you didn’t know. A lot of things are provided for us as FUA students, like facilities like Ganzo or photography equipment, or I don’t even know, so many things. Just as an example, my apparel design class is a fashion design course where we make our own collection based on Emilio Pucci designs. And get this, when we make our collection we get to use actual vintage Pucci printed fabrics. That’s crazy. I love Florence. So those are just a few of the things that I think about when I have those imposter-syndrome moments relating to being a student. You know, the moments where you sit down and go “Oh my god, what even is my life, I can’t believe that I’m actually here, this isn’t me, somebody else deserves to be here, how did I even get here”. Well, we’re here. We made it to Florence after all of the hurdles of visas and plane tickets and forms to fill out. Not everyone gets the chance to be a university student in Florence, Italy, so we might as well take advantage of it! |
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