Being in another country for the first time in my life provided me with more struggles than I
expected. Prior to leaving for Florence, I did some research online but between the chaos of
finals and leaving immediately after, I found I was majorly unprepared. Specifically, I was
unprepared for things to go wrong. At home, I am used to having things go wrong and fixing
them as a semi-reformed shy person. I didn’t realize how much work I had put into changing this
until I got to Florence; it was almost like I had regressed back into my 13-year-old self.
The experience that comes to mind most often when I think about how weirdly hard it was
for me to ask for help came later in the program when I was at a cafe between classes one day. I
got an iced coffee and the straw they gave me was broken. When I look back at it now, I’m kind
of embarrassed at how much of an issue this became for me. The cafe was busy, the baristas
were swarmed, and I was scared, to put it simply. How do I get someone’s attention? What do I
say when I do? What if they don’t understand?
When I had finally worked up the courage to ask, it turned out to be such a non-issue it’s
almost laughable; the barista simply gave me a straw and I went on with my day. This split
second of paralysis came up a few other times, mostly in relation to answering greetings. I
always found myself torn between answering in Italian versus English. Do I respond with my
horribly practiced Italian accent? Do I give up and say it in English? One time in a store, I was so
lost in my head I responded to “Buonasera” with “Bonjour” instead of “Bongiorno”. We were in
Italy and it was the late afternoon.
My advice to anyone who is similar to me— practice the language and try not to worry
about messing up. One sounds a lot easier than the other, but I feel like they go hand in hand.
Had I carved out time in the month leading up to my departure to practice common Italian
greetings, even if it was just for 10 minutes a week, I would have had more confidence when
speaking to locals. Also, you will probably make mistakes at some point while you are there. Try
not to get too hung up on them. There’s a lot of pressure nowadays to be the perfect tourist and
not stand out as overwhelmingly American, but at the end of the day, as long as you are
respectful it doesn’t matter.
Swanson School of Engineering 