I am currently living in an apartment in the heart of Florence with four other Pitt-student roommates: Hadley, Josie, Kayley, and Emily. This apartment is provided to us by Cea Capa, our host school on this program, and its very central location in the city allowed my roommates and I to assume a very walkable lifestyle characteristic of many European cities. However, because of its good location, I, along with all my other roommates, were expecting minimal space and luxury; my roommates and I were prepared to be given nothing more than a place to sleep at night. As a result, when I first entered the apartment on the day of my arrival in Italy, the only emotion I could feel was surprise when I saw just how spacious it was. The apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms with skylights and numerous windows that facilitate a more open environment with ample natural light, this being one of my favorite attributes of the place. My main challenge has been utilizing the apartment’s kitchen to cook protein-rich meals for myself in the interest of staying under my budget as I had only cooked meat on my own once or twice before this study abroad experience. However, during my time in Florence, pasta bolognese and cheeseburgers have become weekly staples and definitively secured their spots in my steadily expanding cooking repertoire. Some other more minute challenges presented themselves when we discovered a water leak from our ceiling because we closed our skylight on a nearby tree branch, effectively keeping it open during a rainstorm, and when an ant colony found a home in our kitchen because we accidentally dropped a dried mango piece on the floor and left it overnight. The real estate on our provided drying racks is also a point of contention as we are not used to being without dryers. None of these factors were able to deter my positive outlook on our temporary home, however; my roommates compensate for any and all misgivings I may have. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company and I now consider them very close friends. In the short time I’ve been in Florence thus far, we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves as all people sharing the same space for an extended period of time do, but we’ve more than made up for it with endless inside jokes, quiet moments of simply being present with one another, and memories that will surely last me a lifetime.
Swanson School of Engineering 