So far I have really enjoyed my environment and stay in Florence. I still find it hard to believe it is almost half way done. Right now it is midterm week so chaos is everywhere. I feel that I have been adapting to the culture relatively well here, though at first there were a few culture shocks. The one that everyone talks about is dryers, they are not a thing in Italy. Everything is hang dry. I got used to this almost immediately, the most annoying part is living with 4 other people and only having 3 drying racks. However most of the time I plan out my laundry and take the articles of clothing that take the longest articles of clothing to the laundromat where they have dryers. I have found that I my clothes feel softer after using a dryer vs air drying. Other than that, Italians not eating breakfast has been a very large change. Honestly, I have not even tried to assimilate in that aspect, if I don’t eat in the morning I become a ravenous animal. Luckily there are restaurants around that serve American breakfast or I make something at home in the morning. The most jarring culture shock here has been all of the strikes. Unfortunely, earlier today I received an email from Lufthansa saying my flight to Munich has been cancelled due to the Munich airport strike, and they have not been able to find me other accommodations and recommend that I start looking on my own. I am baffled by this, the fact that the government allows an airport to shut down is interesting to say the least. I personally expected this to be a whole lot more of an adjustment, the culture here is relatively similar to America. I already dress well, and like to take time at sit down restaurants so this hasn’t been much of an adjustment. The one thing that has been a struggle which is not entirely Italy related is the shower situation in the morning. There are 5 of us and most of us have 9 am classes, this obviously creates problems, especially when you cannot run both showers in the apartment at the same time (they will stop the water in the other). The plumbing here was definitely a shock and I have adjusted relatively well. Some of my professors are very old school and sometimes intentionally vague but I have always been very quick on my feet so this does not bother me at all. In terms of living on my own, I went to school out of state and have chosen to live on my own for the last 5 years so none of this bothers me. Navigating the city has been very easy as it is essentially a grid system.

I am having a blast!

Ken