Ciao a tutti!
It’s been a little over a month since I arrived in Rome and I have been so busy! Italians are always considered to live a much more relaxed lifestyle but Romans are always on the go! It is nothing like my life in Orlando. Waking up is exciting and between class, my internship, and other social and touristic activities, my days are jam-packed and filled with a lot of walking. Anyone who has been on the phone with me during this time knows that I’m always frantically getting ready to go somewhere.
At first I had a difficult time adjusting because I was not comfortable speaking the language and getting around, and I also really missed my friends and family, particularly my dog. Now I feel confident moving around the city and speaking to people in Italian (I still have a lot to learn but I’m getting there). Every time I travel to another city, when I return to Rome, I let out a sigh of comfort and relief because it feels like I’ve returned home.
Italian is NOT an easy language, but with Spanish being my native language, I’ve had an easier time picking it up. Our Italian classes are no where near intensive enough to reach near fluency in such a short amount of time so one really has to force themselves to interact with people who speak Italian. I recently started an internship at Contemporary Art Studios Rome (CASTRO) which operates in English as it targets an international crowd so when I first arrived, they stopped speaking Italian with each other in order to include me during the normal workday. I requested that they continue speaking how they would normally, just slower, so that I would be forced to learn, and it’s been very difficult but I think it has helped immensely! I also try my best to interact with Italians my age when we go out to experience the nightlife. I recently met an Italian man who speaks very little English so we have to work very hard to understand each other but it has definitely improved my Italian comprehension.
The neighborhood we are staying in is beautiful and the program is amazing. I am very happy with my choice in program. My colleagues are all wonderful and I’ve made lovely friendships here. The one thing that I’ve found really difficult is staying in touch with my own identity. This semester’s program is very small and I am the only Hispanic. It was definitely a shock at the beginning going to all of my classes and speaking in English and then not being able to go home and speak in Spanish. Is it possible to be homesick for a language?