Some cultural confrontation that I have had to deal with while studying abroad in Italy is the fact that they simply do not have dryers for your clothes. As you could imagine this gets extremely annoying however I have learned from it to be more efficient when it comes to doing wash. For example, at home I let my laundry pile up high, in Italy, I can’t do that because then I won’t have any clothes for the week. Another time that I was frustrated with the culture in Italy is having to wash my dishes because we do not have a dishwasher, this was definitely really hard because I am not used to washing my dishes right after I’m done cooking but here I have to do that. It has taught me a lot about being grateful for the things that we do have in the US. I think that this has also been a very humbling experience because I now have learned to do a lot for myself. Some other things that I really had to get used to while being here is how the Italian people dress. Everyone here dresses up nicely even if they are just going to the grocery store. You rarely see people in sweatpants, sweatshirts, and leggings. This was really hard for me because at school back in the United States I will wear big T-shirts and shorts to school so having to dress nicely everyday got annoying but I now enjoy it and it has taught me that I feel a lot more put together if I dress like that. Overall, these cultural issues that I have had to deal with have all put things into a new perspective for me, and has taught me to really be grateful for the things that we do have and not to take them for granted.
