Italy has been an amazing experience and I have truly been lucky to have the opportunities to travel most weekends and see other areas of Italy and other countries. Although my time abroad as looked perfect online, there has definitely been times where I needed to adjust and felt lost. The cafe and bar culture in Italy is very different than in the United States. Figuring out how to order food and where to go first in a cafe was something that took getting used to. Another thing that took a while to get used to was the public transportation. Although it is integrated into everyones lives here, it is very difficult for an outsider to understand the social norms of going on a bus or even to know the typical etiquette of the bus system. For intense it was confusing and frustrating to understand that the bus will always be late. Studying abroad has been incredible and learning about Italy and the Italian culture has been so insightful that I feel like there are many people in the world that misjudge Italians. I feel as though I am more confident in speaking Italian, and I am more confident in being in different spaces than I was before coming here. I feel like I am excited to educate some of my family and friends on certain aspects of the Italian culture that we do not understand in the United States such as siesta, or apretivo time. There are a lot of cultural norms that I have adjusted to here that I hope to bring home to my friends and family.
