An experience that I had where I was confused took place in one of the cafes. I distinctly remember it being the second week I was in my host country. My roommates and I were just getting to know the area and we were walking down the street in the areas near our apartment to find a nice place to get a coffee and pastry before we went to our orientation the American University of Rome was hosting for us. We found a really nice cafe located on the same street of our apartment and it was called the Giuffre. As we went into the cafe we saw a variety of juices, coffees, and sweets, like candies, cheesecakes, croissants, and cookies. Only one of my friends new basic Italian phrases/ words to get by, while the rest of us didn’t know much Italian at all. My friend Gia ordered an espresso, while my friend Maddy ordered an iced latte, and both my friend Izzy and I ordered a frappe. To me and Izzy’s surprise a frappe isn’t a kind of coffee at all. When we took our first sip, we didn’t taste any caffeine in the drink at all, we actually just tasted vanilla and whipped cream. This confused us both, so we decided to ask what the drink was. When we asked the employee if the drink we ordered was coffee he said no, and went on to explain that it was a vanilla milkshake instead. This was confusing to us because back in America when ordering coffee a frappe is a very popular kind of coffee which isn’t offered here in Italy at all. We all laughed about it because we weren’t expecting that at all. After this we immediately went to pull out our credit cards to pay for our drinks. When we went to hand the employee our cards he said we don’t pay yet and told us that we pay when we’re finished drinking them and when we are about to be on our way out to leave. This was also very confusing, yet surprising because we were used to immediately paying for our food and drinks before we drink or eat not the other way around. We then went to sit at our table as we drank our coffees and milkshakes. The cafe had a really nice and comfortable atmosphere that was very welcoming and made it feel very homey to me. Back in Florida I was used to getting my coffee on the go especially in places like Mcdonalds or Dunkin Donuts, and despite a few Starbucks places I happen to drop by. Other than this there really weren’t that many coffee businesses that had a very comfortable sit-down atmosphere. After we finished our drinks we sat and talked for a long time which felt really nice because many of the restaurants and businesses you go to order food, rush you out the door and don’t want you to take your time to sit and converse with friends. Although these instances were kind of confusing, they were very interesting to see first hand in another country I’ve never lived in before and it was nice to see the cultural differences.
