The beginning of this month continued with all the excitement of last month. Towards the end of September, I had the chance to attend Vogue Fashion’s Night out. It was the first time the event had been held in Florence. So it was a pretty big deal. I finally went to the Ferragamo museum and saw the Marilyn Monroe exhibit. After that, I had the opportunity to go to Milan to attend the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week. All this excitement continued when I found out my sewing and construction class would get to tour the Gucci Leather Factory. Every single thing that I’ve had a chance to experience so far has been a blessing. The average person from my hometown will never be able to say they did anything like that.
It hasn’t been all good this month though. I’m beginning to learn a lot more about Italian culture, which has been difficult. A lot of the things I’ve been learning require a lot of adjustment. I’ve started to get slightly homesick. So all I want to do is talk to friends and family back home. It’s slightly difficult to do that though because the bandwidth in my apartment is weak. So the Internet connection isn’t strong enough to skype or text the majority of the time. Campus is closed after nine, which is the beginning of the perfect time to talk to people back home. All this also makes it difficult to do homework or anything else that requires Internet. I’m so used to be able to get on pretty much everywhere I go in Kentucky. So it’s a real adjustment being off line all the time. It feels like I’m completely disconnected from the world.
I’m taking in positive things from the culture as well. Back home, I’m so concerned about what people think about me, especially my appearance. That’s Americans in general. Everyone tries so hard to present an image to the world. Italians don’t try hard at all. They’re completely sure of themselves. I first noticed this during my trip to Maremma. On the beach there were people all shapes and sizes barely wearing anything. There was one guy in particular that had a huge beer belly hanging over his speedo, but no one seemed to care. Things like that have inspired me to stop being embarrassed about myself. That’s another thing that makes Italians so stylish. They’re not trying to impress anyone. They’re completely comfortable in their skin. I hope to take that same mentality home with me.
Francis – University of Kentucky
