First 17 days in Italy!

Dear followers of my blog,

It has now been 17 days since I left to Italy. To be honest, my first week here was a complete misery (more details about this if you read further in my blog), but later also really surprising, hopeful and wonderful. So here is my first story.

Luckily, my first day when I arrived in Verona was wonderful, because of the fact that Loris picked me up at the airport. Actually, it really was a last minute surprise. Normally, I would have taken a taxi from the airport of Verona to the station. And than I would have taken a train to Rovereto, which was going to take about an hour, and than I still had to walk around Rovereto from the station to find the hostel. So I was so lucky that my dear, best Italian friend from Monza suddenly called me and said to me the evening before that he was going to pick me up at the airport. Although I was so tired from the flight, I was so happy to see him, and it was an adventure to get all my luggage into the car, because he drives a cabrio which has not much place. Neither did the car had any backseats, so we had to put my small trolley just on my backside. Typically Italian already in my opinion, and I had to laugh with it immediately. But is was fun! Driving to Rovereto went really smoothly. In one hour, we were there, and after a little search around the small town, we found 'Ostello di Rovereto'. It's almost like a good hotel. I booked my own single room, with every morning breakfast included, and I had my own bathroom. But I couldn't stay there forever, because I couldn't cook. I had to go to a restaurant or find some pizza or pasta every day. So that was the downside of it. That day of my arrival at the hostel, me and Loris discovered Rovereto. This small little town is really beautiful. You can see my pictures here on my blog. It was a Saturday, and I could hear music and opera and I could see theater everywhere. Even a little orchestra was playing together in the cosy little streets. I immediately felt that I chose the right place to be. It's not a big town. The centre just really looks like a small village, but I like this place because it has so many history and a lot of beautiful buildings and typical Italian streets and houses. The mountains are so beautiful here. I always have an amazing view here.

Later that day, I was exhausted from all the traveling that I went to bed really early, because I hadn't slept the night before, because my flight in Amsterdam was already at 06:30! (way too early). My mother drove me to Schiphol airport, which takes around 2 hours to get there from where I live in Geel in Belgium. So we already had to leave around 2 at night.

The first day I woke up at the hostel I had a good feeling about everything. I already planned and organized myself to call several apartments I already found on the internet. I translated and wrote down a few Italian sentences for myself (I thought in case those apartment owners wouldn't speak any English). Apparently, I was right. Nobody, but really nobody speaks even a word English here in this mountain town! So that was already my first struggle, because I couldn't even set up a normal appointment with the owners. I was also feeling a little sick already, and I already felt like giving up. Later, the apartment owner sent me a text message (with some really google-translated-English) that his son would contact me for more details because he spoke English. In the next days, I finally got to see other apartments too, but there were either too expensive, either too old, or I had to share the apartment with only another man, or they couldn't give me a contract for only 6 months. And I started to feel really hopeless and all alone. I was also getting really sick, so I was scared I must go to the doctor there. I was spending my days trying to find an apartment, while spending the rest of the day lying sick in bed and feeling useless. Even the cleaning lady in the hostel came checking from time to time if I was still alive. Trying to find a way to express yourself in a country where you don't speak the language yet, is really hard. I didn't even spoke a word Italian yet, but I was obliged to try to speak it. I was glad I had the 'Italian-for-dummies'-book with me for help and trying to survive in this small mountain-town.

Eventually, what could get worse, got worse. I had to go to the hospital, because I was too sick, and I needed antibiotics because I knew I had an infection. So I took all my strength to get to the bus station, and went to the hospital in Rovereto. This was the only way I could find some doctors who might speak English. So finally, I ended up waiting in the emergency room, trying to explain I needed antibiotics. The female doctors were so friendly, spoke English and were so helpful! I got the subscription for the antibiotics, together with a detailed diagnosis at the hospital. I quickly searched for a pharmacy and I could finally get better.

The apartment search was not going well, and I didn't go to school either because I was still sick and stuck and I still felt so hopeless, but than suddenly, I met Biagio, an Italian guy from Sicily who also works as an English language teacher in Rovereto. I met him at the hostel, and he suggested he could help me finding an apartment, because he was looking for a place to stay too! You really could say I was blessed to meet him. I still owe him so much, because he really was my life-saver at the time I felt like giving up. He went to the University in Rovereto and Trento with him to find several advertisements and always called the apartment owners for me. The English teacher at my internship also helped me trying to find an apartment, and my contact person from the school and him were really understanding and helpful. They suggested I continue my search in Trento, because it's a bigger city here in the north.

So finally, Biagio found an apartment through calling for a room in Rovereto for me, but it was only for guys to share the apartment with, so he could take the room. I was so happy for him. But I was already in the youth hostel for more than a week and I really couldn't stay there because it was getting expensive. But luckily, Biagio received a call from a really nice lady who wanted to help me, who is the owner of a lovely student flat in Trento! Biagio took the train to Trento with me, we took a look at the apartment, talked with the lady and met my flatmates, and like we say in Belgium: I was sold. The apartment is so clean and totally newly furnished. I have to share the room now with another girl, but she is really nice. The lady said I could move in the day after, so I did.

Finally, I could move to Trento and settle down. It was such a relief for me. My flatmates are really lovely. I share the apartment with 2 other Italian girls now. One is from the north, from a small village called Molveno, not too far away from here. She told me the mountain people from the north here are called the 'crucca'. The other one is from the southeast of Italy, from Specchia, a small town with only 4912 inhabitants, in the Apulia region. This week I spent a lot of time with her. She is also so helpful and she helps me learning and speaking Italian with her. We cook together. All different types of pasta and risotto. I discovered so many typical Italian food. Spaghetti for us is called here in Italy: 'Tagliatelle al ragù'. So when I would try to order a normal 'spaghetti', they would look weird at me at the restaurant. Thank god I had someone to help me get through the menu, because the first time I tried the 'Tagliatelle al ragù' was with Biagio. I was still sick and alone at the hostel, and I had forced myself to go eat something normal with him, because I hadn't eaten properly for days.

If you wanna know about the biggest culture differences I had here, I can give you plenty of them, so here are the most important rules, prepare yourself:

1. Italian people always talk talk talk talk talk. They hate sending messages. So they prefer calling or sending spoken messages to each other.
2. Italian people don't speak English (most important rule learned)
3. Lessons begin here at 07:50 (early birds here!), but they do not always have lessons in the afternoon (depends on the school)
4. If you order an espresso, be prepared for the strongest one you ever tasted (in my opinion undrinkable without some water or milk)
5. Basis rule: take always all your time to eat your (warm!) food at lunch. They just love food.
6. Italian students from the South of Italy are studying in the North, because schools and work are better here (general known rule)
7. Italian people love cars.
8. Stores are always closed in the afternoon, and they only open at 3 or even later.
9. Don't think you know all the different types of pastas and pizzas because there are just too much of them here.
10. Italian people never 'hurry'. There also isn't an age at something you 'shouldn't been doing anymore at this age'. While we graduate at a young age in Belgium, there are a lot more older students here.

Now something more about the food culture. Other great food for example I discovered are for example the stuffed croissants. Other things with chocolate or other sweet stuffed baked things are called 'dolci' here. They always eat it here in the morning, together with the strongest espresso I ever tasted! I remember the first espresso I ordered here was like a concentrated black sirup, and I just couldn't drink it because it was too strong. So I ended up asking for milk, so I finally drank a 'caffè macchiato'. This is what I am ordering from now on if I wanna have a normal, strong espresso here ;) . Besides drinks, other food I love here are (of course unavoidable) the pizza's, but also the tasty panini's, the cheese, the Italian wine, the different types of pesto. Also the eating rhythm is different here. I am never hungry here, because at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, Italian people always eat something warm. If it isn't something warm, it's not a real lunch for them. So most of the time I eat pasta at 1, and than I'm so full for the rest of the day that I'm only a little hungry again in the evening, and than we mostly eat something small like a salad, some bread or cheese or sometimes a little bit of risotto. In the evening, Italian people have the 'aperitivo' here. I had it once in Milan and I loved it. Here is the rule: you can buy one cocktail of your choice, and than you have a free buffet with all the best Italian food you can imagine, as much as you want. Italian food paradise, as I would prefer to call it. But a lot of Italian people from the north here are having the aperitivo with some patatine (the french fries, as I would not prefer it calling this name, because it's typically belgian) or chips, together with the 'Spritz'-drinks. When you walk around in Trento, you can always see Italian people having a 'Spritz' to drink. I already went out with my flatmate in Trento, and I met a lot of new students who speak also English, but not too much.

My Italian is already improving, because I'm picking up so many words and sentences which I try to remember, and I'm sure that week by week, it gets more easy to understand Italian. So I already feel like I'm improving. They say I have a good Italian pronunciation, and that I'm a fast learner. All thanks to the other languages I already speak! I'm studying at the apartment, and meanwhile, I still spend time searching for Italian courses I can take here in Trento or Rovereto.

Concerning my internship, it all goes really well and all the teachers at the school are really friendly. Currently, I'm working for the English Physics teacher, who has a lot of office work and digitalising a lot of class material, but I also met the other English teacher and the French teacher, in whose classed I can already assist and help the students with their homework. For the English class, I'm preparing a lesson about war history. More specific about the belgian war history, which I can tell a lot about. The only thing I need to get used to are my really early mornings. I have to get up at 6 in the morning, in order to get my train to Rovereto at 7, because lessons start at 07:50 at the school. But I think that today the Physic teacher I am working with noticed I was staring at my computer screen like a zombie, so he suggested I can come a little later in the morning. It's a good thing that I can organise my own work, as long as I get everything done. Today I met another belgian girl at the school! She is from the French part of Belgium, but I was surprised she tried speaking Dutch with me. Her Dutch was not that good, because she said she hadn't spoken it for a long time, so we went on talking in French. It was nice to meet her.

Okay, so this was my update for now. I hope you all enjoyed reading it, and I'll keep you guys updated soon!

Love from Italy,

Lara.