Florence is figo

*Note: The title of my blog is no longer accurate because I am not in Spain and sadly don't have plans to return there anytime soon.  However, I've decided to continue to describe my European adventures until I return to the US.  If anyone has ideas for a more accurate blog title, I'm open to suggestions!

Palabra del día: Multo figo
Spanish Translation: Muy chulo
English translation: Really cool
Isn't is multo figo that my blog has become trilingual?

Comida del día: Pesto. Pesto has always been one of my favorite foods and I've decided to eat it every day while living in Florence.  So far, 100 percent success.

Foto del día: Two day trips, two photos.

The first day trip was to Siena, this gorgeous and relaxing small town an hour outside of Florence with an elaborate cathedral and this gorgeous view.

And the second day trip was to Cinque Terre, which literally means "Five Lands" to represent the area of five tiny villages on the coast with colorful houses and rocky beaches.  Cinque Terre is also the birthplace of pesto, which made me very happy.

My first night in Florence, I decided to go for a walk and I saw this sunset behind the famous Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge):

So despite being depressed about leaving Granada, I wasted no time before starting to enjoy Firenze.

I was expecting to be sad about leaving Granada while starting my jazz program here.  What I wasn't expecting was that I would go through full blown culture shock.  I figured that since I was moving from Spain to Italy, both of which are in Europe, the cultures would be pretty similar and I could put off my culture shock until I got back to the US.  I should have known better.  Spain and Italy are more different than I expected, and I'm now thoroughly confused as to whether I'm adjusting from Spanish culture to Italian, American culture to Italian, or even Spanish culture to American.

Before I attempt to analyze Italian culture, I should explain what I'm actually doing here.  WashU has a month-long jazz studies program in Florence which I've wanted to do since my freshman year, and this year since I was already in Europe, it was too convenient to resist.  So now my life consists of three hours of Italian classes in the morning in which I attempt to speak in Italian, end up speaking in some combination of Spanish and English, and still get things right about half the time.  In the afternoon I have a jazz seminar with a WashU professor and group of five other quirky WashU students.  We also have 1-2 gigs or concerts per week which we play with a rhythm section made up of Italian jazz students.

I live in an apartment one minute from the Duomo (Florence's Cathedral),

with three other girls: one from France, one from Brazil, and one from Mexico.  In case you are wondering, we usually speak English, although I do get to practice my Spanish with the girl from Mexico.

So, I've continued to meet a lot of friendly and interesting people from all over the world since coming to Florence, and I've especially enjoyed the chance to meet Italian students and talk to them about what their lives are like in the city I currently live in.  I've also enjoyed the performance opportunities, which at times have pulled me out of my ever-growing comfort zone.  For example, last week we played in a concert and we were asked to introduce ourselves before playing, and I successfully introduced myself in Italian (a language I had been speaking for a week and a half) in front of an audience.  And yesterday we played at our weekly gig at a restaurant right on the river, and we ended up performing a song I had written as an assignment that day for my jazz seminar.  I'd never written a song before, let alone performed one I'd written on the same day!

The Italian musicians I've met seem really impressed by the fact that I play jazz on the French horn!  Which means that at first they don't seem to notice if I play a few wrong notes some of the time...

Ok, now that you understand what I'm doing in Florence for a month besides eating lots of gelato, let's go back to the topic of culture shock.  Here are some things that stick out to me as unique aspects of Italian culture:

• One of the hardest things for me to get used to has been the daily schedule.  By the end of nine months in Spain, I actually started to like eating a big meal in the middle of the day and then taking a siesta.  So when I started classes here and found out that I only had a half hour for lunch at 12:30, I was really stressed out.  12:30 is way too early for lunch, and half an hour is barely enough time to eat, let alone take a siesta.  I'm still struggling with this schedule and I am usually more than ready for my siesta at 2 pm, right in the middle of my jazz seminar...

• Speaking of trying to stay awake, I'd like to talk about Italy's coffee culture.  In the US, we get giant cups to go; in Spain, you sit in a cafe for at least an hour and usually drink a simple café con leche; but in Italy, it's a bit more complicated.  In the morning, it's normal to enjoy a leisurely latte with a croissant for breakfast, but throughout the day, it's more common to stop into a café and order a shot of espresso while standing at the bar for a pick-me-up that takes no more than two minutes and doesn't involve any plastic cups.  I usually don't drink any coffee at all, but I've realized that a shot of espresso in the half hour break during Italian class in the morning causes me to participate much more during the second half of class, and participation of course helps me to improve my knowledge of Spanglitalianish. 

• Despite the super speedy lunches and lack of a siesta, life in Italy is still pretty laid back.  Instead of long lunches people have long dinners, and the fact that coffee breaks are so quick means that it's possible to take coffee breaks three (or four or five) times per day.  Now remember the fact that I'm in laid-back Italy for a jazz program, and that jazz musicians are known for being, shall we say, super chill.  What I'm trying to say is that most of the events for my program have been planned extremely last minute and sometimes I feel like I spend a whole afternoon trying to do things that never get done.  This disorganization and lack of productivity has been agitating certain high-achieving WashU kids in my program, so in this sense I'm glad that I came straight from Granada, the land of no pasa nada where I learned to wait for hours, weeks or months for things to happen that sometimes never actually happen.  The moral of the story is that it's important, especially in Spain, Italy, or when spending time with jazz musicians, to just go with the flow.

The one and only thing I like more about Florence than Granada is that Granada doesn't have any grass, and Florence has lots and lots of it.

• Ok, now my favorite topic related to cultural differences: besos! (AKA bacetti AKA kisses). In Italy, like in Spain, the proper way to greet someone when meeting him for the first time is by giving a kiss on each cheek.  However, in Italy they kiss the other person's left cheek first, while in Spain they go right then left.  I've become used to the Spanish way which has caused some problems: if I go for the other person's right cheek and they go for my left cheek, there's a strong possibility that we'll meet in the middle and end up kissing on the lips.  Thankfully I've avoided this so far, but I have had some close calls.  Meeting and greeting new people is further complicated by the fact that I've met people here from all over the world.  Apparently in Mexico the proper way to greet someone is a kiss on only one cheek.  So when an American meets a Mexican in Italy, there are three options: a proper American handshake, a kiss on one cheek, or a kiss on both cheeks.  How do I ever decide?

• And speaking of kisses, I'd like to talk for just a moment about Italian men.  Some of whom are very handsome.  And all of whom have a certain reputation, am I right?  There's a word in Spanish, ligar, which can best be translated with the definition, "to flirt with a purpose".  I was warned by certain friends when leaving Spain to be careful of Italian men because they are muy ligados, and I have found this to be true.  For example, my very first morning in Florence I went to a cafe for breakfast.  The waiter brought me the wifi password on an index card and joked, "Here's my number; so when can I get yours?"  And other similar incidents.  In my opinion, maybe it's a bit too much.

So aside from beautiful sunsets and handsome but overly forward men, what does Florence have to offer?

1. Great art: I haven't seen all of the museums yet, but I did see Florence's highlight, Michelangelo's David statue, which is known as being a masterpiece and in my opinion seeing it firsthand, it lived up to it's reputation of perfection.  

Obviously its impossible to capture the magnificence in a simple photo, but you can tell that he's quite a handsome guy.

2. Waaayyyyy too many American tourists screaming outside of my window late into the night (and in the same vein, wayyy too many mosquitos buzzing in my ears and making me itchy late into the night).  I don't think I've been around this many people from the US since I was in the US nine months ago. I've heard a few people describe Florence as a "preserved Renaissance disneyland," meant for tourists to enjoy but lacking modern cultural development.  Walking around the center of the city, I've noticed more people speaking English than any other language.  I've also met tons of people like me who come here from all over the world to study for a few months, making them not quite tourists but definitely not locals either.  Something I loved about Granada was that despite the tourists and loads of study abroad students, there were still plenty of places once you left the main plazas that were purely Granadina.  In Florence, I have yet to find these places, but to be fair, perhaps it just takes more time to discover them.  

Do I spot pesto on that pizza?

3. Great food.  Pizza pasta gelato what more can I say?

9 month anniversary

Palabra del día: Ciao
Translation: Goodbye in Spanish, and hello and goodbye in Italian.  All too appropriate, since I just said goodbye to Granada and hello to Florence!

Comida del día: homemade pizza
Speaking of Italy... actually the pizza we made a few weeks ago would probably not at a high enough standard to be qualified as pizza in Italy, but in my opinion it was pretty tasty.  I also learned that making pizza from scratch is super easy and a great thing to make when you have hardly any food in the house.  For the dough, all you need is flour, water, and some sort of yeast. Or if you can't find any yeast, baking soda seems to work just fine.  And if you can't find a rolling pin, use a zucchini! (it worked perfectly). And then all you need is some combination of veggies and cheese.  We had a pizza making party a few weeks ago and look how nicely they turned out:

Foto del día:

Typical day hanging out in the Party Piso with Alberto and Nabil.  I'm definitely going to miss this!

After nine happy months together, Granada and I had to separate.  It was for logistical reasons rather than relationship problems, and we were both extremely sad about it.  I've cried about 10 times in the last month, and it rained all afternoon in Granada the day before I left, which I like to think was Granada crying for me.  And now I'm in Florence for the next month!  I'm slightly less excited that I should be because this transition is colored by the fact that I'm depressed about leaving the city I fell in love with this year and all of the amazing people I met there.  So far, Florence seems like a lovely city, but it has some steep competition if it wants to try to win my heart. 

Some of you may find it hard to believe that even after nine months in Granada, and five months longer than I originally planned, I still wasn't ready to leave.  Deciding to stay for the full year was definitely the right decision for me and one of the best personal decisions I've made in my entire life.  In fact, I'm fully convinced that spending a year abroad in college should be the norm, rather than the exception.  A semester abroad gives you the chance to travel a lot, party a lot, study a little, learn some things about the culture and maybe have a conversation or two with people who live there.  A year gives you a chance to do all of those things as well as form real relationships with people from other cultures, and for me these relationships were the highlights of my time abroad, as well as where I learned the most.  And although Granada is a pretty small city, I was still discovering new things right up until the very end.  In my last week, I went to a beautiful garden near the Alhambra for the first time and found out that one of my favorite concert venues has jam sessions on Tuesdays which I had been missing all year, but Thankfully I managed to go to one my last week.  So despite its size, Granada is full of hidden places and fun things to do.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through some old blog posts, reminiscing, and trying not to cry (but yes, I was crying...) and I found the post where I described my decision to stay for the year.  Within that post I had written my goals for the second semester, which were nice to read because I could easily see which ones I had completed and which I hadn't.  The results went something like this:

1. Spend more time with new Spanish friends
I definitely succeeded with this one!  Although I should really edit this goal to "Spend more time with non-American friends".  Last semester I generally ended up hanging out with large groups of American girls, and although this was fun, I loved having opportunities this semester to spend more time with Spanish people and people from all over the world.  My housemate Alberto never hesitated to invite Rebecca and I along to whatever fun event he happened to be going to and for some reason seemed to genuinely want to hang out with a bunch of American girls most of the time.  I also had the pleasure of living with Nabil and half the time his sister Mariam as well, with whom we had some great discussions about current events, Moroccan culture, and anything and everything else (they both love to talk!)   In my last post I wrote about the "international dinner" we had a few weeks ago, and I don't think I've ever been in a room with people representing so many different cultures.  From these people I've learned all sorts of new things, and it's been a wonderful experience to find out how my life is similar and different to people in other countries.  And also of course to learn swear words in a whole variety of languages!

2. Study a bit more
This definitely did not succeed in this one...but no pasa nada (Do you remember this Word of the Day?) The truth is, I learned more from meeting all of the people I mentioned above than I could ever learn in my classes.  And it turned out that my course load was easy enough that I didn't need to study all that much to do well in my classes.  My reasoning for this goal was that after one semester I would be adjusted enough to life in a new country that I could focus more on school.  However, second semester turned out to be drastically different.  I mentioned that my friends were different, but I also had to adjust to living in an apartment, cooking for myself (remember how I struggled to light the stove for a good long while?), making new friends since many had left, and starting a new internship, and I also got the opportunity to explore Granada with people who have lived here for years, so there were tons of new places to discover. All of these adjustments were great because it allowed me to have two very different study abroad experiences from one semester to the next, and in my opinion new experiences are what studying abroad is all about.

3. Take more music classes, learn flamenco guitar, and do an internship: done!

So all in all, two out of three goals accomplished, and I have no regrets about not accomplishing the other one.

I truly cannot believe that the semester is over.  During my last week, I slowly said goodbye to all of the people and places that have become important to me: my host mom, my internship supervisor, my favorite bakery, the people in the band, my friends from the US...and it's scary to think that I have no idea if and when I will ever see these people again.  Although I'm incredibly sad, I've realized that goodbyes often end up being celebrations and can be lots of fun.  For example, at my last band rehearsal Rebecca and I brought chocolate chip cookies and a photo collage with thank you letters, and then afterwards we all went out for tapas, of course.  It's depressing to think that that was the last time I will ever go out for tapas with the band, especially since they've been such an incredibly welcoming community, which is something that is incredibly valuable while living in a foreign country.  But of course while we were out we had a great time with lots of jokes (many at my expense), just like always.

We also of course had to have one last party in the Party Piso, with my housemates and honorary housemates in attendance, a bunch of people from the band, and a few other people who I've managed to make friends with over the course of the year.  This was on my second to last night in Granada.  My last day I spent with my closest friends.  I made lunch for all of my housemates and honorary housemates, giving one last go at cooking Spanish food while Spanish people were around to help me.  I made my host mom's paella recipe and salmorejo (cold tomato soup that's thicker than gazpacho).  Look out for the recipes soon!  Then at night we went to a jazz-themed cafe called Cafe Bohemia, which we seem to end up at every time it's someone's last night in Granada.  I guess even in a year we were able to start a few traditions.

One of the reasons it's so hard to leave Granada is that I made some of the best friends there that I've ever had in my life.  In addition to my friends from all over the world, I also became best friends with Annie, Rebecca and Silvia (three other American girls from my program).  We ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time together due to the fact some of us lived (or practically lived) together, had classes together, did some of the same activities and had incredibly active social lives to fully enjoy the Spanish culture.  By the end of the semester I felt like we were more like family than friends - we even sometimes had "family arguments"!  I think the fact that we were all so far from home also brought us closer together.  Although I loved having friends from so many different cultures, sometimes it was nice to hang out with three other Americans, talk about anything and everything, and feel a little bit more at home.  I've been so many amazing places this year, but even so, some of my best memories are just of hanging out in the Party Piso, playing games, eating, chatting, making jokes and enjoying the opportunity to spend time with good friends.  At WashU, it's easy to get caught up in studying and to-do lists and spending time with friends often gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list.  I've learned this year how important friendships can be and how much I can learn from spending time with other people, and going forward I'm going to try to make that a more important part of my life.

Something I've been wondering is whether I've changed throughout this year in Granada.  This is probably a question that you can answer better than I can, but I'll give you my best guess.  In some ways I think I've changed a lot.  I've had a much more active social life this year, I've loved meeting new people and I've realized the value of the things you can learn from simply having a conversation with someone new.  I've also jumped at many chances to try new things this year, and in some of these cases I might have been more likely to hesitate in the past.  I've realized that trying new things is invigorating and educational, but I certainly haven't left my old logical self behind who always thinks before she acts.  And then there are the little things that have changed: I've completely adjusted to the Spanish eating schedule and I love taking an afternoon siesta.

But I've also realized that I have certain core values that will always stay the same, and these values stick out even more when I'm in a completely new setting.  For example, I was worried that I wouldn't have time or resources to play music while in Granada, but I ended up spending lots of time playing music and meeting friends through playing, just like I've always done.  Playing music is something I love to do and if it followed me to Spain, it makes me think it will follow me for the rest of my life.  Another thing I've noticed is that although my social life is more active here, I still need time for myself.  My WashU friends always make fun of me because I go to bed early, and my friends here are always convincing me to stay out later (although at WashU "early" means midnight, and in Spain it usually means 3 am...)  But in the end, I'm still the same person, and I still need my eight hours of sleep every night.

One last beautiful view

Throughout this last week of saying goodbye, many people said to me that I could always return if I wanted to.  That seemed unlikely to me - the US is very far away from Spain and I have no idea when I'll be back.  It also didn't help much to think I could return, because I know that if I return many of the people I've met this year probably won't still be there.  However, as my plane was taking off from Granada and I looked at one last view of the mountains and the olive trees that make up the beautiful landscapes of Andalucia, I realized that although I don't know when, I will definitely be back someday. But for now, all I can say is ciao, Granada, until we meet again.