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?