Now I was planning on writting this week about my first expierence skiing in the Alps with my papa and brother. Sadly Im sick with this cold that is very mysterious. It came on very quickly and likes to make my body feel like its a dead fish one day then normal the next day, over and over for more than week. So on Sunday I had to cancel my ski lessons and stay home all weekend. Yesterday I went to school but came home with a fever so now Im currently in my pjs writting this blog feverless and feeling relatively fine. Dang cold! So instead I really want to talk about the culture difference here. Ive past the three month mark which is the longest a tourist can stay in a foreign country and I am now at the temporary residence stage. So I think Im qualified to talk about what it is like living in Italy.
Before I start I must note that all the observation are from my own personal view points. Another exchange student may or may not agree with all that is written. These are simply my opinions and thoughts.
Family
- Family is your number one priority. Always.
- Parents usually have one or two kids. Having four or more kids is like having 8 kids in the usa.
- Grandparents usually live in the house with the rets of the family or live really close by.
- Sundays you always have lunch with the grandparents.
- If there is a grandma living in the house then she does all the cooking for lunch and does the laundry for the family.
- I have not heard of a man running the house instead of the woman.
- Moms sometimes have jobs. Otherwise the live at home taking care of the kids, or volunteer. None are big powerful buisness women.
- Everybody is very loud and into each others lives. Dinner we talk about our day, politics, school, and other things will waving around our hands.
- Getting enough privacy can be an issue.
Food
- It is possible to get a bad meal here.
- Breakfast is very light- the tiny but extremely stong expressos, warm milk, and cookies.
- Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Its served around 1pm and has many courses including vedgetables, pasta, meat, fruit, coffee and gelato.
- Dinner is normal size and eatten around 8 pm.
- They do not snack in between meals, simply because they dont have snacks.
- You feel like your in a serious food comma after lunch and dinner.
- Your Starving during and after school simply due to the no snack rule.
- I have never eatten so much pasta and pizza before in my life!
- Gelato kicks ice creams butt.
- Burgers are terrible here since there use diary cows for meat.
- They eat a ton of ham.
- Italians eat A LOT at meals. They force food into your mouth. But they dont want you to gain weight.
- Theres a pizza called the Americani which is cheese pizza with french fries on it.
- Flat water, fizzy water, and coke are the main drinks. Rootbeer and Doctor Peper dont exist.
- The food is all natural, fresh and yummy. Its simply made.
- Drinking a glass of beer or wine at dinner with your family is 100% normal. Also at school events.
- They drink to have a drink not to get drunk.
- Going out on a school night to meet some friends at a bar is normal.
- If you get drunk its not okay.
- A lot of food I thought was Italian actually is just American. For example chicken alfredo and spaghetti and meatballs.
- They put olive oil in all their cooking.
- Mcdonalds is more expensive and to me is a lagit restaurant. People dont really use the drive thru but sit down. There are a lot less choices and doesnt do american mcdonalds justice. But when your starving for a burger it will do.
- They have a couple burger kings. But you wont see taco bell, wendys, sonic, dairy queen or kfc, dunkin donuts anywhere here.
- People generally dont go out to eat. Simply because almost all resturantes are pizzeras.
- Havent eatten any mexican or chinese food while here simply because they dont have it.
- Grocery stores are small little markets. Unless you drive half hour to the nearest stop and shop size market. They even have butchers inside them selling every part of a pigs body and all is on display for all to see. The bakery section is lagit and my favorite part.
- Their ceral section consist of less than 10 different types.
- Canoilies are only in the south so I have yet to try one.
- Coffee is basically like a very strong shot. If your looking for an american type of coffee good luck!
Transportation
- We all take city style buses to school.
- Driving age is 18.
- All cars are stick shift.
- You can always take a bus or train to another town or city. Buses and trains start running around 6 am. Buses stop around 8 pm and general arent in service on sundays. Trains stop around 10 pm.
- European countries are small and easy to get to. Its common for Italians to have been to England, Spain, Germany, Greece....
- Cars are really small.
- Everyone drives faster than the speed limit.
- People generally dont wear seatbelts.
- If you take a bus or train and dont have a ticket they will charge you 50 euro (75 dollars)
- If there is 2/3 inches or more of snow no one will drive if they dont have to. If they do they will drive extremely slow. Buses and trains will have hour or more details/cancelations.
- Mopeds and motorbikes are eveywhere. 16 is the driving for moped age. Girls and boys drive them even grandparents.
- Riding a bike or walking for long distances is normal.
- Gas cost 7 dollars a gallon.
- I have yet to see a full size SUV or Hummer.
School
- There are two types of school- private or public. Private is very expensive and all the rich kids go there. School is easier for them since the classes arent as hard and teachers will give them a higher grade than they deserve.
- Public schools arent very nice, classes are very challanging and teacher grade you harder.
- School is from monday-saturday. 8 am til 1:30 pm
- We dont eat lunch at school, if you get hungry there are vending machines.
- There are 5 years of high school.
- No SAT or ACT tests but there is a huge test at the end of the 5th year saying if and what university you will go to.
- All tests are done orally. Sometimes language classes will have them written.
- At any given time the teacher can ask you a long series of questions about the material your learning. If you dont know the answers your grade for the semester is looking really bad.
- They never do worksheets during class. Your either doing an oral test, listening to the teacher lecture or taking notes.
- They dont use letter grade but numbers 1-10. 5 or below is failing. 10 is impossible its like getting an A++
- There are different types of schools including scientific, language, classical, musical...
- All the students simply call the teachers Prof.
- There arent any janitors. But these women who were lab coats. They are secritaries/cleaning women.
- Classrooms are very simple. They only have students desks, teachers desk, trash can and white board. No clocks, computers, tv, or loud speakers.
- Teachers switch class, students stay in the same seat all day, every day.
- You dont get to pick elective classes.
- Gym is once a week for two hours.
- There arent any lockers.
- They teach religion in all schools.
- There arent hall passes. People usually dont leave during class to go to the bathroom. If you do need to go it should according to the teachers take 2 minutes tops.
- People dont act out during class, ever. No one gets sent to the principles office for detentions or suspensions.
- There arent any random fights during or after school.
- If there is 5 or more inches of snow the will cancel school.
- Students will be very serious during school and then come home and study all afternoon and evening for a test they might not have.
- Teachers are always late for class not students.
- Smoking outside in between classes is totally normal.
- There are no high school musical type schools aka there is no school spirit, sports teams, after school clubs, activities or anything. You simply go there to learn.
Friends
- If your friends are in the fourth year or below they generally wont go out on weekends or at leats not late. This is because they cant drive yet and have to study.
- People are super friendly if they speak english.
- If they dont know english they will just stare at you and say bye instead of hi and good night instead of good morning and will refer to you by your country instead of name.
- If your friends can drive then you will be out super late on saturday nights at bars and discos.
- People generally dont go over to each others houses to hang out, they meet at local bars.
- They will either be to shy to speak english with you because they think its not good enough. Or if the they know english will want to use you to practice and perfect it.
- People will say "hi and your name" and you will smile and say hi back to them but have no idea who the heck they are. Esp at school.
Bathrooms
- Yes I am going to talk about the bathrooms in Italy because they are different!
- At home there is usually one sometimes two bathrooms. Generally no more than two.
- They dont have the little fans.
- At home they are very large.
- Showers generally suck since its a detached shower head.
- The water will randomly get very cold, then normal, then hot, then the water pressure will decrease by half. So keep the showers short!
- They use bathrobes to dry off instead of big towels.
- Women usually dont use razors instead they wax. But only when they have to. Some dont wax or shave at all.
- They have this second toliet. Its called a bidet. I think its to clean down under... I havent figaured this one out yet. Some exchange students ay they use it to shave their legs. I just avoid it.
- They dont have trash cans in the bathrooms. If they do they are very small.
- Im finding myself knocking on the bathroom door everytime Im about to enter even if the light is off just because you never know.
- At school there arent toilets but wholes in the grounds because I go to a low cost public school.
- Half of the bathroom is taken up by clothes drying since they dont use dryers. Clothes come back a week or two later and wont by soft of smell laundry fresh. Clothes wont come back fitted either so you think your loosing weight when your really not.
- If your in the city they will charge you under a euro to use their gas station type bathrooms.
Fashion
- At school people dress rather nice.
- If you wear pajamas to class you will be shot.
- The main style for girls is skinny jeans, colored straight leg pants, converse, short ugg, tall leather boots, short ankle boots, heels, turle necks, sweaters over the turtle necks, scarves thats get wrapped around your neck a thousand times and the puffy coats.
- Boys wear stright leg jeans that are stressed. They wear tshirts and sweaters, above all their clothes are designer.
- When you go out at night all girls wear heels.
- Everyones neck seems to disappear in winter.
- Your not suppose wear short shorts to school or tank tops or flip flops.
- The main colors are black, purple, red, dark green and gray.
- The designers we dont care about in the usa they love here. Like the desingers you can find at macys.
- They havent heard of coach, seven for all man kind, or juicy.
- Converse cost at least 60 euro the nice ones around 100.
- The first Abercrombie and Fitch in Italy just opened in Milan. Its three times the price yet Itlians will wait in long lines to get inside and will pay the ridiculous prices.
- H & M is the most american type store you can find fashion and price wise.
- Its very common and normal for people will wear the same exact outfit they did the day before.
- Why is the dollar less than the euro? Clothes are so darn expensive esp in Milan!
- People can tell from my clothes that Im foreign.
- The 80s fashion is back.
Language
- Everyone speaks Italian... Duh!
- I live in the Bergamo region so a lot of people know the dialect of Bergamosco. It not at all similar to Itlian. But a mix of French, Dutch, German, and Italian. To me it just sounds funny and 100% non understandable.
- At almost every school you have to learn English. This doesnt mean everyone can speak it well or knows it.
- Other common languages for people to know are dutch, german, latin, spanish and french.
- If your standing in a line with your friends and you get to the register and start speaking in Italian the person usually will respond in English.
- British English and American English are very very different.
- I got a C+ on my English grammer test.
- All the afs exchange students know English.
Random
Arriverderci!
- Northern Ialy doesnt like southern Italy. But the south has no problems with the North. South is known for its warm weather, mafia, and non working people. The north is known for its cold weather, reserved people and overworking people.
- You cant walk around the house bare foot. Ever. Italians thinks its unsanitary and gross. In the winer you feet will freeze off if you dont wear socks.
- A lot of people have cleaning people come to their house once a week.
- Teens usually dont have jobs. Their only priority is to study.
- Everyone dreams of coming to America. The only states they know of are California and New York.
- Italy has the most cities out of any European country- Milan, Torino, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Sicily.... So many places for such a small country!
- They use kilometers instead of miles. Military time, Celcius instead of ferinheit, euro instead of dollar, meters instead of feet. Kilos instead of pounds. Grams instead of cups. Litters instead of gallons. The list goes on and on.
- The first time I went shopping alone I struggled since shoe, pant and top sizes are different.
- Itlians are very friendly in your face people.
- People of all ages greet each other with a hand shake and two sometimes three kisses on the cheek.
- They dont have closets but these giant wardrope keepers.
- Im finding myself using British words.
- American cords will not fit into Italian outlets no matter how hard you try.
- Half of the programs on tv were orginally in English but have been voiced over with Italian so the lips are always off. Italian news and game shows have trashy women dancing next to the host.
- When people write its different. numbers are drawn differently like the 1 looks like a 7. And they usually write in capital letters.
- Blowing your nose during class or at the dinner table is normal.
- I will be served first at meals, with less food on my plate and will still finish last.
- American dvds dont work here.
- One medium size pizza in America is the size for a one person in Italy.
- Your not allowed to have wet hair... ever. Even in the house you have to blow dry it.
- There arent any places where you can get a manicure or pedicure.
- More outlets then shopping malls.
- The believe in naturally overcoming colds instead of taking medicine. And only go to doctors when your on your death bed.
- Everyone is Catholic whether or not the go to church.
Arriverderci!
