Love by Lecce: Cultural Differences

Hi all! This week has been a bit crazy for me mentally so I didn't get a post up on Wednesday but I'm back again with another Love by Lecce post! I won't be posting about my week on Monday, but I have so much planned and lined up there simply isn't room in the schedule for it. I've loved blogging about Italy but I'm also very excited to return to my regular blogging style! As a reminder these posts labelled "syllabus post" are in Italian and then English.

È la fine della della quinta settimana! Dopo aver vissuto in Italia per cinque settimane, sento di aver capito un paio di cose. Ecco le nove maggiori differenze culturali tra (sud) Italia e l'America che ho notato.

1. Svegliarsi presto e uscire più tardi
Probabilmente la prima grande differenza culturale che ho notato è che gli italiani rimangono fuori molto tardi. Ora, so cosa stai pensando. Sei rimasto fuori fino a tardi! Ma no. Rimangono fuori fino a due o tre volte! E non solo gli adulti. Ho visto bambini piccoli ancora fuori a mezzanotte. Ed eccomi qui, un adulto, e io dormo è ancora dieci di sera.

2. Il pranzo
Il pranzo è il pasto importante qui. Non la cena. Non che la cena non sia importante, ma in realtà chiamano la loro sala da pranzo la Sala da Pranzo. Sono fanno sul serio con il pranzo qui.

3. Ritmo della vita
Mio Dio, si muovono lentamente qui. Non è una brutta cosa! Ma sul serio, è tutto lento. Anche questo potrebbe essere il motivo per cui gli italiani vivono più a lungo rispetto agli americani. Ci sono alcuni aspetti negativi di questo, però, come le Poste Italiane sono pazzamente lente.

4. Il cibo
Hanno davvero solo il cibo italiano qui. Ci sono solo un paio di ristoranti stranieri. La mia insegnante di italiano che è stato in America ha detto che in Italia i burritos non sono buoni in quanto sono come in America. Mi piace la cultura del cibo americano, quindi mi manca ottenere mangiare qualsiasi tipo di cibo che voglio in qualsiasi momento. Molto triste, lo so.

5. Parlare Inglese/Italiano
Quando ho visitato la Francia con la mia mamma, il francese ripetevano le parole in inglese in modo condiscendente. Qui, però, se gli italiani ripetono in inglese, è perché stanno praticando il loro inglese. Sono molto gentili e davvero vogliono aiutarvi con l'italiano italiano se possono.

6. "Cat Calling"
Questo non è, ovviamente, ogni uomo italiano, ma il mio Dio, se non si ottiene "cat calling" cinque volte sulla mia casa a piedi dalla scuola ogni giorno. "Cat calling" avviene sicuramente anche in America, ma è molto meno accettabile e ho onestamente sempre e solo stata gatto chiamato una mano piena di volte, e solo nelle grandi città.

7.  Guidare
Sono venuto per imparare che i segnali di stop e luci rosse sono suggerimenti. Ho visto un sacco di vetture passare attraverso luci rosse, quando stavo cercando di attraversare la strada. Ci sono anche un sacco di strade a senso unico, che non aiutano, ma arriviamo nei posti più velocemente. (Non so come questo sia in sintonia con il loro ritmo lento della vita ...)

8. Spazio
Abbiamo una grande quantità di spazio in America. Abbiamo cinquanta stati. A causa di ciò, siamo abituati a grandi case ed edifici. Forse non tutte le case sono palazzi in America, ma gli edifici sono almeno separati. Qui, gli edifici sono smushed insieme e tavoli del ristorante sono sulle strade.

9. La moda
La gente qui solo vestirsi bene. I vestiti sono buone, eleganti, e alla moda se le persone stanno andando fuori a cena o semplicemente a fare shopping. Tutti gli insegnanti della mia scuola hanno bellissimi vestiti. Ed è così semplice per loro. Capiscono di moda.

Spero vi sia piaciuto leggere sulle differenze tra (sud) Italia e l'America! Solo altre tre settimane, gente!
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It is the end of WEEK FIVE! After living in Italy for five weeks, I feel like I have picked up on a few things. Here are the nine biggest cultural differences between (southern) Italy and America that I have noticed.

1. Waking up early and staying out late
Probably the first huge cultural difference that I noticed is the fact that Italians stay out really late. Now, I know what you're thinking, you've pulled all nighters! You've been out with friends until the early hours of the morning! But if you think you are on the Italians' level, you are wrong. They stay out until midnight AT THE EARLIEST every. single. night. And not just the adults. I have legitimately seen stroller bound children out and about at midnight. And here I am, a grown adult, and my bedtime is still ten at night.

2. Lunch
Lunch is the important meal here. Not dinner. Not that dinner isn't important, but they literally call their dining room the sala da pranzo or the room of lunch. They're serious about their lunch here. My host family almost always makes lunch for me, but very rarely dinner unless I ask.

3. Pace of life
Dear God do they operate slowly here. Which isn't a bad thing! But seriously, from walking down the street to trying to get the waiter to take your order before you've been sitting at the table for a half hour: it's all slow. This also might be why they live longer than us, they're honestly probably onto something. There are some downsides to this though, like the Italian post is crazy slow. I must say though, I'm definitely getting used to this pace.

4. Food
So they really only have Italian food here. There are some other cultural delicacies here and there, a sushi restaurant, some Mexican food (40 minutes away), and Chinese place, but that's about it and that's really a huge maybe. As my Italian teacher who has been to America has also pointed out, the burritos aren't nearly as good here as they are in America. They don't even sell tortillas as the supermarkets! As a lover of the American food culture, I've really been missing my ability to get literally any type of food I want at any time via delivery or take out. Very sad, I know.

5. Speaking English/Italian
When I visited France with my mom years ago, I noticed that the French would speak back in English in a condescending manner. Here though, if Italians speak back in English it's because they're practicing. They're very kind about it and really do want to help you out with your Italian if they can.

6. Cat calling
This is obviously not every Italian man but heck if I don't get cat called at least five different times on my walk home from school each day. Even days that I'm in frumpy clothing with no makeup, it's like these guys just yell at anything that walks on two legs. Cat calling definitely happens in America too, but it's way less acceptable and I've honestly only ever been cat called a hand full of times, and in big cities.

7. Driving
I have yet to get into a car (personal or taxi) and not feel like I'm about to die. I have come to learn that stop signs and red lights are suggestions and have seen plenty of people blow through red lights when I was trying to cross the street on many occasions. There are also lots of one way streets which don't help, but hey, we get places faster. (Not sure how this fits in with their slow pace of life...)

8. Space
We have a ridiculous amount of space in America. We have fifty states and then some and each state could be its own country in Europe, honestly. Because of that, we have gotten used to large houses and establishments. Maybe not all houses are mansions in America, but buildings are at least separated unless they're condos. Here, buildings are smushed together and restaurant tables spill into the streets.

9. Fashion
Ending on a positive, but I'm sure you already knew this one. People here just look good. The clothes are good whether people are going out to dinner or just going to work. All the faculty at my school have beautiful dresses and nice pants and tops. And it's so simple for them. Clothes just work.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the differences between (southern) Italy and America! Only three more weeks folks.

Love by Lecce: Week 4

Yes, that is me holding two wine glasses. As I had anticipated, this week went by very quickly. I feel like I was just writing my week 3 post and suddenly here we are again! I am officially halfway through this program and definitely feeling that homesickness in full force. With the Ohio State students leaving, and many of my other friends across Europe returning home, I feel anxious to also return home and begin my new adventures. This week was less eventful than the past few weeks, simply because we had exams to prepare for, but it was still nice nonetheless.

Monday
I decided to skip school this day. After arriving back from Florence on a super late train that didn't get me home until the hours after midnight, I was not up to reviewing for the exam we had on Wednesday. I also woke up with a pretty bad headache and decided that sleeping in and getting some work done would serve me better than trying to participate in class today. Monday was Grace, a student from Ohio State's birthday so although I didn't get to see her during school, we all went out for dinner at Fusion, a sushi restaurant in Lecce. After dinner, we went out for drinks and ended the night singing some rad 80s tunes in an Italian bar.

Tuesday
Tuesday we reviewed for the exam. That's basically it.

Wednesday
Wednesday was the first part of the exam which I think (without jinxing myself) went well! We had our cooking class this day instead of Tuesday and we made Puglian Italian pastries as well as some curly pasta (I'm really good with remembering names, can you tell?). While eating dinner after we completed the food, a kitten on the wall surrounding the outside area of the cooking class decided it wanted to join us. We successfully got her down from the wall and reveled in how adorable she was. We took turns petting her and letting her explore the area before having to say goodbye and return her to the wall. Apparently we loved her too much, because a few short minutes later she jumped down from the wall (A REALLY TALL WALL) and joined us inside. Oops! Didn't mean to bring cats into the kitchen. Because Wednesday was my birthday (yay!) we went out for drinks and food after class which was so much fun.

Thursday
Thursday was the second part of the exam which had equal parts difficult and easy on it and I'm hoping I did well. I didn't do much else Thursday except sleep a lot, catch up on some work, and read.

Friday
Friday was the last day of class for those who left this weekend so we watched a movie and went out for gelato and other treats afterwards with everyone from the school and all the students. I said goodbye to the people who left Friday night who I had made friends with for the past four weeks. For dinner, Sophie and I went to the restaurant that is quickly becoming our go-to favorite, Boccon Divino. I got a plate of meat (literally it was sausages, a hamburger patty, bacon, chicken, beef, all on top of french fries) and chocolate soufflé and Sophie got seafood at tiramisu and we shared a bottle of wine between us!

Saturday
Saturday, Sophie and I woke up and went shopping (without much luck unfortunately) before the July sales ended today! We picked up some Italian candies and makeup but besides that not much else. For dinner, all of us went out to Fratelli la Bufala since it was the very last night for the rest of the students leaving. We also saw the smallest dog ever.

Sunday
Sunday was also a very relaxing day! Sophie came over to film some videos that I'll be sharing with you all soon, but besides that I showered, did some laundry, and got some reading done.

Love by Lecce: The Fourth of July

Quick reminder: This post will be in English and in Italian! We are at the halfway mark people!

Celebrare il quattro di luglio in un paese che non è l'America è certamente un'esperienza. Non ci sono fuochi d'artificio. Non vi è alcun BBQ. Non ci sono decorazioni bandiera americana in tutta la città. Per tutti coloro che in altri paesi oltre gli americani, il quattro di luglio è proprio questo. Il quarto giorno del mese di luglio. Fortunatamente per me, il quattro di luglio, ero con tonnellate di altri americani per il nostro programma di studio all'estero. Abbiamo deciso di preparare qualche hamburger e bere qualche birra, in modo tradizionale americano.

Ci siamo incontrati a casa di nostro amico per iniziare i festeggiamenti. Poiché era così caldo nell'appartamento al piano di sopra, siamo andati in giardino dietro l'edificio per apparecchiare la tavola per mangiare e socializzare. Questo giorno è speciale per me perché ho avuto modo di conoscere un sacco di studenti nel programma. Amo le feste e invitare gente insieme per compleanni, feste e altri eventi. Penso che il modo migliore per conoscere la gente è sia durante questi eventi.

Dopo abbiamo finito aver finito di mangiare e parlare, alcune persone hanno deciso di tornare a casa, mentre altri di noi hanno deciso di andare in una piccola piazza in città per esplorare e parlare con gli italiani. Ci siamo stati per un po', prima di tutto decidere di tornare a casa dato che era tardi e abbiamo avuto scuola la mattina. Prima noi siamo tornati a casa, un paio di studenti e io siamo andati al tetto del complesso di appartamenti del mio amico (che abbiamo poi hanno detto che non sono autorizzati a fare) ((oops)). Abbiamo trascorso qualche minuto sul tetto in completo silenzio. Era nelle prime ore del mattino a questo punto, le ore appena dopo la mezzanotte, e nessuno era fuori ad eccezione di un paio di persone che camminavano per le strade di seguito per tornare a casa. C'era una leggera brezza e le uniche luci accese della chiesa. Questo è stato di gran lungo uno dei momenti più tranquilli che ho sperimentato qui finora. È successo tutto per caso ed è stata una di quelle calde notti d'estate con le persone che ami che rendono tali grandi ricordi.

Nel complesso, il mio primo quattro di luglio in un paese straniero è stato un successo, e non vorrei scambiare questa per qualsiasi cosa.

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Celebrating the Fourth of July in a country that is not America is certainly an experience. There are no fireworks. There is no BBQ. There are no American flag decorations throughout the city. Throngs of families and young teens and students are not partying day and night. For anyone in other countries besides Americans, the Fourth of July is just that: The fourth day of July. Lucky for me, on the Fourth of July, I was with tons of other Americans for our study abroad program. We decided to make some hamburgers and drink some beer, in traditional American fashion.

We all met at our friend's apartment to start the festivities. Because it was so hot in the upstairs apartment, most of us went into the garden behind the building to set the table for eating and to socialize. This day was special for me, not only because we made the best of our foreign American holiday, but because I got to know a lot of the students in the program better. I love parties and bringing people together for birthdays, holidays, and other events. I think the best way to get to know people is during these events.

After we finished eating and talking, some people decided to go home while others of us decided to go into a small piazza in the city to explore and talk with Italians. We stayed there for a little bit before all deciding to head home since it was late and we had school in the morning. Before returning home, a few students and I went to the roof of my friend's apartment complex (which we later were told we are not allowed to do) ((oops)). We spent a few minutes on the roof in complete silence. It was in the early hours of the morning at this point, the hours just after midnight, and no one was out except for a few people walking the streets below to get home. There was a light breeze and the only lights on were those that lit the church beside the apartments. This was by far one of the most peaceful moments that I have experienced here so far. It all happened by chance and was one of those warm summer nights with people you love that make such great memories.

Overall, my first Fourth of July in a foreign country was a success, and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.