Culture Shock, Tea and Earthquakes

So I'm two weeks into my Italian adventure and I have been thinking about how easy it is to settle in here. I was expecting complete culture shock and feelings of being somewhere completely alien, but instead I feel as though I'm experiencing some kind of lack of culture shock, shock.

When we were at university being prepared for going to far flung foreign lands, top of the list of issues that we would face was culture shock. Some of the things I was expecting when coming to Italy were to be overwhelmed by loud people, pasta and a lack of tolerance towards shorts and strappy tops. Even my au pairing handbook says that "Italy is not for the shy." So far so worrying. But really throughout my time here so far I've found that many of the stereotypes of the Italians just aren't true, and Italy is just a little bit more similar to England than many think. Within 10 minutes of arriving in the country, we were driving out of the airport car park past a man shouting and waving his arms at the ticket machine and I had a little smile to myself. One stereotype ticked off straight away. After that though, I found that many things about the Italians completely defy stereotypes and there are so many aspects of Italian life that are very comfortable and familiar to me as a British person.

When you type the words "Do Italians..." into Google, the suggestions include things like "eat pizza" (yes, yes they do), "speak English" (some do, many don't), and "have big noses" (haha, not sure what to make of that one.) It's fair to say that we have many preconceptions of the country and as such we build ourselves up to experience some kind of crisis of existence when we get here and realise that the rolling hills of England don't stretch this far south. In reality though, I'm glad that I had preconceived ideas of who Italians are and what the country is like, because it means that I've been proved wrong and instead I'm able to appreciate all the ways in which this place is not how I expected it to be. For me, that is far more adventurous than going somewhere knowing exactly what to expect and having your stereotypes proved right.

Although, having said all this, Italians roads ARE as scary as everyone makes them out to be and you can consider it a good day if someone stops to let you cross the zebra crossing.

Speaking of Italian stereotypes, I think I'm turning into a walking British one. I miss tea, and it's weird because I don't even drink the stuff. I miss the sound of the kettle boiling (they reckon this is what calms people down and satisfies them more than the tea itself and no-one in Europe seems to own a kettle) and just the smell of it being around and people's daytime social activities revolving around the quest for a cup of tea.

My second week here has been really great. Although I am currently finding myself faced once again with the task of packing. It'll be worth it though as we are going to the beach for a week! The way they do summer here is instead of having a two week beach holiday in the sun like many British people do, they first spend a week at the beach to stock up on the vitamin d reserves and enjoy the beaches before the foreign tourists start to arrive at the end of July. They then escape to the mountains a couple of weeks later to cool off and get away from the influx of holidaymakers. It sounds pretty sensible to me!

My other news of the week is that today we had an Earthquake!! I didn't feel anything but the news said it was 5.2 on the Richter scale and apparently others in the town did feel it! I think I was too busy colouring a picture. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to be a 7 year old!

This week I've been watching An Idiot Abroad and it really is the best cure for any type of homesickness. Just seeing the kind of stuff that poor man is put through in the name of TV makes me incredibly grateful to have a comfy bed to sleep in and no threat of bungy jumps being forced upon me at any moment!

Hope everyone has a good week, and I'll be back next weekend with hopefully lots of new pictures!

Much love, Alice :)

My First Week Qui (Or Qua?)

So I am now just over one week into my year abroad (!) and to mark this little milestone I thought I'd do a quick post about what I've been up to and what I've learnt thus far :)

• I'm going to disappoint people by breaking the news that ravioli isn't actually ravioli. Apparently ravioli isn't supposed to have meat in it and instead has spinach. The one with meat is called tortellini! I have quite literally eaten more pasta this week than I have done in the last 3 years and inevitably have discovered these random facts about the stuff!
• I've watched enough of the Disney Channel to last several lifetimes. Having said that, when work is watching The Road to El Dorado and The Bratz Movie in Italian with the girls, life is good.
• When a 7 year old enlists your help to hypnotise the cat, one of the most hilarious evenings will ensue.
• The Italian version of You've Been Framed is 50x better than the British one.
• I have gone a slightly darker shade of pale.
• If dressing like a local means continuing to wear jeans in 30 degree heat, I don't think I want to blend in. Seriously, today was the first time I saw someone in shorts. It is the first day we have hit 30 but we've been hovering in the high 20s all week. Although I think I'd rather it was this way than the British way of stripping down to almost nothing at the first sighting of a patch of blue sky.
• The whole way through university we were taught that the word for "here" in Italian is "qui". However, no-one here ever seems to use that and instead they say "qua" which is really confusing and hard to get your head around when you've been using a different word for the last two years.
• I'm a happy girl after discovering that The Apprentice, Made in Chelsea and Russell Howard's Good News are uploaded onto YouTube every week :) A well earned break from being forced to sit through Phineas and Ferb marathons methinks!
• The only person here who is able to say my name right is the 7 year old. The others can't tell the difference between x and s sounds so I am called Alice, Aleechay, Ellis and Alex several times a day. After almost a week of this, I gave in and admitted that my middle name is Maria. They all seemed very relieved at this and have starting addressing me in this way when they can't get Alice out. I quite like it! It makes me feel more Italian :)
• Today I had a Nutella flavoured ice cream. Nuff said.

I'm sorry about the bullet points in place of an actual piece of writing. It just seems the best way to get everything down. I promise I'll go back to proper writing soon!

Here are a few pictures of my week, but remember to check the "Snaps" tab at the top of the page as well as that is where I put most of my photos.

Canal in Treviso town centre

Original Roman mosaic in Treviso:

Planes, Rain and Italian Automobiles

I'm in Italy!!!

Despite very nearly jumping straight out of the plane and running across the runway back to the comforts of home after discovering that even with my short legs, my knees were almost touching the seat in front of me on easy jet's finest, I have made it here in one piece. Having only flown twice before, being up in the air in a metal tube is definitely not my favourite thing in the world and it was made worse by the fact that I was on my own.

Before I went to university, one of my favourite things about going on holiday was packing. I loved getting all my summer stuff together and getting ready to see somewhere new. After moving so often between home and university though, packing has lost it's appeal and it is therefore unsurprising that I ended up sitting in the middle of my living room at 12am the day of my departure forcing extra strength sun cream and flipflops into my suitcase.

We got there in the end, and my suitcase made it onto the plane weighing (I kid you not) 19.9kg. A grand total of 100g under my limit. I could've fit in an extra pair of flipflops after all...

I ended up sitting next to a French couple who I think thought I was a bit weird for being on the verge of hyperventilating when we were on the ground and taxying one minute, and enthusiastically taking pictures out of the plane window the next. One such photo of the Swiss Alps:

And Venice:

I had a bit of a panic when I reached into my hand luggage during the flight to find that as well as the two bottles of diet coke I had bought in departures, I also had a packet of mentos that came free with my magazine. So obviously I started panicking that I was going to be responsible for a major airbourne disaster if the two managed to combine. I think it is a slight security flaw for them to be selling those two things together in duty free where people can buy them immediately before getting into a cabin with high pressure...

Anyway, since I arrived I've been having a great time seeing how the Italians live. I have been to Italian results day/ parents evening, I've spoken French to Italians and English to Australians and Italian to English people not realising they were British too. I've eaten pasta every day and been told what apparently is the secret to the perfect pizza! It rained yesterday which I actually quite liked as it made everything seem a bit more British, and in true British style I still freak out every time we see a roundabout thinking that everyone is going the wrong way round it and there is about to be some horrible disaster.

I am also yet to break into my emergency rations of Dairy Milk, which has to be a good sign :)

Ciao for now,
Alice x

P.S. I think Poppy wants to go on a year abroad too

Welcome to my first blog post!

So after months of power point presentations, foreign form filling and stressing over suitcases I am finally embarking on my year abroad. The main course of the four course meal that is my degree :)

So in preparation for leaving, I've been watching the best film known to mankind: The Sound of Music. I feel a bit like Maria only with a significantly worse singing voice, and although I am only faced with two children rather than seven, at least she had the advantage of speaking the same language as them. I think that at the top of my playlist for the plane journey will be this song. If a wannabe nun who's never been out of Salzburg can do it, so can I.

Thank you all for taking a peek at my blog, and please let me know what you think :) Also if you have any suggestions for posts or things you'd like me to write about, then let me know!
Buon Viaggio for now!
Alice x