Let the Italia Games Begin!
So, after our flight to Rome being delayed 4 hours, a cancelled flight to Milan, and a 5 hour bus ride, we finally reached our destination in Verona! I am paired with a roommate and staying at a nice hotel called Residence Al’Adige just outside of the center of Verona. It is a standard hotel with all usual amenities-daily continental breakfast, weekly cleaning services, Wifi and more. Also, the bathroom is GORGEOUS and the room even has a kitchenette with utensils and plates. We got in really late Sunday night, so everyone immediately went to bed to get ready for tomorrow.
Monday morning we got up bright and early to start our program orientation. Three main things we went over in orientation were getting around the city, an Italian survival crash course, and our class schedule. For getting around the city, our personal help guide throughout the dialogue is Kay. She works in Verona with students from across the USA coming to study in Verona. She provided us with maps of the city, a one day travel pass for visiting museums and monuments, and information on how, when and where to take the bus.
The Italian crash course was really interesting as well. We learned about specific cultural changes in Italy such as having to pay for water at restaurants, not being expected to tip, not being able to take leftover food home from restaurants, and to even which side of the door to enter and exit the bus from. The other part of the survival course involved learning simple basic phrases in Italian, such as introducing yourself and asking what the specialty dish at a restaurant. The last thing we went over was the course schedule which basically outlines the times we have to be ready to go to our various business site visits or lectures. After the orientation, everyone went into town to check things out. After being here for a week, I really enjoy Verona. It is on the smaller side for a city and has a lot of old buildings that look really nice, such as the arena and Juliet Capulet’s balcony. Also to be noted, there is a decent amount of people who know little to no English, but I am still able to get by at restaurants and at least follow hand gestures when asking for directions. Verona reminds me of Boston in a way in that it is a smaller city, but still has shops and restaurants without being overwhelming and crowded like NYC.
Everyone in my dialogue is really nice and no one is ever left alone by themselves if they don’t want to be. On any given day, we are all communicating via Whatsapp or in person to go out to get dinner, play soccer, or go shopping. So far so good!
