Local Living

I’ve found that meeting locals is not the simplest thing to do. In such a small town, you would think it would be so simple, however, the town is filled with tourists at this time of year, so it is not the best opportunity to meet them. It is easiest, in my opinion, to meet locals at the cafe or across on the other side of ponte vecchio. There are these authentic Italians who own these tiny cafes that barely speak english. This isn’t a huge dilemma for me since because of my Italian language course, I’m able to hold very basic conversation and order at cafes. While i’ve been abroad i’ve had to purchase a lot of different things, and the most interesting thing i’ve bought so far is a travel journal. I am not one to ever journal or anything alone those lines, so it was interesting for me to actually pick it up and actually stick to it. The dean of my university here recommended it, and it was something that I decided would be a great idea so I could remember this experience for a long time. Adjusting to a new currency was hard at the beginning, but it has become pretty easy by this time around. It’s different than currency in the states since change for us doesn’t hold much value as compared to in Italy where you can have coins worth as much as 2 euros. It has been hard to stick to a budget since there’s so many extra things you need whilst abroad, that you just forget about, so money flies very quickly. My roommates and I always sit down at the end of the week and budget ourselves. We look down at how much money we spent this past week and that will help with projections onto the next week.