Day Tre in Firenze!

I exceeded my daily ten thousand step goal early in the day. Walking has become our primary means of transportation in this lovely city. I woke up early to find a café and a potential woman to interview for our research project. I ended up at Caffé il Sole. The woman greeted me with a “buongiorno” and a smile. I asked for a coffee recommendation and she laughed and said "everything," speaking half in English, half in Italian. Don't worry! We figured it out and I ended up with an iced coffee with cream and a couple shots of espresso! As a natural observer, I learned proper café etiquette to clean up and pay for my coffee. We are all enjoying the challenge of using social cues to further authenticate the Italian experience during our time here. 

We have all been working to truly integrate ourselves into the Italian culture. Another part of this is a lot of walking, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post. We walk EVERYWHERE! Today was our first day of classes. The sidewalks here are smaller and the cars and Vespas speed by very fast! (Last week we learned that “vespa” is Italian for wasp, and we can see why!) We all made it to Dr. DeMaria's class to start a day of team building and research preparation. First, we went around our table and shared two tidbits: first, our favorite thing we have tasted so far, and second, what we are most looking forward to over our next six weeks. The diversity of these responses was inspiring and fun. She proceeded to ask us what defines a family, and we came to the conclusion that we are a family, here on this journey together, and should support each other accordingly! Dr. DeMaria proceeded to prepare us more for our research interviews and the procedures we will be following. We are all excited to investigate Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Health here in Italy, with the first interviews taking place tomorrow.

After finishing our inspiring research course, we all rushed to grab a bite on the way to our 3 PM class: Cultural Introduction to Italy. The classrooms of Florence University of the Arts are diverse and unique; I had to take some pictures (below)! The room we were in was slim and cozy. All of us were very happy to see Umberto’s familiar face; as you may recall, he was our tour guide throughout the travel week and taught us many interesting things while keeping the course fun and entertaining! We are delighted to have him teaching our cultural course here in Florence. In class today, he taught us how to introduce ourselves in Italian, including name, nationality, and age. “Ciao, come ti chiami?” “Mi chiamo Holly!” Moving on to a bit of history, we worked together to compose a timeline of Italian and world events from the Ancient era, the Middle Ages, and the Modern era. We also reviewed some geography, including important locations like the northern plain region (Pianura Padana), both Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius, and important rivers (the Tevere in Rome and the Arno in Florence). We wrapped up our time by talking about Romulus and Remus and how Rome was founded.  

At the end of our first class day, I can confidently say that we are all easing into the Florentine lifestyle and looking forward to what we will be learning and experiencing in the coming weeks!

This post was written by Holly Jones, a senior at Purdue University. She is studying Developmental and Family Science with a concentrations in Occupational Therapy and children. She aspires to work in rehabilitation clinic for people with developmental disabilities and occupational needs.