Uscita

Word of the Post: Uscita-Exit

The word of the day resembles two very important points in my life since I have been away from home. One. It represents my exit from London to Italy. And Two. It represents the first Italian word I learned when I got to Florence. It was the first word I saw when I got off the plane. Not before long my friend Nino (who is from New York but will be studying in Italy for two and a half years) was teaching me more and more words. Everything I see, Nino tells me what it is in Italian. It is like having my own Italian tutor—it is great (except I haven’t managed to cling onto many words yet—except pane de burro (buttered bread)).

Other than learning my first word when I got off the plane, I experienced my first culture shock. The difference between London and Italy, was now that people could not understand me, and I could not understand them. Not being able to communicate with people is very hard, and my first conversation with an Italian was very rough—with a twelve year old girl.

As I leaned over to grab my field hockey sticks off the baggage wheel a little girl standing next to me said “HOCKEY?!!?” And I said “Si, Si.” She responded by trying to ask me what kind… I could not tell if she was Spanish or Italian at first so I began to speak broken Spanish (what I had left from high school), and it didn’t go too well. Her dad stepped in and eventually we could get a little conversation going. The little girl and I talked about field hockey and the types of sticks we have, and how she has been playing for a while. It was a struggle, but it worked—and I had my first Italian conversation experience. The first of many.