Culture Shock #1:
1. For as much as the culture loves, I mean loves coffee, no one takes it to go. You stand at a coffee bar order your coffee, drink it in 5 minutes and then leave. There are no travel mugs, no to go cups, you don’t typically set up a coffee date to sit and chat, you just drink it and go. So yes I am the weird American on the metro, squished between everyone with my to go coffee mug because I haven’t figured out how to order coffee in Italian yet.
2. The post offices here a huge. You do almost everything through the post office and you can wait up to an hour or more for your turn depending on when you go. But for as many services as the post office offers, the one thing you can’t buy there is stamps. Go figure.
3. Public transportation. The trail sent from God to teach me patience and that there really is no such thing as personal space. However, men are generally nice and typically offer women or older people the seat if one opens up.
4. Italians love American music. So you’ll be waiting for the metro or shopping in a store listening to Italian songs and all of a sudden Bruno Mars or Michael Bubble will suddenly start playing and my typical American self wants to burst into song with them because I actually understand what they are saying.
5. Ordering wine is just as cheap as ordering a soft drink and no one cards you or checks your id to see if you are old enough to drink alcohol. And if you want water make sure you order naturale because if not you will receive water with carbonation and without a flavor it just tastes weird.
Culture Shock #2:
1.Everyone takes the month of August off, or at least the last few weeks of August. Shops and restaurants that are normally open or have regular hours are just closed for no reason. There’s often times no sign saying when they will return or if there is one it says we shall reopen when we come back. Thanks, that’s super helpful when my phone credit has run out and all I need to do is put some money in my account so I can use it again but the FIVE stores I tried to go to are all close with no sign of returning soon. So tell me again how I’m suppose to call someone if I get lost but can’t use my phone because NO ONE IS OPENED? I’m not bitter or anything….
2. I have finally found to go cups for coffee, but they are about a half or quarter of the size of American to go cups, so it begs the question, what’s the point of having one anyway?
3. When working with large groups of people from other cultures be prepared to eat a lot, and I mean a lot. Everyone loves the food they make and thinks that you should too so they push you to the front of the line and force you to eat their food. But when you try to be polite and only take a little bit, because you realize that you have to eat three more times that day, they yell at you and ask why you don’t like their food or chide you for not liking food at all! People! I like food, I like your food, I like everyone’s food, but I have to eat 3 more times after the other services too and I can’t eat three full meals less than 3 hours apart from each other! I would also prefer not to gain 50 pounds in the first four weeks of being in Italy either.
4. There is no such thing as a Walmart. You buy groceries at the market or grocery store and everything else at miscellaneous places. But you should always check the Chinese stores, they are basically like an over crowded explosion of Dollar General. I’m not sure how they get all their merchandise to stay in the store with out the store actually exploding…
5. Sometimes when someone talks to you but you don’t expect them to, you miss what they said, whether it was in English or another language. So there will be times here when I won’t be expecting for someone to talk to me and me automatic reaction is “what?” But then they proceed to repeat themselves in English, which is really nice when you first think about it. But the more you think, the weirder it becomes. In the States we wouldn’t ever repeat ourselves in Spanish because someone looked at us and said “Que?” In fact, many people would find that racist. But here the next most common spoken language is English so often people will just repeat things in English if you didn’t understand them the first time.
6. For as diverse as Rome is with all the different types of ethnicities living here, their food options stay pretty much the same. The question “Where do you want to eat tonight?” in the States is usually followed up with well, do you want Mexican, Chinese, Hamburgers, Italian, Japanese…..and the list goes on and on. Here the same question is followed up with, what kind of pasta do you want or what kind of pizza do you want…and that’s it. Thank you Italy for options.
7. Speaking of options, when going grocery shopping only expect to find one brand of a particular item. There are not many options to choose from, UNLESS you want olive oil or wine, then you have about twenty to thirty different types of brands to choose from.
8. Nicknames are not that common here so when I introduce myself as Bekah I always get confused looks and cocked heads as they repeat slowly, B e k a h. I then follow up with, or Rebekah, and they respond Ohhh Reeebekah! It never occurs to them that Bekah is just short for Rebekah, but they don’t hesitate to shorten Bekah to Beks. Alrighty then.
9. It never rains in the summer. It’s always sunny and usually clear skies, except for this summer. It has rained a total of three times since I’ve been here and everyone is so confused because it’s rained so much. Three times is a lot?
10. Italians have a legitimate fear of air conditioning and fans. So it will be 95 degrees outside but there is no a/c anywhere because they are concerned that they will catch a cold or cancer from the artificial air. So you would rather have a heat stroke or go without sleep for two months because it’s so hot than put an a/c unit in your apartment? I spent the last 22 years in air conditioning and I turned out fine, I think...
