The best part about the studying abroad experience so far is living with my host family and learning so much about the Italian culture. There are some major differences between our culture and theirs, and then just some things that I didn't know about.
1) Lunchtime- For the Italians, lunchtime is family time. Most of the shops are closed from about 1-3:30 so that people can go eat their lunch with their family. Today I ate lunch with my host family and they do the same thing that they do for dinnertime. They sit down, eat a meal starting with pasta, and then protein and vegetables, and then they all talk for about 45 minutes. After this, the day continues. I told my host sister that in America we never do this, and she was surprised to hear this.
2) Marriage-I asked my family when people in Italy get married. Despina responded by saying, "Like never" haha. Apparently the economy in Italy is bad right now so people won't marry until they can buy their own "flat," in other words, Italian people want to support themselves before they get married. Right now, that is hard for them to do.
3) Living at home- The idea of living with your parents at the age of 26-30 is awful in the United States. However, here it is completely normal. People will live with their family until they can fully support themselves which sometimes takes a while. Yesterday, we drove by a castle and my host family told me their friends live there, but not just their friends. In the castle it is their friends, and the parents, the kids, the cousins, basically it is like when I go to the lake in Indiana and living with that amount of people all the time.
4) The Media- It is funny to me how the Italians watch the same shows and movies as us, but in Italian. I have watched Glee everyday with them. Last night I watched Invictus with my family. We also watched the Italian version of American Idol, where they pretty much sing American songs.
5) Healthcare and the Government- Yesterday, Despina asked us my roommate, Jillian, and me if we voted for Obama because the Italians really like him. And yes, we both did. We were talking about how some people don't like him because they expected him to get us out of the huge mess Bush left our country in instantly. She agreed and said it's not like he can do magic. Then we started talking about healthcare and how Italian healthcare is free. She was telling me that she can not even imagine living in a place where you have to pay for healthcare because what if you are sick and need help. The Italians have that thought right.
6) Italian Breakfast- In Italy they basically eat sugar cookies (like the kinds that Peppridge Farm makes) and they have Un Cafe. When my family went to New York they said that they could not find any breakfast cookies, whereas here they have a whole aisle for breakfast cookies. I told them that nobody eats cookies for breakfast in America, and that that is basically a little kids dream. Despina said she can't imagine eating eggs, meat, and bread before lunchtime.
7) Living in a country with the Pope- The family told us that living in the country where the Pope lives is sometimes difficult. The reason for this is because they can't change the laws for certain things. For example, people that are gay will probably never be able to get married here, or at least not for a long time. Also, if you can't get pregnant they can't do things such as in vitro fertilization.
These are just some main things that I have already picked up about the culture since I have been here! I will tell you all about what else I learn. Tomorrow classes start and I am taking a class called "Family, gender in culture in Italy," so I am sure I will learn plenty about it!
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