After spending nearly six months abroad in Italy, coming back home to the States was quite the readjustment. And it’s not just the weather, though the snow and ice are definitely a change. So here’s a brief list of some other, more surprising things I’m getting used to all over again.
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American money – It just doesn’t feel right. After half a year using euros, American dollars, and especially American coins, feel really weird. American change in particular feels too light and thin after handling the heavier euro coins in Italy for so long.
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Grocery shopping – So in Italy, when you buy fresh produce, you put it in a plastic bag and then weigh it yourself. Then based on the weight and product, the scale will print a sticker that tells you how much it costs. Of course, that’s not how things work in the US. Here you just bag it and bring it to the register. But the first time I went to the store with my dad after getting back, I spent about three minutes searching the produce section for a scale until I remembered that’s not a thing in America.
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Language – Remembering that everyone around me speaks English took some readjusting too. After months of hearing mostly Italian, it’s startling to remember that anybody who overhears my conversation almost certainly understands it perfectly.
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Space – There’s so much space here. In Rome, streets are narrow; sometimes there’s not even room for a car and a motorcycle to pass each other. Driving home from the airport through eight-lane highways and into my neighborhood it was amazing how huge and empty the houses with their big front yards looked. That’s definitely not what downtown Rome looked like.
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Motorcycles – Or rather, the lack thereof. Motorcycles are everywhere in Rome. Everybody and their mother has one, and you hear them and see them all the time. They’re a better size for the small streets and extremely popular throughout Italy. It’s been weird to go days without seeing any sign of motorcycle activity.
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Traffic laws – The traffic laws in Italy are taken by its people as guidelines at best, and nonexistent at times. If you’re crossing the street, it doesn’t matter what the walk signal tells you. If there’s no car coming, you go. Crosswalks? Just a suggestion, often ignored by tourists and locals alike. After coming home, following all the traffic signals as a pedestrian again took some getting used to.
Studying abroad was an incredible experience from start to finish. But Italy had a lot of cultural differences from America that I got used to while I was gone. Now I’ll have to adjust to America all over again, but I’m sure I’ll be used to it in no time!