I chose Florence as my locale for the semester the same way I make all of my decisions in life. Rashly and for weird reasons.
Dat's my farm! My grandma is Luisa. Whenever I think of my farm I imagine myself lounging on the grass in a sundress while people take pictures of me, which is strange because I've never actually done that.
I’m 1/4 Italian and ridiculously proud of it. My grandma is from a tiny town south of Rome called Vallecorsa, known for being the location where the rape scene in ‘Two Women” was filmed. I was named after my great-grandma, Margherita, and have always been told I share her three most central traits: short stature, stubbornness, and cleverness.
We still own our farm in Vallecorsa (was a Nazi headquarters during WWII!!) and I have been there 3 times. On each of those trips I also visited Venice, Florence, and Rome and fell in love with the Flo for strange reasons. It was pretty, small, and home to my favorite gelateria. I also was obsessed with the David and bought playing cards with him on it, but that’s an entirely different creepy story.
Other reasons I chose Florence: great food that I could never get sick of, trendiness, familiarity, and a sense of belonging. I never put any thought into any other locations and am pretty content with that because I think that Italy is the superior country.
What do I expect? Nothing. I literally have zero expectations which is probably a good thing? Unclear. I have been stalking pictures of other people I know who went abroad for like 2 years now and I think the travelling aspect is what I’m most looking forward to. I want to go everywhere and take pictures where I look ridiculously trendy and European. I’ve been told I look Venezuelan (random) before.
I also really want to see all of my friends in our various home countries because I am going to miss them all and I have severe FOMO. I won’t be able to go an entire semester without having weird catch-up sessions where we speak exclusively in inside jokes and say “I mean” and use airquotes while repeating things very slowly.
whatisshedoing 