And so it begins...

I realized that maybe I should explain why I named this blog what I did. For those of you who don't know, "diventare italiana: la storia d'una straniera a Ferrara" means "Becoming Italian: the story of a foreigner in Ferrara". The second part is pretty self-explanatory, I think. The first, though, I will explain so that you all don't think I'm being pretentious and think I can actually become an Italian after only 5 months there. :) It's in honor of my mom, who when she was little wanted to 1) marry Ben Franklin, and 2) become Italian. Well, she ended up marrying an Italian-American, and encouraged me to follow this part of my heritage. I guess the title is also a reflection of how much I hope to learn while there. We'll see.

You know how I mentioned in my last post that I had no idea where I was going to be living? Well, I found a site that lists ads for places in Ferrara for rent, and am now working on acquiring a home for the fall. One woman has responded to my email (unfortunately no positive responses from local students), and I'm super hopeful that she will accept me - it's practically the best possible place to live from what I can tell - nice place, right next to the university and a museum, with an interesting and friendly-seeming family, on the main drag in town. I'll say more if it does actually work out. *crossing fingers* I've been kind of bouncing the last few days at the prospect, and much relieved, as I have something of a fear of ending up with terrible flatmates somewhere far away from the school.

Other than that, life's been pretty mellow. I feel like this is the first time I've been able to actually relax since Feb break or J-term, and have been taking some much needed chill time - alone, with family and a little bit with friends so far. It's nice to take time to think - or just be, quietly - without having anything immediate (beyond preparations for Italy) to worry about. I have been doing some research on Ferrara, and organizing belongings into Italy - Middlebury Spring term - stay at home piles, of course, but that's not stressful at least. Ferrara appears to be very square and red, as well as pretty. It's such a contrast from the architecture that I saw in Sicily when we went 10 years ago - very pale and more organic, I think it was. A city near Ferrara (Ravenna) was once the capital of the Byzantine "Roman" Empire, and I'm really excited to see it, as it has some absolutely fantastic mosaics and architecture. As an art history major, living in Italy for 5 months should definitely be interesting...

Oh, and I'm intending on trying to overcome my fear of biking somewhat before leaving, as a Ferrarese told me most inhabitants have at least two biciclette, and it's the most reliable form of local transportation. Figures, eh?

Opening Passage

Dear Friends and Family,

I have created this blog as a way to record and share my experiences of my journey to Ferrara, Italy, where I will be living, studying and exploring from September 2008 to January 2009. I cannot promise daily updates, as I currently have no clue what my internet access will be like in Ferrara, but I do intend to write here as regularly as possible. Indeed, I still have no idea what classes I will taking, where I will be living, or what my roommate situation will be like, let alone about such a detail as my access to the great interweb. But, this degree of ambiguity and lack of planning is apparently typical of Italia and a simple fact of life there with which I will have to learn to be patient. I'm excited for this journey to a land similar yet worlds different from my own, but am also somewhat nervous at this point. Three weeks to go!

We will be direct enrolling in the Universita degli Studi di Ferrara (although through the C.V. Starr - Middlebury School Abroad), as well as finding our own apartments with local Italians, making our own food, and traveling or entertaining ourselves as we will. But first, I will have to remember how to speak Italian! I have spent the last 9 weeks at an intensive immersion ARABIC! program at Middlebury, wherein all the students have to stay in the language at all times - barring "minimal communication with close friends and family". It was a fantastic experience, and I'm glad I did it, but my Italian has of course suffered as a result of starting a fourth foreign language and using it almost exclusively for a summer. I'm intending on reading a book in Italian so I can think in it again, but we will have to see how that goes.

My time in Arabic school was certainly worthwhile, although it combined with events in my personal life to make it the most challenging summer of my life. We had class every day for over 5 hours a day, and at least 5 hours of homework each evening, no exaggeration, covering more material in 9 weeks than our Middlebury program does in a full school year. It's an amazing feeling, being able to go from knowing little more than how to say yes, no and thank you, to actually being able to communicate and have real conversations - in about 2 months. Also, the people willing to spend their whole summer in the middle of nowhere (albeit very beautiful) Vermont speaking nothing but Arabic tend to be quite interesting, although most study politics or work/ want to work for government intelligence groups. Some, though, just are fascinated by the language and culture, and want to incorporate it into their lives in a variety of fashions. I'm intending to continue with Arabic after my return from Italy, as well as keep in touch with people from the program - like some of you readers invited here! I have a feeling that as I discover Italy, I will also end up reflecting on my experiences with the Japanese and Arabs out of contrast, so don't worry, there will be more on my time in Pseudo-Arab-Land in the future. Possibly over the next few weeks, as I digest the summer and prepare for the fall.

Something I can definitely notice already, though, is how my writing here is affected by the strange interlanguage state my mind is in - long sentences, a somewhat formal but not necessarily eloquent style, a lack of advanced, nuanced vocabularly... I'm curious to see how this will change with me becoming even more immersed soon into Italian than I was into Arabic. I apologize if my writing style is rather odd through this. Another caveat: I have a tendency to babble or to just think through my fingers, and to write long entries. Hopefully, these won't drive any of you off, and you'll bare with me and my talkative brain. :)

I expect I will include comments about my life in general and observations on Italian culture in this journal, rather than just a straight out list of my activities, as the latter would be less interesting to you readers and less useful for me as a processing method. I also have a flickr account on which I will be posting photos of my travels. I don't remember the url off the top of my head, but I will add that link to here sometime soon, so that you all can have a visual with which to elaborate my written stories. There will also likely be occasional emails for more personal communication; in addition, I have skype and do intend to use it if anyone is interested.

Well, that is all for now. Pace e salute a tutti!