New Climes, New Times: The First Few Days in Bologna

It has been a wild couple of days so far here in Bologna! Unlike some of my classmates, my flights over to Europe were uneventful (except for the guy on the flight from Atlanta who wanted to get off, decided not to, and was forcefully evicted from the plane with a police escort along with his baggage who kindly delayed us twenty minutes from departure and caused us to have to return to our gate). All of the airports were nicely run and clean (especially Amsterdam - everything looked so nice and pretty there, except the dark rain clouds that were gathering on the horizon!), and, along with my three other classmates, we made it to Bologna right on schedule.

Amsterdam Airport from my seat at the gate

Taking my first taxi to the Camplus, where I'll be living for the next three months, I was really excited to start off my time here. However, after an entire day of not sleeping (I was only able to catch a few winks on the flight from Amsterdam to Bologna - the flight over the Atlantic was probably the most uncomfortable airplane that I have ever tried to sleep on) I was in desperate need of sleep and a decent meal. Despite my jet lag, I soldiered on, and followed our director, Dr. Waller, on a tour of Bologna, visiting the downtown portion of our campus (at the Jesuit center) and the main piazzas, along with the symbolic heart of the city, the two bell towers. We had an hour break upon our return to the Camplus, during which I chatted with some friends and wondered whether I should take a nap to alleviate my jet lag (I didn't). And so, after a meeting about everything that we would need to know for the semester about living on Camplus (which I unfortunately mostly slept through, due to my jet lag finally hitting me), I ate my first meal in the cafeteria, or mensa. I have never had such delicious pasta before in my life (although that's probably due to the fact that I was exhausted and would've eaten anything set in front of me). Afterwards, I unpacked my clothes, and took a well-deserved rest.

The Two Bell Towers at the heart of Bologna

Waking up the next morning, I realized that I had a combination of a dehydration headache and a migraine from lack of sleep. I was nauseous, and spent the time that I should've been going downstairs and eating breakfast curled up on my bed and trying not to cry. My roommate came back in, and together we walked downstairs to fill out our paperwork for our permesso di soggiorno.

In order to remain legally in the country for the next three months, all of the students here not only must carry visas, but also have a permesso, or a permit to stay. This pretty much entails filling out a lot of paperwork telling the government in Italy that we are not, in fact, going to be sleeping on park benches while we live here, and that we will be doing something productive with our time. It also makes us legal (temporary) residents - and if we lose it, we have to report its loss, and go through the entire process again.

What we did yesterday was only the first step of the process - we took the paperwork to the post office, paid a boatload of euros, and received an appointment for the next step (getting fingerprinted) and our document that we must carry everywhere.

After getting my permesso done, I came back to my room and slept until 5:15. I was so dead tired and thirsty that I didn't mind that I was missing lunch. I just needed the sleep, and I'm glad that I took the chance. We had a second meeting that evening, at the Jesuit center, about travel planning, school organized trips, and our ten day trip coming up, which will take us to Greece. We were also fed pizza, made by a friend of the school's, who owns a pizza restaurant right across from the Jesuit center. I may not enjoy eggplant normally, but the eggplant pizza I had was absolutely delicious - and so was the sausage, cheese, and zucchini pizzas that we also tried. One table also had the American style pizza - French fries and hot dog slices on top of a cheese pizza. That seems a little unusual for me, but I'm sure I'll find myself eating it before my time in Europe ends.

After the meeting, I joined some students from Santa Clara University as they wandered through downtown Bologna. We split momentarily, some of us to get gelato and others to get drinks, but we joined back up and wandered past the towers and into Piazza del Nettuno and Piazza Maggiore. After chatting for a while, we meandered back towards the central piazza of the University of Bologna campus, Piazza Verdi, and split off - the guys to go out towards a bar, and the girls to head back towards the Camplus. After getting back to the dorm, I got the chance to talk to my mom, and then got into bed (after making the horribly sad discovery that our once clean water was now extremely metallic and reeked of rust and pipes).

The Fountain of Neptune, Piazza del Nettuno

This morning, I've made it down to breakfast (the coffee is incredibly strong - we're pretty sure that the machine is broken, because the cappuccinos had no milk in them whatsoever) and down to the Co-op, our nearby grocery store. I'm now waiting to take my Italian placement test, and then, once some other friends take theirs and others get back from their permesso work, we'll be going out to get some lunch and go shopping. Time to take Bologna by storm.

Next stop: Greece.

Cattedrale de San Pietro, Piazza Maggiore, Bologna