February 21-29
This week has been insane! But I want to start with my weekend. I went to Florence for the weekend and for those who don’t know I studied in Florence for a school year a few years ago. I actually ended up visiting where I studied and it was a bit of a surreal experience. Being in a familiar environment I could clearly see how much my Italian has improved. To be able to hold conversations with people in Italian when I wasn’t able to do so the last time I was there was a bit crazy. I was also able just to see my overall growth which was a cool juxtaposition. I was able to hangout with my best friend who I haven’t seen in just about three years was great too. Florence will always have a place in my heart. There I also challenged myself to answer a question I’ve struggled with, whether or not I enjoy particular foods because of warm memories or is does it just taste really good. After talking to my best friend we decided that it’s a little bit of both. As much as I wanted to stay in Florence longer I had classes on Monday so I could only stay the weekend.
On the bus ride back from Florence I started to get texts and emails about what was happening in northern Italy in regards to how fast the corona virus was spreading there. My school was sending emails asking people if they’ve travelled to northern Italy recently and tell those who had been to not go to class on Monday. Apparently that weekend so many people went to northern Italy from the umbra Institute they cancelled classes for the day, not me though since I don’t take classes there. I still woke up bright and early to get the Italian high school for my English tutoring session. On the way back from my tutoring session I got an email saying for health concerns tutoring would be cancelled until March 16th, and of course I was bummed.
By Thursday the panic in America regarding Italy was real but here in Italy it was calm, everyone was just talking about how Americans were overreacting. My mom was worried about me but I wasn’t afraid of getting the virus because Perugia is pretty isolated from the rest of the country. I tried to call my mom down by explaining how kids were still running around outside and how the Italians seemed a bit unfazed by what was happening in northern Italy. There were whispers of students deciding if they should just leave first or try to stick it out. I told my friends that the only way I would leave Italy is if someone physically forced me onto a plane.
One student from umbra Institute ended up going home because his parents were worried. I started getting worried once the health advisory was moved to a 2 and UMD sent out emails saying that if it was moved to 3 all study abroad programs in Italy would be suspended. On Friday I was told my one of the administrators at umbra that umd was going to start asking it’s students to come home and I was completely against it. I was told that I had the opportunity to sign a waiver and stay to continue my studies so I was okay that I had that option. On Saturday morning I woke up to an email saying that umd was pulling all of its students because the warning was moved to a 3. And soon after that I received an email from the Umbra Institute that our program was being suspended.
Alexis Takes Italy 