An important part of the Bologna Consortial Studies Program (BCSP) is that each student must find his or her own apartment in Bologna upon arrival. The only requirement is that the apartment be with at least two Italian roommates. Since this is kind of a unique feature of my program, I thought I would write a Blog post centered around the beginnings of my apartment search.
At our housing search orientation, our program coordinators suggested two methods for finding an apartment. The first is by using the internet. There are multiple online search sites for apartments in Bologna, like kijiji, the Italian version of eBay, or EasyStanza (Easy Room). There is also a housing webite run by the University of Bologna called Bussola (compass) that has a couple housing ads. I have had some success on these websites, but without being a membro avanzato (paying member) it can be very difficult to obtain contact information.
The second method, which is much more entertaining, is to walk around the streets of Bologna's centro storico (historical center) and find annunci (flyers that advertize appartments) that are posted around the city. One of the best places to find annunci is on the bright blue and green garbage and recycling dumpsters on Via Zamboni, the Green Street of l'Universita' di Bologna. When I find a flyer that seems interesting, I take a picture of it with a close up of the contact information. Below are some examples of pictures I have taken around the city so far.
The coolest part about walking around the city with no particular destination in mind, is that I have stumbled across some really awesome parts of Bologna. Once, while I was walking around near the University's Street Via Zamboni, I found a vicoli (short, narrow street - too narrow for cars) with some awesome fresh food shops. Here, hundreds of people were doing their daily grocery shopping for fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, and fish. Most people buy only the food they are going to cook that same day, so grocery shopping becomes a daily social routine. The day I was walking around it was raining and, as the bellhop at the hotel told me, about as cold as it ever gets in Bologna. Here are some of the pictures I took while walking down the vicoli.
Anyway, back to apartment hunting. After finding the contact information for the Italians that own an apartment that I'm interested in, the next step is to actually call. My first call was easily the most nerve wracking call I have ever made. It was easily 10 times harder than calling a girl to ask her to a dance. The "conversation," consisted of me stumbling over some familiar Italian phrases, listening to Cosimo speak Italian at the speed of light, and me saying va bene (sounds good/works for me/it's going well) many times even though I had no clue what he was saying. By the time the longest 3 minutes of my life was over, I was shaking and I think I tasted adrenaline in my mouth for the first time. Since then (for the most part), my phone calls have been significantly better than that thanks to phrases such as "Lei puo' parlare piu lentamente per favore?" (Will you please speak much slower?). I wish I had a picture of my face after my first phone call.
SIDE BAR
At our health and safety orientation, a Bolognese police officer told us that possessing small amounts of drugs like l'erba (literally grass), cocaine (cocaine), etc. is fine as long as when you're using it, you don't disturb anybody else. Only selling drugs is illegal in Bologna. Now look at my mom's face and that's probably pretty similar to my face after my first phone call (Don't worry, mom, I always say no to drugs)
Though I haven't talked to a huge number of Italian people, I have found that a majority are amazingly patient with people that don't speak Italian very well, which has made me considerably less nervous over the past couple days. In fact, their general attitude toward Americans is great! On Tuesday night, we needed directions to a bar across town at 2:30 in the morning. Aurelio, the complete stranger that we asked, spent half an hour finding out where the bar was, drawing us a map, and taking us a few blocks in the right direction. As we left he shook our hands and kissed both our cheeks! I can't help but think that people are rarely this kind in the U.S. Here is the map Aurelio drew for us.
When the call is over (if I have been successful), I have an appuntamento (appointment) with the owner of the apartment. These appuntamenti are great for helping me learn my way around the city, as well as gaining the confidence needed to speak to Italians. It may be hard to believe, but the apartment visits are much less nerve wracking then the telephone calls. The host usually invites me in to the apartment and gives me a quick tour of the home. Then they tell me about each of the people that lives there as we make our way to the kitchen, where they unfailingly ask if I am hungry or thirsty (which of course I always am).
SIDE BAR (no pun intended)
I had never had coffee in my entire life before coming to Italy. My first experience with coffee, though, was at an apartment visit, where I tried an espresso. I thought that it would be easy to drink because it was so small, but for such a small drink, an espresso really packs a powerful punch, especially for someone who isn't used to caffeine. Pictured is the drink that doubled my heart rate for at least an hour.
And.... back to apartment hunting. Over a coffee or hot chocolate I can ask all the questions I have, and answer their questions as well. It almost has the feel of a job interview because not only do I have to choose their apartment, they have to choose me as their future roommate as well. So far I haven't had any luck in finding a good apartment, but I have 4 appuntamenti today, so wish me luck!
If anyone has anything Italian that they are interested in hearing about, or would like me to write about, either comment on the blog or shoot me an email. Let me know what interests you!
Ci Vediamo dopo! (See ya later!)
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