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Top 10 American things you’ll miss while studying abroad

1. Ice
For reasons unbeknownst to me, Italians seem to like their water lukewarm. Though gelato works wonders as a cold replacement, I’m less enthused about the idea of my overconsumption of the treat turning me into a blueberry à la Violet Beauregarde of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

2. Coffee
On the first morning of my homestay, I poured what I thought was just an innocent cup of coffee. Upon finishing the whole thing, I felt a little jittery but chalked it off to jet lag. Ten minutes later, I had cold sweats, was shaking and had probably already informed all 250 kids in my program that I was dying. Turns out, my innocent cup of coffee was a mug of straight espresso, meaning that I’d chugged about six shots of it. Welcome to Italy.

3. Iced coffee
The lackluster availability of ice paired with the lack of coffee suitable for human consumption means that ice coffee is hard to come buy. As someone who has more iced coffee than blood running through my veins 86 percent of all the time, this was a hard adjustment. I found one café that promised me “caffé freddo,” but it turned out to be coffee-flavored whipped cream. I find myself missing Starbucks while simultaneously hating myself for missing Starbucks.

4. Punctuality
I promised my mom two things I’d work on during my semester in Florence. One was to become “mature” in my drinking habits, and the other was to chill out. I’m super into getting everywhere 20 minutes before I have to, and if you aren’t walking with a sense of urgency at all times, I tend to have strong and occasionally violent feelings toward you. It’s not you; it’s me. Unfortunately for me, Europeans like to take their sweet time, and I’ve had to get used to everything starting a lot later than planned.

5. Brunch
Someone told me once that it was bad for your body to eat carbs after 7 p.m. Italians don’t seem to agree with this assertion. I’ve gotten used to the really late dinner, but I find myself wishing I could follow that up the next morning with a really late brunch. My host mom apologized to us at breakfast my first morning that she didn’t have any waffles or pancakes. Seeing as brunch food is my main source of photo-worthy moments, my Instagram is really suffering.

6. Phone service
At home, it frustrates me that everyone has their face in their phones all the time. Stop Instagrammimg your brunch and talk! I’m as guilty as the next Hoo, and being without phone service and reliable WiFi has made me realize how much I actually depend on the Internet. Did you know that Google Translate only works with cell phone service? And Google Maps? And being really lost and really hungry and not speaking Italian is really not a fun situation?

7. The Standard System
Yes, I know the England-America breakup of 1776 was a pretty rough one. But why we decided to be one of three countries in the world to use the standard system rather than the metric one is beyond me. Someone telling me that it’s going to be 12 degrees Celsius out and that school is a 200 meter walk from my house seriously confuses me. I can do your average 5k = 3.1 miles conversion thanks to an abundance of philanthropic runs, but that’s not the easiest mental math to accomplish with limited time and zero sense of where you are.

8. People who can’t dress themselves
I miss my workout clothes. I miss being able to walk around Grounds and see at least one person wearing the same Nike-shorts-with-T-shirt-so-long-it-looks-like-I’m-not-wearing-pants ensemble. I miss being able to go out looking like I just rolled out of bed and not have people make much of a fuss. Here, everyone is fashionable and beautiful and cool and put together and self-assured and never sweats and doesn’t age and… help.

9. Football
I grew up in a house where Sundays were reserved for football. Now, with college game days on Saturday, the whole weekend is devoted to being a fan. Not only is it the most quintessential American tradition to watch grown men throw themselves at each other, but I love the atmosphere and camaraderie that comes from supporting a team with all your friends. Italian football is soccer, and I can’t even pretend to know anything about the local team.

10. The drinking age
… haha, just kidding. I leave you with an awful joke to describe the wonder that is a place where the drinking age is 18. A man walked into a bar… and didn’t get into a fight with the Trinity bouncers. Imagine the man as me, and me almost crying tears of joy. Two weeks in, it still hasn’t gotten old.

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