Stephen Vandrak, Engineering Perspectives of the Renaissance and Sustainability: Florence Summer 2023
The biggest challenge I faced during this program was having to live in a new city without my luggage. When I arrived in the Florence airport, I was told that my luggage had not made it from the US. I had my laptop and some other essentials, but I did not have my clothes. This led to a lot of stress, and I had to decide what to do to move forward.
One reason this challenge was specifically hard is because the cultures of the Italians and Americans in respect to fashion are very different. In America, you can wear athleisure, and other simple pieces of clothing you will not stick out. Contrarily, the Italians are known for dressing nice. The culture in Italy requires dressing well every time you leave the apartment. This made buying clothes more difficult. I had to buy enough clothes to get me through the next few days without spending too much money on nicer clothing. Also, I had to go to the store and buy toiletries because I had put mine in my luggage. This was difficult because all of the shampoos and conditioners are in Italian, so I had to use context clues and google to decide which products to buy. I also had to buy some other essentials, like a towel.
I had to work with the airlines and the airport workers in order to retrieve my luggage. This was difficult because there was a language barrier, which made it very hard to understand and communicate over the phone. I eventually had to use public transport to go to the airport, which had a learning curve because I had to transfer from a bus to a tram. I ended up having to go to the airport 2 separate times. The second time I went to the airport, my luggage had arrived. It had been 11 days since I had arrived.
This challenge taught me how sometimes you have to adapt to the things that are thrown at you. I had to remain optimistic and focus on enjoying Florence without my luggage. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was able to make it without spending too much money.
The advice I would give to students travelling on this trip is to pack in a way to guarantee you have all of your valuable and essential items. You never know what could happen, so it is better to be prepared. My other advice it to not let challenges like these take away from enjoying your time abroad. You only get so much time in the new place, so it is much better to enjoy every part of it, even if it isn’t always easy.
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