Bologna – here I come, again

Spring is in the air here and in Bologna. I have my ticket bought and the school paid for. I’ve arranged for car storage and sublet my apartment. I am so looking forward to returning for another two months in Bologna. It’s interesting doing this. I’ve never before had an extended stay in a foreign place where I got to know the city, made friends and generally settled into a very different pace of life. I’m also curious about how it will all feel. When I returned from Bologna last November I was frankly depressed for awhile. Imagine that you have gone to a city with great food, friendly people, beauty everywhere, terrific public transportation only to return to a sketchy neighborhood in Oakland – or consider any other city that you are familiar with. Will I feel a sense of relief when I return? Will my relationships with people there seem as good as before and will I make new friends? Will I be as happy there as before and quite importantly, will my Italian improve a lot in 8 weeks?

Well, the photos above are not quite a fair comparison. The neighborhood where I lived wasn’t  as beautiful as the part of Bologna shown and much (really most) of Oakland is nicer than my neighborhood. Still, it’s really hard to find a neighborhood in Oakland that is even in the same league as Bologna. But let’s face it I am clearly biased. I think that you can see why it came as a shock to return home after 9 weeks in that lovely city.

Of course I will be blogging about both everyday life and adventures in Bologna as I did on my last trip to Italy. This time I will not be staying with a family but will be playing roommate roulette just the same. It’s kind of like when I first stayed in a college dorm and was randomly assigned a roommate. It can be a challenge. Stay tuned. I leave on March 29^th and arrive the next day after a plane change in Frankfurt.

Ciao

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Culture, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.