House Hunting: Italian Edition

As I mentioned before, my program requires me to scavenge the city for a place to live from the end of January to the end of June. I will preface by saying that never before in my life have I ever had to do anything remotely like this. In the United States, finding a sublet or a sub-letter seems to take months (at least it does in Chapel Hill). However, in Bologna 10 days is believed to be PLENTY of time to find an apartment/and or a sub-letter. Given the stress I felt trying to find a sublet for my house in Chapel Hill, it is easy to understand how stressed and anxious we all are. We have been instilled with the sincere fear that we will be left homeless if we are not able to find an apartment by next Saturday. At the same time, we have been reassured on countless occasions by the year-long students, other students that have participated in this program in the past, in addition to our advisers, that everyone WILL find a place within the time limit.

The process works like this:
You log onto an assortment of Italian websites offering rooms available and begin to contact the apartments that seem like a good fit. And by this, I don't necessarily mean that the apartment is perfectly clean, tidy, and decorated. We have quickly found, and have also been told, that the most important thing is finding good roommates. (Followed closely by finding a place within close proximity to the university and the center of the city). We can contact the other Italian students via email and cell-phone, and are also discovering that calling is certainly the more efficient and preferred method for getting into contact with the other students. (Apparently Italians don't incessantly check their emails like many Americans do). And THIS IS INTIMIDATING. Most of the time when I pick up the phone to call someone (with my new, and very basic white and pink cellphone), I can barely understand what is being said. Some of them speak faster then others, but usually once they realize that I am an American student, they speak a little slower, and I can get the gist of most of what they are saying. Often, if they are friendly and interested in living with "erasmus students" (essentially international students) they have requested that we come visit the apartment within hours from calling, and sometimes right on the spot. So far I have visited 7 apartments. 2 of which I adored, and the rest were pretty terrible. I got stood up once after walking 15-20 minutes to find the place - it seemed a bit sketchy anyways. Another one that I visited was inhabited by a girl and a guy who were looking for another girl and another guy. And even though she called me back today and wanted to know whether I was interested in living there, it is definitely not the place for me. Not only was the apartment extremely smoky and dark (which isn't necessarily a deal-breaker because almost EVERYONE here smokes inside), but the girl must have smoked at least 3 cigarettes in the living room while I was talking with her and her roommate for maybe 30 minutes at the most. My lungs could barely handle it. Although I was a bit disappointed because the location was GREAT. Needless to say this process is defined by extreme highs and extreme lows. It is exhausting, but will hopefully be rewarding in the end. I would also like to point out that this city is VERY easy to get lost in - even if you are Italian. A lot of the "vias" or streets change names and are constantly merging into piazzas and other vias. I'm slowly getting my bearings, but the process of researching, calling, visiting, and speaking with the students requires a lot of time and energy and for me at least, can easily go wrong. For instance, today I accidentally called a girl who lived in Florence because I thought that the ad she posted was for a place in Bologna. And tonight, I went to visit a place around 7 (that seems PERFECT might I add), only to realize after attempting to ring the doorbell multiple times, and calling the girl I had spoken with earlier, that we were in fact scheduled to meet tomorrow night at 7 - and not tonight. Such are the confusions associated with learning a new language. And now that I think about it, a lot went wrong today. I got lost trying to find the first apartment (the one with the excessive smoker) because apparently Via Petroni is not the same as Via San Petronio Vecchio (an obvious mistake, I know). But thanks to a kind mailman who was able to give me directions, I made it, although a little late. Something else I have learned during my search is that "5 Barra 2" is not the same thing as "5". It seems to be quite common for buildings to have "half addresses." Kind of like Platform 9 and 3/4 in Harry Potter. I should have known that I had made an error when I was unable to find the correct "compellino" - which refers to the name of the residents of the apartment, which can be found next to a speaker phone and a multitude of buttons that correspond to each respective compellino. You press the appropriate button and the person in the apartment responds, followed by a loud buzzing signifying that the door has been opened for you to enter. Well, I initially thought that I had misunderstood the compellino. After glancing anxiously back and forth from my map and the notes I had written concerning the apartment, I decided to just press one, and inquire if the resident who answered knew of the compellino that I was looking for. Thankfully someone responded, albeit very curtly, and the door opened. I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what he said, but I entered. After wandering up and down a tall flight of stairs for a few minutes, I finally asked a man who was entering his own apartment if he had any idea where these people lived. When he realized that I was supposed to be at 5 Barra 2 - it turns out I had entered Building 5 - he informed me that I was looking for the next building over. I thanked him and rushed out the door. Thankfully I had no problems finding the place after that. Our search for housing has also become a bit competitive. We all end up finding the same places to go visit, and are left waiting anxiously for the students to call us back a few days later. And it all boils down to who the Italians end up liking the most, and who seems like the most compatible fit. And as we have been told, and are slowly discovering for ourselves, we don't pick the apartment, the Italians pick us.

So, while we have yet to begin classes, I think I have been more stressed out this past week than I will be once classes do start. At this point, I'm just ready to find a place. And for now anyways, the search continues...