This week has been incredibly busy for me. On Monday I finally settled into my new apartment. I live in a small studio apartment not far from the center of the city off of one of the main roads that lead to the center. It's relatively convenient, it takes me 20-25 minutes to reach the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center, and just about as much time to get to the city's main landmark, the two towers. My landlord is pretty nice, she's a doctor who is married to a concert pianist -- allegedly the late Luciano Pavarotti's former pianist. Needlesstosay, they are wealthy, but nevertheless, very humble. The reason why it took long for me to get an apartment is really due to the expense -- I had expected it to be expensive, but not nearly as bad as it is. Most of the students here have to pay between 350-500 Euro/month for rent and 100 Euro for utilities and have to share the apartment with 3-5 other students. Landlords also typically require 2 months' rent in deposits. It's a vast difference to the $399 I was paying back in Texas. Actually, pretty much everything here is more expensive with the exception of pizza and coffee. So, the stereotypes and economics relative to such remain true.
Anyway, I'm happy about my place, I live by myself so I can concentrate on my studies. Since I'm on the roof, I have the entire area to myself, which is actually much larger than my apartment, and I have a 270 degree view of the city. The picture to the right really doesn't do the view any justice -- you can see the entire center of the city -- it's incredible. On the roof, there is a huge garden as well, they have plenty of spices, herbs, and fruit trees growing everwhere. I've never seen anything like it -- it feels strange to see this on the top of a roof. In terms of size, the apartment is about, I don't know... maybe 14' x 14' -- that's including the "kitchen" (it consists of a sink, a hotplate, a toaster oven and a dorm-sized fridge) and bathroom. The bed is basically a full-size futon. I have a little room for a small table and chair. I also have plenty of closet space. So it sounds like it's very little room, but it actually is just enough for me. If I really need anything, like to bake, I can just go to my landlord's place -- she said all of her appliances are free for me to use. However, that is one big caveat for this dwelling -- in order to get to my apartment, I must go through my landlord's den and kitchen. It's a minor inconvenience, and so far, it hasn't been any problem. I can still invite whomever I want up here, given that they don't cause any problems, of course. Oh, on top of this, I sort of get free internet (I'm 'borrowing' the signal from someone else -- my landlord has internet but my apartment is too far from the router)... so given all of the amnities and conveniences, I think the price I'm paying, 500 Euro, is actually a steal -- I'd rather pay this much and live by myself, than pay $450-600 and also have to deal with all the problems associated with having roommates on top of it.
Aside from the expense, the city is beautiful. I am not an art person, so I'm not going to even begin to pretend to act like I know what I'm talking about -- all I know is that it's beautiful. The attitude is pretty laid back and relatively friendly. I haven't had a negative vibe or anyone outright rude. Most people are very welcoming and have been patient with my lack of Italian language skills. Speaking of which, I started taking classes earlier this week and I think I have learned a lot. We have started to read small passages and I actually comprehend most of it. It sort of is a foil to my studies in Russian -- I have come to realize how much more difficult Russian is to many other languages. I have not had any Romance language experience, but certainly, since I've lived most of my life not far from the Mexican border, although I can't compose a single sentence, my exposure to Spanish has undoubtedly helped.My studies at Johns Hopkins have been intense. I haven't taken any quantitative based economics in a very long time, and I regret that I feel a little unprepared, atleast in terms of math, not so much the theory. Fortunately, it looks like everyone else is as well -- most of the students there are political science/international relations students, so their exposure to economics is typically somewhat limited (which is really strange given that economics and politics are so intrinsically involved with each other, but I guess that's a debate for another day). I have been working hard every day to get to speed; the class I'm taking is intermediate microeconomics, which is basically like the hardest class I had during my tenure as an undergraduate student, Price Theory -- but it's compressed into 4 weeks -- so, I spend about 10-12 hours a day at the university studying and working out problems...then I come home and continue doing the same thing until I fall asleep. It's tough, but I think it's working; I did fairly well on my diagnostic math exam and although it was difficult, I got through my first major assignment. The scary thing is, though, I'm only taking 2 classes -- micro and survival Italian -- albeit there are both accellerated courses, I can only imagine how things are going to be in the full term, where I have to take 4 classes and a language class.
On top of this, the university also has a bunch of mandatory programs that we have to go through regarding career development. Since I am sort of having problems with just pidgeon-holing myself as a foreign service officer, I think this might be a good chance for me to regain focus and explore other opportunities that might be available that I haven't considered.
The other benefit of the university, especially because of its geographical location, we have several interesting guest lecturers scheduled to appear during the year. Last night, we had a lecture held by Michael Leigh, the Director-General of the European Commission on Enlargement -- and he discussed some interesting topics on (surprise) the enlargement of the EU in regard to Turkey and the Balkans. Afterwards, there was a nice reception held -- I had plenty of wine and hors d'oeuvres.
Afterward, a friend of mine from the center met up with some Italian friends we had made last week. It's very strange, I don't know how I do it, but everywhere I go, I find same kind of people who are into the same niche interests as I am. It's somewhat comforting but at the same time intriguing. Like most of my friends in Russia, the Italians I have met are well versed in somewhat obscure American and British music, actually, much more than myself (not that I profess any sort of omniscient encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, bust still, you know what I mean). Anyway, we had a few drinks, met more friends, went home. Slept.
I suppose that's my most interesting experience thus far. For the first time in my life I really feel like I belong in all aspects, or atleast in most aspects of my interests. At home, I have difficulty finding people who are professionally or academically serious in the same field as I am -- its easy to find friends who are interested in the same music, but when it comes to things I like to think about when I'm in school, there are very few -- again, I'm not trying to sound pretentious as much as that most people I know have much different careers or academic backgrounds, or focii -- that of course is not necessarily bad, quite the contrary, I think it helps each of us build character and understanding of our surroundings -- but at the same time, without meeting people with the same academic focus, its sometimes not very stimulating either.
So to say the least, I am very happy where I am at, and I do fit in. I know it's going to be challenging, but I've never been one to not give it a shot. We'll see where it takes me, I'll give it a good fight. I'm sure everything will work out in the end.
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