Originally I wanted to live in the mini resident halls because they'd seem to be more like dorms. Fortunately I was lucky enough to be placed in an apartment with two other girls from the same program :). I say lucky because after taking a look at the resident halls I realized that I'll have more of the real experience. Plus, I've some of my friends have already complained about how inconsiderate people in the halls can be. Also, I live in the only apartment that have wireless.
My roommates are really nice girls from Davis. Our landlord is also very kind to us. After moving in, he invited us to his apartment where he introduced us to his wife. Although it's hard to communicate with him since he knows very little English, we seem to understand him. Carrying an Italian dictionary when speaking to him is also useful :P
One of the first things that I learned was that Italians live in apartment buildings. Well at least the typical Italian. I don't know why I hadn't thought about this before. Anyway since I was placed in an apartment, I thought that living on the 4th floor and not having a backyard would be kind of boring. I mean in the U.S. we really value our gated territory. We have our own spaces... So far, I haven't felt uncomfortable though and after observing how people can live so close together I've realized that there are many benefits. First, there is a greater community atmosphere. On the weekends and even on some weekdays neighbors socialize, either by singing, having dinner,drinking together, playing games ( lol, I'm not really used to this. I mean, I hardly talk to my neighbors at home). What I'm trying to say is that having no back yard, makes the street belong to everyone.
Cool apartment!
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