Over 10 years ago, I spent the summer working at CERN and living on the Swiss-French border. That was my first time in Europe and my first time using a passport. The experience wasn't entirely positive, and it was my benchmark for planning for this trip. Now that I'm about one-month in, I want to reflect on my preparation and create a comparison of the two experiences.
Being able to speak the language
When I was an undergraduate, I had asked if I needed to know French to work at CERN and was told no - this wasn't the best advice. While I could speak English with the other American physicists, I couldn't communicate at the cafeteria, buy train tickets, etc. Showing up with no French ability meant that I left with no French ability.
I first learned Italian back in graduate school, long before this trip was planned. However, the time that I spent practicing over the past year really paid off. I am still trying to learn new words and phrases! I'm also very glad I scheduled the 10 hours of tutoring when I first arrived.
Again, well-intentioned advice said I didn't need to speak Italian. The Italian scientists would speak English and many Italians speak English. However, I have found that there are many situations where I need to communicate with people (who speak no English) and that people only use English at OSR when speaking directly at me. Now that many of the people at OSR know that I speak some Italian, they prefer to just speak Italian at me and switch to English when they lose me.
Traveling
While I saw a bit of Europe my first time here, I was on an undergraduate budget. While I still need to watch my spending (paying rent in two countries is expensive!), I can now explore more freely. It feels nice to book seats on the fast - and expensive - train, rather than booking the slow train to save a few dollars. I haven't really mastered "planning" yet, and it turns out that train tickets are cheaper when booked more than 1 day in advance. It has also been nice to stay in "fancy" hotels, rather than look for the cheapest accommodations possible. It doesn't seem like hotels are expensive here as they are in the states!
So far my exploration has focused on Italy, but I look forward to heading a bit further away in the coming months. Though, I've gotten spoiled with Italian and I am dreading going to places where I don't know the language (Prague, Croatia...).
Food
It helps that I can actually cook now. When I was an undergraduate, I struggled with not being able to turn ingredients in to food - and I was vegetarian. I was also surprised by the fact that the market didn't have frozen/pre-prepared food. The local supermarket also seemed to only be open during "normal business hours", when I was expected to be at work myself.
Ironically, my diet is largely matching the bread/cheese/fruit diet that I had in France a decade ago. I have cooked a few things (chili!) from scratch, and I am also making a range of pasta dishes. Luckily, the supermarket nearby has excellent hours and there are a total of (at least) 4 supermarkets that I can easily walk to. There is also a range of small shops selling bread, fruit, etc that I pass on my way to the metro every day. I think the main advantage here is that I'm in a city.
Work
This is the biggest difference. I wasn't the happiest at CERN because the project was somewhat stalled and there were more people around than work to do. I didn't seem to have anything to do.
That is certainly not the case now! If anything, I have too much too do. In addition to being busy, I'm also fairly independent here - while my projects are collaborative, I'm not waiting for someone to tell me what to do. This is the benefit of being a professor and not an undergraduate, I suppose. The only downside is that the time is flying by - I can't believe I've been here a month already! It also means that I have less time for everything else that I had wanted to do.
Preparing and packing
Overall, I think I judged my packing fairly well. I remember taking my digital clock to Europe and being surprised when it didn't work - it turns out that the timing mechanism used the AC frequency, so the different frequency in Europe meant it was useless. I'm enough of a world traveler now that I don't make those mistakes anymore, but it is especially helpful that I've been to Italy a few times before.
I was right to bring warm clothes and layers, though I didn't quite guess the business-casual environment of OSR correctly. I worried I wasn't bringing enough clothes, and that is certainly the case for weekends/travel/evenings. However, that gave me a reason to do some shopping! I knew there was a major sale season in the summer, but I also arrived during a major sale season. So, I've been able to fill the holes in my wardrobe without spending hundreds of dollars, which I had feared.
I am very glad that I brought tea and spices. While I have been very successful in finding places to buy tea here, I am also drinking a ton of tea at home. I brought my tea-infusing thermos with me, which has been heavily used. The tea cups in the apartment are too small! My spices have gotten a reasonable amount of use, and will continue to inspire me to cook from scratch.
In conclusion... relying on my past "long term" time abroad did help me preparing - both packing and expectations - for this trip. I'm very glad that I am here, but this trip certainly would not be going as well had I not had the previous experience at CERN.
Being able to speak the language
When I was an undergraduate, I had asked if I needed to know French to work at CERN and was told no - this wasn't the best advice. While I could speak English with the other American physicists, I couldn't communicate at the cafeteria, buy train tickets, etc. Showing up with no French ability meant that I left with no French ability.
I first learned Italian back in graduate school, long before this trip was planned. However, the time that I spent practicing over the past year really paid off. I am still trying to learn new words and phrases! I'm also very glad I scheduled the 10 hours of tutoring when I first arrived.
Again, well-intentioned advice said I didn't need to speak Italian. The Italian scientists would speak English and many Italians speak English. However, I have found that there are many situations where I need to communicate with people (who speak no English) and that people only use English at OSR when speaking directly at me. Now that many of the people at OSR know that I speak some Italian, they prefer to just speak Italian at me and switch to English when they lose me.
Traveling
While I saw a bit of Europe my first time here, I was on an undergraduate budget. While I still need to watch my spending (paying rent in two countries is expensive!), I can now explore more freely. It feels nice to book seats on the fast - and expensive - train, rather than booking the slow train to save a few dollars. I haven't really mastered "planning" yet, and it turns out that train tickets are cheaper when booked more than 1 day in advance. It has also been nice to stay in "fancy" hotels, rather than look for the cheapest accommodations possible. It doesn't seem like hotels are expensive here as they are in the states!
So far my exploration has focused on Italy, but I look forward to heading a bit further away in the coming months. Though, I've gotten spoiled with Italian and I am dreading going to places where I don't know the language (Prague, Croatia...).
Food
It helps that I can actually cook now. When I was an undergraduate, I struggled with not being able to turn ingredients in to food - and I was vegetarian. I was also surprised by the fact that the market didn't have frozen/pre-prepared food. The local supermarket also seemed to only be open during "normal business hours", when I was expected to be at work myself.
Ironically, my diet is largely matching the bread/cheese/fruit diet that I had in France a decade ago. I have cooked a few things (chili!) from scratch, and I am also making a range of pasta dishes. Luckily, the supermarket nearby has excellent hours and there are a total of (at least) 4 supermarkets that I can easily walk to. There is also a range of small shops selling bread, fruit, etc that I pass on my way to the metro every day. I think the main advantage here is that I'm in a city.
Work
This is the biggest difference. I wasn't the happiest at CERN because the project was somewhat stalled and there were more people around than work to do. I didn't seem to have anything to do.
That is certainly not the case now! If anything, I have too much too do. In addition to being busy, I'm also fairly independent here - while my projects are collaborative, I'm not waiting for someone to tell me what to do. This is the benefit of being a professor and not an undergraduate, I suppose. The only downside is that the time is flying by - I can't believe I've been here a month already! It also means that I have less time for everything else that I had wanted to do.
Preparing and packing
Overall, I think I judged my packing fairly well. I remember taking my digital clock to Europe and being surprised when it didn't work - it turns out that the timing mechanism used the AC frequency, so the different frequency in Europe meant it was useless. I'm enough of a world traveler now that I don't make those mistakes anymore, but it is especially helpful that I've been to Italy a few times before.
I was right to bring warm clothes and layers, though I didn't quite guess the business-casual environment of OSR correctly. I worried I wasn't bringing enough clothes, and that is certainly the case for weekends/travel/evenings. However, that gave me a reason to do some shopping! I knew there was a major sale season in the summer, but I also arrived during a major sale season. So, I've been able to fill the holes in my wardrobe without spending hundreds of dollars, which I had feared.
I am very glad that I brought tea and spices. While I have been very successful in finding places to buy tea here, I am also drinking a ton of tea at home. I brought my tea-infusing thermos with me, which has been heavily used. The tea cups in the apartment are too small! My spices have gotten a reasonable amount of use, and will continue to inspire me to cook from scratch.
In conclusion... relying on my past "long term" time abroad did help me preparing - both packing and expectations - for this trip. I'm very glad that I am here, but this trip certainly would not be going as well had I not had the previous experience at CERN.
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