But I was adamant that immersing myself in a new culture was an experience I wanted, and fortunately, after talking with several different departments at my home university, I was able to make it work. I would highly encourage anyone in a major that isn’t typically eligible for study abroad to do the same. It’s likely more within your reach than you think!
Since my university curriculum thus far had been so narrowly STEM-focused, I decided to challenge myself and try something entirely new for my time abroad. I am by no means an artist; I have been comically terrible at every medium of art I’ve ever tried. But I chose Florence because of its rich history as a center for art, hoping to be inspired by the surroundings, as people have been for centuries. So, instead of my typical schedule of calculus, physics, and system design classes, this semester, my schedule includes The Florence Experience I (Italian Language 101), Introduction to Photography, Beginning Oil Painting, and The Art of Florence (Art History).
Are you passionate about the arts and eager to immerse yourself in Italy’s rich cultural heritage? Look no further than ISI Florence!
A New Culture and Language in Florence
A month into my time here, I can safely say that I am so grateful I made the decision to step outside my comfort zone, and I could not have picked a better place to do it. First, every student is required to take an Italian language course, and, true to being out of my comfort zone, I arrived in Florence with zero experience speaking Italian. While learning at least some basic phrases ahead of time is ideal, the content taught in the Italian language courses is enormously helpful in navigating a new country. I already feel comfortable ordering at a restaurant or bar, checking out at the supermarket and introducing myself to new people. This type of learning is completely different from anything I’ve ever done in college before I arrived in Florence, and it can be intimidating at first to speak to people in Italian, but there is no better way to learn a language than to be able to walk outside the classroom and hear people speaking it every day and have opportunities to interact with them and practice. Learning the language is also such an important piece of understanding Italian culture and identity.
Discovering a Love for Oil Painting
Perhaps the class that felt most daunting when I signed up was oil painting. Oil paint is a notoriously difficult medium, and I was worried about the fact that I hadn’t touched a paintbrush since elementary school. But I had no reason to worry. The class is structured as a three-hour studio class, and the professor projects the painting for the whole class to see, starting from a blank canvas, and giving step-by-step instructions on different techniques as we paint along with him. One day you might learn how to paint clouds, another day, water, and another day, skin tones. As a person who previously had zero creative hobbies, what I have discovered is that I genuinely love to paint. I am still not great at it, but I find it relaxing, and with the techniques we are learning, I am improving a lot. It has grown to be one of my favorite classes and is a hobby I plan to continue even once my semester is over.
Florence Through a Lens
My photography class has allowed me to experience Florence in a new way that I would not have, had I not taken the class. Each week, we are tasked with taking thirty photos on a digital camera, focusing on some aspect of composition or specific type of photography, then we each choose the six we like best and edit them in Photoshop, which we also learn in class. In my engineering classes, I am used to being given very specific instructions, and tasked to find the single correct solution, but the freedom to photograph whatever we want, according to our own visions has been a good, fulfilling (and challenging!) creative exercise. In addition, as I walk around the city, off the beaten path, searching for inspiration to take my photos, I have stumbled upon churches, bookstores, cafes, and museums I never would have known existed, which add more nuance to my understanding of Florence.
Art History: a Transformative Experience
Finally, consistent with the theme of all my other classes, I came to Florence never having taken an art history class in my life. The one I am taking focuses on the Renaissance, and it is structured so that there are two class sessions per week – the first is a lecture, and the second is a visit where we actually get to go to a site in Florence pertaining to the lecture to see the artwork in person. Getting to live in a place like Florence, where the art you study is all around you allows you to uncover extra context about the art, such as clues about how it was created, the impact it had at the time, and how it fits into the larger story of the city. Overall, pushing myself to try new things and curating a different type of curriculum than what I was used to has been incredibly rewarding. It has led me to grow in new ways, and I have a newfound appreciation for expression through creating something other than words, and how those works can shape a culture. I hope my story can inspire others to also step outside their comfort zone, and I would encourage anyone who studies at ISI Florence to take advantage of this unique city and (even if it’s not usually your thing) take an art class!!