Buongiorno!

Ciao! My name is Brooke Nelson and I am from Long Island. I am a junior at Stony Brook and I am a biochemistry major with a chemistry minor and a pre-med focus. Choosing to study abroad was an easy decision for me, and choosing to do it in Italy was even easier. I come from and Italian heritage and I can’t wait to learn about the culture of where my family is from. Being that I am attending an arts school here in Florence and I am a science major I get a lot of questions about why I chose FUA. One reason is that I have been hoping to come to Italy for so long. Another reason is simply that I thought it would be interesting to experience something completely different, not only culturally but scholastically as well. While I am used to taking classes such as organic chemistry and molecular biology, I am now taking a film class, a history class, and a language class. I hope to learn a lot about living on my own in a new country, adapting to a new environment, learning a new language, and even just being outside the realm of the science community.
I have been here for just over a week and so far I am in love with Firenze, Italia. There is nowhere else in the world where Renaissance art is literally everywhere. Being from New York I am used to newer buildings (newer meaning within the last couple hundred years). It is amazing to see old historic buildings next to an H&M. I am going to get a museum pass through the school on Monday and really start to explore what this city has to offer.
Another thing that I have already fallen in love with is the people here. Everyone is very friendly and nice and willing to help you. Whenever we ask someone a question in Italian they answer us in English, I guess we all need to work on our Italian. The only thing that I still need to get used to is the pace at which everything is done. In America, and especially New York, you get used to things getting done very fast. Here it isn’t like that at all everything is a little slower and even walking on the streets I notice that my friends and I walk a lot faster than most of the people. I’m hoping I can slow down and start to move at an Italian pace rather than a New York pace.