Author: Abbey

Hi everyone! My name is Abbey Donahue and I am a rising junior from Bay Village, OH. At Notre Dame, I am studying Economics with minors in History, Italian Studies, and the Glynn Family Honors Program. On campus, I am the Co-Vice President of Cavanaugh Hall, a Co-lead in the Student Policy Network, and a member of the Club Swim Team. I am so excited and grateful to live and learn in Siena this summer as a part of the SLA 2023 cohort!
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Critical Incident: Paying for coffee

Since arriving in Siena, many items in my routine have changed over the past week. My sleep schedule, my workout routine, and my laundry process to name a few. One pillar of stability whether in Ohio, Notre Dame, or Italy is a morning coffee. I’m not picky: hot/cold, decaf/caffeinated, ristretto/long shot… It could be an iced Americano from my hometown cafe with almond milk or a Kirkland K-Cup in my mini Keurig at school. The routine of making/buying/drinking coffee simultaneously calms me down and wakes me up no matter where I am. 

One of my favorite parts of Italy so far is the morning cappuccinos with soy milk from the local bars. For the relatively inexpensive cost (⅓ that of Starbucks), I am always impressed by the taste, size, and fancy cups. However, one element of the Italian coffee-buying experience that caught me off guard is how Italians pay for coffee after drinking it. I am so used to rolling up to the dunkin drive-through, paying, then being on my merry way, so this style of transaction is taking some getting used to. 

My understanding of this “critical incident” can be interpreted through the river metaphor from module 4. This phenomenon of paying after drinking is downstream from the underlying cultural difference, which is a foundation of trust and friendliness between the barista and the customer.

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Arrivederci Cleveland, Salve Siena

If you told me last summer that today I started packing for a five-week Summer Language Abroad program in Italy, I would have not only been thrilled but also thoroughly confused. After making the difficult decision a week before the fall semester to drop one of my majors in order to graduate early, I found myself frantically looking for six credits I could register for on such short notice. It was pure luck that I found a seat in “Intensive Beginning Italian”, and when I clicked “submit” on NOVO I had no idea how far studying Italian would take me.

My residual Spanish from high school helped a little, but learning Italian from the beginning was still a challenge I was excited to face every day in Professoressa Serafini’s class. By the end of our first week, Beginning Italian was my favorite course. Over that fall semester, I continued to love the content and collaborative learning in our class, and I found myself looking for even more outside of it. I began watching Italian TV on Netflix and adding the Italian songs Professoressa showed us to my playlists. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind when I registered for another Italian class in the spring, then eventually a minor in Italian Studies (that will most likely become a supplementary major), and an application for Summer Language Abroad. There is still so much of the Italian language for me to learn, and countless cultural phenomena for me to observe. I am so grateful for my admittedly impulsive decision to study Italian and all the opportunities for growth it has introduced to me.

Five summers ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony and perform throughout the country. We stopped in Siena for a day trip on our way from Florence to Rome, taking a tour of some of the many historical sites and cooling off with a gelato in the famous Piazza del Campi. I was fifteen years old, I knew no Italian besides “ciao”, and I had no idea I would ever be returning to Siena, never mind studying there for five weeks. Now, I look back on that trip and cringe. While I appreciated every second I had in Italy, I now know that there was so much I was missing out on through my limited viewpoint. This time, I am going to do everything I can to mitigate this cringeworthiness by speaking in Italian, looking beyond the major landmarks, and studying the sites I visit in depth so I may truly understand their gravity. It is likely that by the end of the summer, I will look back at June 2nd, 2023 me and cringe just as hard. More than anything, I hope to grow my cultural competency, step out of my touristy comfort zone, and expand my understanding of how culture shapes place and place shapes culture. In a week everything is going to change, and I couldn’t be more excited.