Arrival (Lost in translation)

At October the 5th I left the cold and rainy Holland for the sunny Napoli (Italy) to do my final internship and thesis in Neuroscience.

I come from a small town called Lelystad and wanted to experience a whole new part of Bioresearch in the field of Neuroscience and tried to do it offboard to experience a whole new culture.

I don’t know how to speak Italian so my communication would be in English, but when I arrived, I was a bit shocked cause everything works differently and I noticed it immediately at my arrival.

I came with 40 kg of luggage trying to find the bus stop, after a 10-minute search I finally found the bus and asked in very poor Italian (cause most people don’t understand the English language well here) and asked for the Via Duomo. The first didn’t understand what I was saying cause I pronounced it all wrong but after 3 hours of riding in the bus (it was like being canned in a can of sardines) and walking through the streets with still 40 kg of luggage I arrived at the Duomo where at the church I met with the person who had an apartment for me.

The first thing I noticed was how big the city was and trying to get out of the crowded bus was a task on its own but people literally pushed me with my big orange suitcase out off the bus and I thanked them for that, cause although they didn’t understand me they tried to help me anyways.

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There I was at the street of Napoli at the Duomo street where I was looking for a church.

There are more than 300 churches in Napoli and about 3 or 4 in this street, so it took me a while to arrive at the right church.

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Finally, there I sat down, took a cigarette and thought: “phew! part 1 is done”. Now I must find the right person.

When the person arrived, he took me to the apartment, I placed my luggage and lied down on the bed thinking: "yes, I’m finally at my home and relaxed".

At 18.00 I had an appointment at the University where I would do my internship, I got there by the metro and asked which building I had to go to.

After 2 hours spending at the neurochirurgie and psychiatry department, I just gave up, I went back to the apartment, mailed the professor, apologised and went to bed looking at the sky and I thought: "you know what although the first day didn’t go quite as I wanted I’m just going to relax, let it all sink in and I’m going to enjoy every minute I’m here and I would try to learn a lot".

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