Before coming to Italy, I had no idea what to expect with the culture and how everybody plays a role in society here. It is easy to judge ones status based off of what they wear or what they're doing. While being in Italy, all of my friends/classmates and I have noticed that nearly everybody, mainly Italians smoke no matter where they are or what they are doing. This is something that is so unusual for us and very hard for us to understand... well actually to be quite honest, we think it's disgusting. Some of us choose to be nonassertive accommodators and ignore it, thinking that it is part of the culture and move on with it. While most of us aggressively separate and have chosen not to accept it and constantly bring it up wherever we go. Although I, myself, am usually okay with different culture customs or activities, the smoking has definitely impacted certain things and how I enjoy it such as a nice dinner outside or being able to enjoy the scenery in a places such as a garden or museum.
A lot of us are very fast to judge certain things. For example, I took a picture (right above) of this man that looked like he was rolling a substance up in a piece of paper (you can probably guess what we thought was happening). We thought this was the funniest yet craziest thing ever (don't get be wrong, we were totally amazed that this was happening, just shocked) that he was just doing it on some steps right outside in front of everybody. We were absolutely blown away by it. After being here for a month, it turns out that it is actually cheaper to buy cigarettes in a way where you have to roll it up in order to smoke it, so this man was most likely just making a cigarette. This goes for so many things here in Italy. Although it isn't our culture to do certain things, we are so quick to judge and aggressively separate from what is being handed to us. I knew that when I came here, I absolutely needed to go about things with an open mind and I would not be able to live without this mentality. Although this gets difficult at times because the norm here in Italy is not my own, it does help to just think "it is what it is", ACCEPT certain aspects, and move on. It makes life so much more enjoyable and you start to actually learn what is right in front of you.