• Cafes with ice cream and pastries galore were scattered all over the place! Packaged ice cream is pretty much dominated by Unilever's Italy brand "Auguri" (which uses the Good Humor logo)
  
• The main tourism targets in the general area that we went to (apart from Naples itself) are the Palace of Caserta and the castle in Montesarchio (I don't know if it has a name); if you go to the Caserta prepare for lots of walking (in the courtyard)
  
• The time period around August 15 (the day of the Assumption of Mary) is a major celebration here (for that reason). In Montesarchio there was a several-day-long festival with street vendors, carnival rides, and other festivities.
  
• Piracy was the norm for getting CDs and video games: all my cousin's PS1 games and all the music CDs I wanted were pirated, the word they used was facsimile. I have no idea why, and I wasn't too happy about it (I preferred authentic stuff). I ... actually did not call it piracy at the time, not knowing it was that =P I don't remember if DVD movies were also pirated, but I did have access to a few DVDs in one relative's house.
  
• Television: you have a bunch of channels, beginning with the RAI triad (like the BBC triad) and moving on in other ways. I forget if everything was digital or analogue but it was clearly over-air (i.e. not satellite/cable). Teletext is still a thing. One day, I actually did run into SpongeBob, Pokemon (I remember the details of this one episode but no one I've told it to in the English-speaking world knows anything so I'll get to it later), and Hamtaro....
  
• Mentos in playing card deck-sized boxes! I need to get one of those boxes again...
  
• More TV: music video channels are still a thing. There were several different genres being represented there, but all of it was music made recently (at the time).
  
• Pizzas are small (think like big chain pizza nowadays small) and made to order (you can get a cookie pizza with Nutella spread if you want). There was one place with a humorous placemat showing a caveman trying to bite a wheel and deciding to use it as a pizza tray instead but I can't find it now.
  
• Here's one song that was popular at the time and whose CD I had a copy of when I came back (this guy's stuff is generally good); I don't quite remember other popular songs from the time but you can use that one as a time reference for searching
  
• Meal structure is typically breakfast in the morning, then a giant family dinner-sized lunch midday, then some quick cooked thing late at night. This wasn't unusual to me as one of my aunts here does the same thing in their household (I didn't know they had actually brought that tradition over though!), but it might surprise you.
  
• Breakfast cereal offerings (I remember this specifically for some reason, possibly because in an even EARLIER visit I remember a box of American cereal promoting some toy based on Hand from The Addams Family) and sodas, and possibly some of the other stuff I don't remember, are the same. We went to a supermarket once in the trip I am talking about; I forget what it was called.
  

Originally posted by devin

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For a while during college I had been seriously thinking about studying abroad for some time, though I didn't really know where, and after I found about this I really started kicking myself for not knowing about (and taking) the opportunity. I probably could have spent a few years somewhere like Berlin, Rotterdam, or Nijmegen instead of Florida, and have come out of it a lot happier, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20.

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Originally posted by Nicole

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So we went to London and ate Mexican food. Woo!

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Originally posted by andlabs

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Pizzas are small (think like big chain pizza nowadays small) and made to order (you can get a cookie pizza with Nutella spread if you want). There was one place with a humorous placemat showing a caveman trying to bite a wheel and deciding to use it as a pizza tray instead but I can't find it now.

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Originally posted by devin

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Originally posted by FieryIce

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Originally posted by devin

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For a while during college I had been seriously thinking about studying abroad for some time, though I didn't really know where, and after I found about this I really started kicking myself for not knowing about (and taking) the opportunity. I probably could have spent a few years somewhere like Berlin, Rotterdam, or Nijmegen instead of Florida, and have come out of it a lot happier, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20.

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You could still do grad school abroad if you have plans of doing that! I am doing an undergrad year in China, and there's a good chance I might also do grad school abroad!

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I thought about it briefly when I was still doing undergrad, but I don't really have any incentive to continue past a bachelor's in CS (unless I wanted to go eventually from industry to academia for some reason, which I really don't).

I figure I could still study abroad if I ever get tired of computers for the last time and decide to blow four more years on a brand new degree, but I'm not quite financially secure enough to consider trading in my entire career just yet...

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Originally posted by devin

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I'd love to some day, given the chance. Also given me magically not being too lazy to move outside of the state. Also given any European firm actually wanting to hire and relocate Americans for some reason :V

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Originally posted by Gabu

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In all honesty, the fact that my family is too poor to even go to a nearby city should be evidence enough that any trip longer than 50 miles is like traveling to another country to me. :U

I should say though that I did experience some level of culture shock when I lived in San Francisco. I guess it has to do partially from going to suburban life to urban life, but SF overall feels much safer and has an amazing transportation system (meaning, being able to go anywhere). Chicago, on the other hand, while I like it, there are some areas/neighborhoods that aren't safe to walk at night (and in some cases, probably not at all (I mean, one average sized Chicago neighborhood alone had more murders in a year than ALL of SF)), and while the transportation system is fairly extensive in the city itself (which is also unusually huge), a lot of people live outside the city limits aka Chicagoland, and it becomes much more of a pain in the ass to get anywhere.

Plus as far as I could tell, the big social issues of SF were the homeless problem and the rent problem, whereas here, it's major problems in violence and gang activity (and, which may be part of the more noticeable problem, the poverty and education problem in the city proper). I mean, people in the suburbs here will literally shit their pants if a crime happens in their respective town.

Okay I'm starting to fucking ramble but I guess the point is that SF seems like a much friendlier and accepting place where getting to anywhere is a breeze whereas Chicago has some pretty mean streets and if you're trying to get somewhere outside of the city it's such a large pain in the ass that you're expected to have a car.

Okay even shorter SF feels so much more of an open and accessible city than Chicago for a number of reasons and I guess I'm not used to that?

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