Napoli

I attended an AIESEC national conference in Napoli on October 6-8. It was hectic getting there for sure. We (Carla and I) were going to take the bus to Messina and meet Roberto, but that day was a strike for some buses. So we had to take the train. Messina is the city that you take the ferry to the mainland of Italy. Roberto lives there but attends school in Catania a couple times a week. So we caught our train, met Roberto, got on the ferry, then got on our train to Napoli at about 9:30 PM. Our expected arrival time in Napoli was 4:30 AM. Our assigned seats were in a cabin with 3 others so it was full. Wanting to sleep comfortably, we searched for an empty cabin. After 2 tries we finally found one that no one was using and were able to recline all 6 chairs to make one huge bed and tried to sleep as much as possible during the night. It was still uncomfortable but we managed.

I had heard terrible things about Napoli. Every single person I talked to told me to be careful and to keep an eye on all of my bags and pockets. We arrived in the Napoli train station just before 5 AM. The streets were fairly deserted but I still felt uncomfortable. In the train station there police everywhere, but it still didn’t feel safe. I could see people walking or standing around in the station for no reason. They would all watch you as you came off the train. Even Roberto kept one hand in his pocket while we walked through. We found our bus to get to where the conference was being held and made it there safe and sound.

I slept for about 2 hours in a real bed then got up for breakfast. Apparently the night before some people didn’t go to bed until 5:30 AM. You could see it in their eyes when they showed up for breakfast. Then I spent the first half of the day in leadership sessions, which was all spoken in Italian and I didn’t understand all of it so I don’t think I got much from it. The second half of the day I met about 7 other AIESEC interns: Nema and another guy who I can’t remember his name right now (Canada), John (Brussels, Belgium), Darren (London, England), Marco (Porto, Portugal), Katryn (Bremen, Germany), and Peter (Ostrava, Czech Republic). I tried to see if Peter knew Tereza but he said he recently joined AIESEC so he didn’t know her. We all talked about our experiences so far and our culture shock. They were all very fun.

That night we had a global village where every country or AIESEC LC brought food, drinks and other items from their countries. It was one big party with music and dancing, great times. I brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Oreo cookies, Nutter Butters, and maps and postcards from the US and Oregon. Italians don’t really know what peanut butter is, let alone a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A lot of people liked it, and how could you not? It’s sooo good. I loved all the different cheeses and meats there were. And I got to try cherry beer from Belgium which is awesome!

The next day after breakfast we had roll call, then a small short session, then packed up and left. I got home around 11PM Sunday night.