From Louisville to Luhvul

Hey there!

I'm Sara, from Milan (Italy) and I have now been living here in the States, precisely in Louisville, for more than 2 months. Why? And, above all, why Louisville? Well, this is a question that I asked myself a lot of times and that a lot of people asked me. And, to be honest, I didn't really have an answer until a couple of months ago.

I won a scholarship at my University in Milan to come and attend the fall semester at Bellarmine University. I was very happy and excited about the idea, but I must admit that the first thing I did was to locate Louisville on the map: ah...Kentucky, I thought...ok, so I am going to be in the middle of nowhere, between field, horses and rural people! Despite my ignorance and stereotypical background, I was still very excited to come. And when people in Italy asked where I would go, I didn't even know how to pronounce the name of the city, so I would just say "Kentucky" and looked at their disappointed expressions!

On August 3 I left Italy with my fiance to come here, but before, we stopped and visited Washington D.C. and Chicago. I loved them and was afraid of being disappointed by the huge difference between those cities and here.

Well, my doubts would be swept away soon: when I finally arrived in Louisville, on August 11, I found myself pleasantly surprised and I immediately felt at home. I discovered a warm, nice and lively city, where everybody always takes the time to stop and say "Hello" to you. While knowing the different part of Louisville and meeting people, I also started to pronounce its name as it deserved to be pronounced!:) My experience at Bellarmine is beyond expectations and the same can be said about my internship. In fact, I wanted to find an internship which could give me the opportunity to transform the theory of my major (Business Communication) into practice, but also to apply my international background. So what could have been better than Sister Cities of Louisville?! Thanks to Bellarmine and to Joanne this has been possible and I am now taking the most of my experience here.

I will surely have something to tell people when I go back to my country and, more important, I now have not one, but a lot of answers to my initial questions. Behind a simple change in pronunciation, a much deeper change has been and is happening in my knowledge about this little part of the world and in myself.