GL 350 week 6: I wanna live while I'm young

As many of you know I have been living in Rome for the past six weeks. Every weekend I was given the opportunity to see other cities besides Rome. For instance, I saw Paris, Venice, London, Florence, Dublin, and Sorrento. Next Friday I will begin to make my journey home and I am sad to say goodbye to my life here. At this moment I am confused to whether I miss home, or I just miss simple luxuries that I have at home, such as driving my car or going to a grocery store whenever I want to. Looking back I wouldn’t want to change anything about my experience. Over the weekend I read The talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith, and I forced to remember the little details about my trip. Before my adventure to Castel Gandolfo, Italy I lived in New York, and I was not a big proponent of change in plans at all. 

After being away from home and familiar places I have changed but in a good way. As Highsmith says, “He had improved, at least, since he left New York, and would improve more” (p. 232). Everyday I face a new challenge that I have to work through and I have to make the best of every situation so I don’t ruin my experience. On our second day in Rome, we learned how some business have a siesta during the day. I had never heard of a business closing during the day to take a break before that day. Frankly it was weird to me and I didn’t understand what was happening. Now that my trip is over I have come to terms with the fact of “places closing from noon to four sometimes” (p.47). On my first free weekend, I was scared out of my mind to travel to Paris with two other girls. I was just getting comfortable with the Italian culture and here I was about to throw myself into the French culture. After all Paris “was the atmosphere that he had always heard about, crooked streets, gray-fronted houses with skylights, noisy car horns, and everywhere public urinals and columns with brightly colored theater notices on them” (p.121). Everything looked the same to me, the architecture, the streets, the metro, and even the restaurants. 

Our next weekend was a school trip to Venice, Italy. “American tourists raved over Venice” (p. 184), but why? I hated Venice for the most part. The only way to get from one place to the other was by ferry or walking. Not to mention it was supposed to be flooded why we were there. Luckily, the rain held off until Sunday but then San Marco’s Square was almost completely flooded. “The weather was bad, but Capri was Italy” (p.177), or in this case Venice was Italy. Everyone in my group was making the best of the situation because we were in Italy, the best place on Earth. Looking back on that weekend now, I think we over looked how miserable some of us were because we were in a “honeymoon” phase about being in Italy. I also learned about the hotel policies this weekend. In Europe, it is common courtesy to leave your one room key at the desk so your roommates can come and go as they please. It was weird every time we returned to the hotel we “collected the key at the desk” (p. 107), and proceeded onward. In my opinion it is a waste of time since I was always with my roommate. 

  I think my favorite part of my trip so far was experiencing Dublin with my friends. Since I am almost a 100% Irish, it was cool to be in the country where my ancestors once lived. I learned that visitors can bring their ancestry information to a building in Dublin and trace down their family roots. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I would have done it if I had the information with me. Most people believe, “Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe” (198), frankly I disagree. I think Italy is beautiful and all but nothing can compare to the atmosphere in Ireland. Everyone was so nice and happy all the time and they spoke English! My biggest downfall this trip has been the language barrier. It is challenging trying to speak the little Italian I know to the Italians in Rome, which is probably why I find Ireland so irresistible. If I could hop on a plane right now and go back, I would. 

Although at the moment we are finishing out our semester abroad strongly in Italy. I am beginning to connect the information we have learned at tours with what I have learned about in school along with information from other tours. It’s amazing how everything is connected one way or another around Rome.  After reading The talented Mr. Ripley, I am remembering the small details that I so easily forgot about. There was the first train ride into Rome, the first metro ride to the colosseum, our first journey on the crowded bus 64, and other things that have escaped my thoughts. I think when I get home I am just going to want to come back to Italy to the family that I have spent the last two months with. I think this trip has defiantly brought me out of my little shell not including my dislike of food. I cannot wait for my American food since I am a very picky person. If anything I have grown a greater appreciation for the differences between people and cultures since America is almost all the same. Everywhere that I have been throughout Europe have been the same but different since the countries were established on different grounds and different beliefs. 

I will never forget this experience or the people I shared it with. I will also not take my life for granted back home because according to how most Italians live, I demonstrate a very luxurious life style. I also learned that I can live without the little things in life like cars and T.V’s since they have not been available to me for the past two months. The one thing that has drove me crazy was my cell phone not working. If I wanted to talk to my family I had to make sure there was money on my prepaid phone or that they called me back. In the end I learned that these are all materialistic things that people throughout the world go without everyday. It’s almost nice to “think about the meaning of possessions, and why I (he) liked to live in Europe” (p. 240). Living in Europe is like putting life on hold and just enjoying life for a while. Things like Gucci, Prada, ferrari, and things will still be there in the end and there’s no point wasting time getting caught up in having the best of the best when it’s not needed to survive. It’s like Danilo said the first week we were here about knock-off purses and goods, if he has the money he will get the real thing, if he doesn’t he will simply wait until he can afford it. Who knows, maybe I’ll start living like an Italian in America and only survive on the bigger things in life.