My Italian Experience Abroad with AFS

Il Finito

2009-08-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

So again, apologies for not posting very often. I've been quite busy lately at the end of the trip. Now I'm home (bye Italy! ): ), and here I will recap some of my final adventures in the final week or two with my host family, the end-of-exchange two days in Roma with AFS, and the trip home. There were two big feste (parties), and in between and omnipresent was the beach.

Firstly, there was Francesca's birthday and subsequent surprise party. She turned 20 and when I woke up that morning, she was gone from the house to get a haircut and Romanina told me that we were all going over to Roberto's (her boyfriend) house along with friends to throw her a surprise party. I'd never been a part of one before, but it was quite exciting. We all went over early to prepare Roberto's yard with party streamers and set out the food and when francesca arrived, we all jumped out of the garage and shouted "Buon Compleanno", which is "Happy birthday" in Italian. She was so surprised and happy that she almost cried, it was so sweet. The night was really interesting, I talked to one of Fra's friends and her cousin about music and movies (or rather tried to, because my Italian leaves much to be desired) and I met a girl who had lived in England for a few years and spoke flawless english. Mixing in the crowds at parties in foreign countries took some getting used to though. When you can't communicate you just sort of end up on the fringe of a group and stand there awkwardly nodding your head, like "That's nice, I wish I could understand". I also perfected my I-can't-understand-the-joke-but-I'm-sure-it's-hilarious-so-I'm-trying-to-seem-genuine laugh. But despite the awkwardness, people were welcoming and truly interested to know about me and the place I live. It's always important to remember that whenever you feel awkward or uncertain, people are usually trying to help you out rather than make it worse for you. They generally mean well.

Almost every morning for the last two weeks of the homestay, Romanina and Francesca and I went to the beach in Latina or the one in another nearby city. I remember that at the beginning of the trip, Francesca and I were nearly the same skin colour, but through the days I watched her get steadily tanner, while I burned and burned and retained my ever-pale skin. The night I got off the plane at the San Diego airport, the second thing my mom said to me was "Wow, you didn't get tan". Always good to get a second opinion. Anyway, the beaches I visited were very similar to American beaches in many ways. The sand was more grey and brown, versus just a white-grey like it is in the USA, but otherwise they were very alike in appearance. But the Italians told me that the water at a lot of beaches there is pretty unsanitary and some people consider it unsafe for swimming. The sun was hot hot hot and it made me appreciate the healing powers of the sea itself. And air conditioning. And rain.

One afternoon on the last week of my stay, Romanina took me to visit one of her friends in a neighboring city. Her friend's son Daniele was my age and a total rocker, which was really cool because I hadn't met many Italians my age yet and none that liked my type of music. A few of his friends and his girlfriend Martina came over (Romanina knew them too because they all do musicals together) and they spoke some english and I watched them play guitar and we chatted, debated, and compared notes about music. It was so crazy, they all had gone to the same Metallica Death Magnetic Tour concert as me! Later they showed me some videos and photos from the concert and it reminded me of when I went. They were really cool kids and I wish I'd met them sooner, because I was to leave in a few days.

Lastly, the day before I left, my host family threw me a going-away party. It was really sweet (although awkward at times as usual). At 8 PM people started to arrive: Francesca's grandmother (who makes excellent, unsurpassed homemade pasta) and cousin, Andrea and Rafaela (two AFS volunteer friends of Romanina, who had gone with us places in Rome), Francesca's boyfriend Roberto and her best friend Veronica (who's birthday it was, by some crazy coincidence), some neighbors and other family friends that I'd met, and lastly the fun rocker kids I'd met a few days earlier. It was a fun night and some people surprised me and brought me a going-away present, which was really sweet and unexpected. In my usual clumsy way, I awkwardly spilled wine on my new Italian jeans, but the blunder was quickly righted with a change of clothes. Both joyful and teary (because I was leaving and I'd never see many of those people again), it was a fun night and I felt loved at the end.

Now I'll tell you about the final two days in Rome with AFS. On Thursday afternoon, Romanina, Francesca, Luca and I left for Termini train station in Rome for some last-minute gift shopping and then to meet AFS. I said a final tearful goodbye to my amazing host family and welcomed them to come stay with us anytime in America, and then I was whisked off to the hotel in Rome (where we would be staying for two days for sightseeing and the end-of-trip orientation) with a few AFS volunteers and a small group of us American exchange students. I reunited with my AFS buddies and we had so many stories to tell each other about our trips; each of our individual experiences was so unique. In Rome, it was... painfully hot (fa caldo). But despite the melting heat, I wouldn't have traded in that opportunity to see Vatican City and St. Peter's church, the Colosseum, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon for anything. Each famous landmark and historical site was breathtaking and it was almost surreal to be seeing them. Over and over again I found myself thinking, "This is really it. I'm really seeing this". Rome is such an ancient city overflowing with culture and art. It was beautiful.

After our Rome stay, we embarked on the longest successive chain of return flights I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing. As a group we flew for 2 hours from Rome to Zurich, and then took a 9-hour flight (thankfully there were movies! And Swiss chocolate!) from Zurich to New York. At New York, we AFS'ers all split up to catch our domestic flights to our respective America cities. Tom and I were on the same flight and we had to hurriedly recheck our luggage, say a hurried goodbye to our American friends, and rush through security to catch our 6-hour flight to San Diego (which we barely made on time). Finally, after about 24 hours of travel, we arrived in San Diego at 10:30 PM and there I finally met up with my real family and went home.

In these two days since I've been home, it has seemed both like I've never left and like I've been away for awhile. It's taking a bit of re-adjusting to reorient myself with life here, and it seemed almost unnatural to hear everyone speaking prefect english and that they could understand me when I spoke fast. My AFS friend Emma says she still speaks slowly out of habit, like we all had to do in Italy when we spoke English. I knew I was back in America when I accidently said "Grazie" instead of "Thank you" to the flight attendant as I stepped off the plane at San Diego and he gave me an funny look.

I miss Italy a lot (especially the people and the food) but in some ways it's great to be back in America. I think I learned to step outside of my comfort zone (a boundary that has been quite hard for me to cross in the past) and have been the grateful recipient of the unbelievable kindness of strangers. I have been to Europe and back, spoken in a tongue I knew little about, got lost and then found in the middle of Rome, learned the meaning of jet lag, made friends with people halfway across the world, ate some of the most savory food on the earth, braved temperatures that rival the sun itself, and conquered my fear of the unfamiliar and unknown. This trip had left me with, more than anything, the desire to travel more, see more, be more. In college I plan to live for a semester or a year abroad, and fully learn the language and become a part of the culture of wherever I choose to go. Places to go and things to see. The world is wide open.

Ciao, amici!

Kelsey

The Beginning

2009-07-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Sorry It's taken me so long to write - these past two weeks have been quite busy while I've been getting into the swing of things here in italia. So now that I've gotten settled and there's a bit of a lull in the excitement, I'll update you on the trip thus far, tell you about a few of my adventures, and reflect on the inomparible beauty of the old architecture, gelato, art, people, food, gelato, cities, castles, and gelato.

So, at the beginning, I took a plane with Megan and Tom (two of the other AFS'ers going to Italy as well) to NY for a two-day orientation at a university campus. When we arrived at the campus along with a small group we met at the JFK airport, we met up with other groups of AFS'ers (some going off to interesting less-traveled areas of the globe like malaysia and parts of africa). We were all assigned rooms with roomates also going to our host countries so we could make some friends who would be going to the language camp with us. This was when my bad luck streak started. Actually, that's debateable. Tom thought it started when I lost every round of Jeopardy on the plane to Megan (who was guessing the answer right every time) and Megan thought it started with me being late waking up the day we left for the plane to NY. Whichever the case, we could all agree that I was the victim of something of a supernatural misfortune that was prowling the corridors of our temporary NY home.

It started with a broken roomkey and a missing bed. I was assigned a room in a quadruple suite with one roomate in my room. However, when I tried the lock I realized that my key was broken. Not only that, but when my roomate opened the door for me, it appeared to contain only a single bed. Curious... curious. I took the problem(s) to the volunteers though and they eventually worked it out so that I was alone in a suit on a totally unoccupied floor of the building. This meant that I would be lonely. This meant that I would be forgotton in the morning for the wakeup call and I would be late. However, this also meant that I would be forgotton at night and thus have no curfew. Anyway, in the midst of this I somehow lost my purse. So I went on a purse hunt which eventually led me to the security building where I found a helping hand in a hefty policeman with a funny New Yawk accent. Together, we looked though security tapes to find out exactly when and where I had lost the purse. We traced the purse-less me through dinner at the dining hall, through a meeting on the grass, and through the elevator until we fiinally found that I had gone up to my ex-room with the purse and come down empty-handed. So I thanked the policeman and went and found the purse in my old room. How simple and silly. How quintessentially me. Then of course, the next morning I was late to the meeting because my cell phone alarm was set for PM rather than AM and then no one came to wake me. But I kept up a good attitude and a smile stretched painfully across my face (just kidding!) and the stay in NY was really not all that bad. Megan and Tom and a few of our new friends made it fun and we made a laughingstock of my misfortunes together.

At the end of the NY orientation, each country's students left NY to catch their respective planes at different times the next day. When all of us Italy AFS'ers got off the plane to Roma, they split us into two groups: Southern and Northern Italy. Here we said "arrevidercci" to Megan, because she went to the south.

We took a bus to Toscana and arrived at the most bellissima villa I have ever seen. It was ancient and crumbling in some parts, but still sound and sturdy as a whole. On the walls were multiple layers of wash, which faded into one another and, along with the dusty bricks cemented together that peered out from within, suggested the fantastic age of the stone beneath. The villa looked out onto a shaded courtyard in which we had orientations and group games and activities and went exploring during the day. At night, we would sit with friends on the stone circle beneath the trees or on the wall that boardered the road, and tell stories or just talk amongst ourselves. We ate like kings every day at the Villa and outside of it; the gelato, the pizza, the spaghetti... They were all Buonissimo.

Some days we took half-day trips to places like Firenze (Florence), and Siena; neighboring cities brimming with culture, history, and beauty. The architecture of the old buildings was mind-blowing. The more opulent structures (especially in stunning Firenze) were embedded with gold and carved into stone an ancient gothic style, showcasing subtle details of unfathomable complexity. Each spiral, twirl, and spike was delicate but powerful and hinted at the vast skill ancd persistance of its artists and builders. Within many of the scaffoldings and terraces there stood statues of royalty and gods, standing to attention and keeping a watchful eye on the city below. For me, to stand humbly in the shadow of such towering masterpeices was as if to be transported back to an older century.

I should probably get on to telling you about my arrival here in Roma and Latina, and when I met my host family. A group of us going to this area took a train from Firenze down to Roma at the end of our week-long stay in Toscana. When I got off the train, my host sister Francesca and two middle-aged volunteers I did not know were there waiting for me. We had pizza for lunch and then took another train to Latina and Went to my family's apartment where I met my host brother Luca and later my host mother Romanina, when she got home from work. The whole family is in love with the USA, which is funny since most Americans aren't quite that enthusiastic about America. They also love Obama, and dislike Burlusconi. In Romanina's words, "Burlusconi is not our president". And they wish Obama was.

Since my arrival here in Latina, I've been having a great time with my host family and getting adjusted to life in Italy. I've been going out most nights with Francesca and her friends, enjoying - no, passionately savoring, the fantastic Italian cuisine, and familiarizing myself with the city and it's way of life. One day, Romanina and Francesca and two AFS volunteers that are friends of hers took me to see to a nearby castle. For me, when I first stepped into the foyer of the main hall, I was chilled to the bone as the reality of it all sunk in. As we passed through the rooms (Francesca translating the words of our Italian guide for me) I could just picture the women with long hair and flowing gowns sitting in the windowseats passing the time watching the city below; the servants gossiping in their commonroom and preparing the old 14th century table for a feast; the cook setting a slaughtered beast on the draining board so its blood would be washed away with the rain. But what struck me the most was when we went up on top of the castle via a small stone passageway through the corridors and saw the territory of warefare. It was then that I truely understood that a castle is desgined for the sole purpose of protecting itself. As we passed through the rivets at the top I noticed receeding trianglar holes that were undoubtably meant to support gunfire, and I could imagine the soldiers rushing back and forth and twisting through the dank, cramped corridors underground on a stormy night to defend the castle and its inhabitants from invaders. I could see them pouring molten tar down the chute and throwing captives into the prisons and letting down the spiked gate with a thunderous crash on the heads of their attackers. The castle was a weapon and a sheild. And it had fullfilled its purose because it was still standing today. It had grown creaky and silent now with age, but inside there lurked a vivid, surreal energy that spoke of its past.

Overall, these past two weeks have been utterly amazing. This is really cheezy, but I feel inredibly lucky and blessed to be here right now. I know that many will never have this chance, and I am deeply grateful. I've been talking to my host family and other Italians a lot about America and I learn how it's both similar and different to Italy. Unsurprisingly, I've been using the phrase "In America..." a lot with the Italians. And literally every time I say it, I'm tempted to rattle off one of those "In Soviet Russia..." jokes. Oh, American humor.

So anyway, the trip has been... realy incredible so far, and right now I'm looking forward to a day at the beach tomorrow with Romanina and Francesca. I hope all of you are doing well also, and I will post again soon!

Ciao!

-Kelsey

Pre-Departure

2009-06-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! On the 26th of June, 2009 (or a week from yesterday), I am leaving with AFS abroad to go to Italy, and I couldn't be more excited. This is going to be quite different from anything I've experienced thus far and I'm also a little apprehensive because I've never travelled solo before. And that's just one more reason why this experience will be fantastic! I'm really looking forward to this chance at living a different life and being a part of the Italian culture this summer. Earlier, I was granted $2000 from AFS' with the Global Leaders scholarship and this is really what has made this trip possible for me, and my gratitude could fill a country.

So as it turns out, I'm really not very familiar with Italian right now, but my mom has gotten me some Italian tapes which I've just loaded onto my Ipod to prepare with. Only now do I finally have the time to listen to them (because there's been seemingly endless loads of schoolwork, tests, and college stuff to get out of the way) but I'll be sure to study up this week and next! My 4 years of Spanish at school should help a bit as I hear Italian is similar in some ways to Español, but I know I can't count on it get me by. Also, I have a Culture-Shock Italy book (I hear these are really helpful) to learn some of the biggest differences between our culture and Italy's so I can avoid miscommunication with my host family and do my best not to trip over any cultural faux-pas (though I know I probably won't be able to avoid them entirely!). Lastly, of course, I've got a handy little English to Italian pocket dictionary, which my parents say I'll get a lot of use out of in the coming weeks.

Speaking of host families, I just got mine a couple weeks ago. I have a host mother who seems very welcoming, an older host sister (who I've had been chatting with through email this past week and who is very affable and entertaining) and an older host brother (who plays guitar like me!). My host mom and sister speak English quite well, though I do hope they speak Italian with me so I can learn it. I can't wait to meet them. Back when my mom and dad went abroad - before the days of email - the first time they talked to their host family was the day they met them in their respective host countries. Technology is so great; I've gotten to know my family a little before I leave and now I won't feel like a total stranger.

Looking toward friday!