kylecrowe
Before I left for Rome I thought I would be updating this blog a few times a week and letting everyone know about all my adventures. A few days into the semester I pulled a complete 180. I didn’t want to waste any time sitting in front of a computer summarizing what I had done, when there was so much left I wanted to do. While I still am not going to be giving daily updates I am going to update more than once a month. It also seems I won’t be traveling everywhere with Robert Sefer so I may actually have to keep people updated on my whereabouts. I’m still struggling on how I can put my experience thus far into words, so for now I just have a bunch of random thoughts that I’ve been meaning to write about. Maybe in the future this will be more regular, but like the Italian lifestyle it will probably be unorganized, unscheduled and unreliable.
· Anything and everything transportation related was the first thing I noticed in Rome. Car drivers are completely insane, ignoring basically all traffic laws. Don’t even try to cross the street. People park literally wherever they want, on the sidewalk of a busy street, in the middle of piazza, or just right in the middle of the street. Our daily tram ride to school is no better, as people cram themselves in the monorail like car to get wherever they need to go. More often than not someone else’s exhaled air the direct air I am inhaling because our mouths are one inch apart. Also, sneezing is ten times more gross.
· Every Roman owns at least 3 dogs, and 5 for homeless people. Dog owners don’t clean up after their dogs either, so way more attention is put into where you are stepping. Somehow all my shoes are still clean.
· Beer has always been my drink of choice. You are unable to buy a case of beer in Rome. You can buy individual cans, maybe even a 2 or 3-pack if you’re lucky. I’m craving a 30-rack of high life like never before. I guess it’s good because I’ve begun to enjoy wine more.
· PDA is not frowned upon at all here, in fact it may be encouraged, I’m not really sure. Either way, I usually find it gross.
· I’ve always wanted to follow a European soccer team passionately, but could never choose who. More or less by default, that team is now AS Roma. We went to our first match a few weeks ago and had a great time. I’ve got tickets to two more huge matches this semester against AC Milan and Inter. Maybe at those games I can actually learn the chants and not just yell noises.
· I’ve visited Florence, Prague and Venice thus far. I fell in love with each one while I was there. At each city I’ve been with someone who said they’ve wanted to come back. While I would love to travel back to those cities one day, I highly doubt I will. I thoroughly enjoy going to each new place and to me it doesn’t make sense to repeat any when there are so many other cities/countries/continents I hope to see in my life.
· Whether you’re at McDonalds, a small shop or a big department store cashiers expect you to pay in exact change. Needless to say I get daily dirty looks from these cashiers as I hand them 20 Euro bills.
· I have barely watched any TV at all. We watched the Super Bowl on Rob’s laptop via slingbox and I’ve watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Lost online. I normally watch a few hours a day at home, but really am not missing it at all here, except for Baseball Tonight…I’ve been having dreams involving Karl Ravech, not good.
· The word “home” has taken on a different meaning in the last 4 weeks. For most of my life Elmhurst was my one and only home. I couldn’t really call Champaign home until midway through my first semester sophomore year, which is when I finally settled into my own apartment. However, the past two Sunday’s I’ve been traveling back to Rome after a busy weekend and thought “I can’t wait to get home.” It probably won’t make my Mom happy to call anywhere but our house in Elmhurst home, but I feel privileged to comfortably call three different locations my Home.
