After that I decided I had way too much time on my hands and that instead of getting a good grade in my marketing class I should spend an hour switching rooms with my friend so that I’m now in a single dorm room. That happened.
Tuesday was my “big day”. We started our new class, survey of art and architecture. I’m not sure what I expected but it definitely wasn’t what I got on Tuesday. To start with our Roman professor was an Italian turned California PhD dude with bare feet. I instantly took a liking to him because he embraced the controversial and asked that we really think about what we’re trying to communicate. He went around and asked us what our favorite piece of art was in Rome so far and every time anyone gave a cop out answer or “it’s beautiful/interesting” or any “insert vague terminology here” he would challenge the speaker to figure out why it was interesting, beautiful, and so on. He asked me what I wanted to be when I was older and I told him my immediate plan was the Peace Corps. We got to talking and he was asking about my plans for my career. What I liked the most is that the big question he posed to me was not how I would help other countries but how they would help me. This is definitely a professor I’m going to enjoy.
After class I promise I had ambitious plans to study. I really did. But then Renoli poked her head in my new room and invited me to read over notes in Villa Borghese, one of my new favorite places in the whole world. So we went! It was a beautiful day and we sat on the grass.. And proceeded to talk about how study abroad has changed our perspective on life in general and ourselves personally. I got to share how study abroad has completely altered my ranking system in life. Most notably my relationship and attitude toward institutions like government, my church, and my education. We then talked about social responsibility and why we felt called to do things in our lives.. So basically my Marketing exam just kept on taking a back seat to the more important things in the world!
After our talk we both sat atop a wall that overlooked a bed of trees and we had a beautiful view of Rome. Definitely one of my most favorite afternoons in recent memory just because I missed having conversations like that, which I became accustomed to back in Gainesville.
Since I was on a roll with the whole procrastination thing when I heard there was a community service projects of sorts I was so down. We went downstairs and helped make dinner bags with sandwiches and an apple. Then we went out into the streets and distributed the food to anyone who looked homeless or hungry.
That night we must have only spent an hour in total making and distributing the food but it absolutely altered my view of the homeless. My sister, Kara, has always been the advocate for the homeless back in Gainesville but I’ve always preferred looking at international aid or more removed poverty alleviation tactics. Kara has always been the one at the food shelters during the week and in her spare time but in the past I’ve always been mildly uncomfortable in those settings.
After our trip out in the streets I ran into a supermarket and grabbed a thing of Nutella and sandwich bread and a few of us decided to start bringing a couple of sandwiches around with us when we went back on the streets during the days. This morning (Thursday) we stopped by a man who is always sitting by our school who I have always struggled with looking at despite the fact that every day, without fail, he calls out “Ciao Bella” — Michelle bent over and gave him the sandwich and at the sight of it the man clapped twice and opened his mouth with brittle looking teeth and starting pouring out thanks. This man suddenly transformed in my eyes from an old, worn out looking street accessory into a person that deserved to be cared for and spoken to. And I am sitting here wondering how I could allowed myself to have missed this!
After such a thought provoking day it was fun to go out with some new Australian friends to Campo di Fiori, a large outdoor piazza, to watch the Brazil Germany game compete in the semi finals.. That was possibly the most painful thing I have ever witnessed as far as sports goes. I will leave that topic to the rest of the general public. I watched my new friends bargain with a street vendor for his megaphone, shook hands with a dog, and protected said dog from getting stolen from a stranger who tried to take her from her owner. It was a pretty fun night.
On Wednesday we started really experiencing our art and architecture class. Since we only have 3 days a week of class and only 4 weeks our professor has generously decided to host our lectures on the spot.. Meaning every Monday-Wednesday we go to a new place in Rome and learn about its rich history and structure. No big deal.
We went to the aqueducts! I was reminded again of why I liked my professor, Ferro, so much. Although he talked about the aqueducts themselves and the structure of them he also discussed the social costs of creating such a monument (aqueducts preserved in a national park). He mentioned that in order to create the park they had to evacuate and relocate 10,000 residents who had created homes for themselves under the structures of the aqueducts during a time of a severe economic depression in Italy. It was a sad reminder that art is not just meant for admiration but that monuments had significance to people and that preserving them might have meant stripping people of their access to the monuments.
I ended the night by going to a sale at brandy Melville. Marketing notes were nowhere in site. T minus 1 day until the worst exam of my life.
Stay tuned to see if I’ll be dropping out of college and bumming it in Europe indefinitely or if I’m going back to the grind in Gainesville come August.
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Running in Rome 