When in Rome…
I love Rinaldo. And his wife. They run “Rinaldo’s Cafe” here in the Rome Center basement…one of the few places with wireless internet. They are so cute. They basically live their lives behind their little counter. They get here early in the morning, and I’ve seen Rinaldo here until 2 in the morning. I mean I don’t think they need a house…it would make more sense to sleep here too. Oh well. They make amazing food. But anyway, Rinaldo just made my night by walking around and handing out free Kit Kat bars to all the kids in here. And they were the big ones. And they tasted great, considering I’ve had no candy bars in about a month.
Katie and I have been working on booking a weekend in Budapest, which would be taken care of except the website is declining all our credit cards. Growl. Budapest is the spa capitol of the world people. Cheap bath houses with massage. Yeah!
Other than that, I will be in TUNISIA, North Africa for Spring Break study trip with about 90 students. We will be camping in the Sahara for a night and taking a camel trek! Ohhhh man.
Easter Break: Paris.
Some other weekend in April: Study trip in Prague.
And more to come.
I thought I’d put my article in here this time. I signed up to write for the “Foreign Affairs” column of the Saint Louis Univerisy newspaper this semester, a column written by SLU students who are studying abroad. The authors switch off, because they have authors in a bunch of different countries reporting on their areas. I got to write one of the first ones. I will get to write one more as well, near the end of the semester. But this is what they printed in the February 1st paper.
Foreign Affairs: When in Rome…
By MARY BEDDOME
Echoing the words of the beloved Will Ferrell in his movie Anchorman, a number of the Rome study abroad students continue to chuckle and repeat the mantra, “Well, when in Rome, right?”
As this life-changing journey begins to take shape, I am starting to see more complex ways to complete the phrase.
Some students have taken the opportunity to fill in the blank with talk of parties and revelries that the ancient Romans themselves might have enjoyed—we did come to Rome to have a good time, after all.
However, it’s all too easy to forget that the phrase reads, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” not, “do as the Americans do.”
On our first night in Rome, we felt the sting of a nasty insult from an Italian man standing near the outside of an American bar, resulting in a roar of laughter from the other Italians around him as the American students walked past. Some of the students were more offended than others, boasting promises to throw punches.
But what did this Italian man mean?
Young people from the United States visiting his country seem to ignore Italy and instead act as if they are still in the United States, drinking in American bars, eating American food and speaking English without any attempt to so much as greet the Italians in their native tongue. We seem to further the stereotype of the boisterous, pompous American by clinging to the comforts of what we know and refusing to open ourselves to new ways of thinking. I can understand why the man might feel a certain dislike for visitors from the United States.
Americans tend to be a whiny people. We like things our way, we like fast service and we tend to grumble when our needs are not met. I have overheard complaints from students that things are different, strange and frustrating here. I myself have griped about the broken washers and dryers and the bland cafeteria food on our Rome campus, the universal complaints of a college student.
The complaints that are striking to me, however, are the ones regarding cultural differences.
On a three-hour bus ride from the Rome Center to Assisi, Italy, there was a rest stop specifically for coffee.
Most of us thought, “Take a break on a three-hour trip? Why not just drive straight through?”
Americans have places to be, with no time to waste, so taking a break for coffee or to relax seems ridiculous to us. Students here have yet to get used to the siesta that Italians take every day from around 1 to 3 p.m., meaning that businesses and restaurants all shut down in the middle of the day for an official naptime. There is no rush to reopen their businesses at exactly 3 either—they may wander back into work when they feel ready. Italians are in no hurry.
The bus system also reflects this tranquil tempo of life. Sometimes buses come, sometimes they do not. They have no set time schedule of arrival or departure; one may wait five minutes or an hour depending on the driver.
On our second night in Rome, we sat at dinner for more than three hours, enjoying the food, wine and conversation; a notion that is pretty foreign to most Americans. The fast-food concept does not seem to translate here.
To do as the Romans do, I would have to face the ultimate challenge for a college student these days: take a deep breath, sit down and relax. What better way to celebrate the culture than by adopting the European priority of actually enjoying life once in a while?
Arrivederci, friends, it’s siesta time for me…
