It
is hard to believe that this is my last blog that I will ever write here in
Italy. These past eight weeks have flown
by, and it is hard to believe that in one week I will be sitting at home back
in the U.S. I have created so many
wonderful memories here, and I encourage any Walsh student to take part in the opportunity
I was given.
Last
week, our class had the opportunity to interview local Italians about their
health care system. At first, I dreaded
going because I can barely speak any Italian, let alone have an entire
conversation. My support partner was
Henna, and as soon as we were set free she walked right up to the first woman
she saw. She stumbled over words, but
the elderly Italian woman soon discovered what we intended to do. The woman took the paper, and began to fill
it out. After that I realized it would
not be as difficult as I thought, especially because I would never see anyone
again.
I
am actually very thankful that we had to interview Italians. As much as I disliked the idea, it made me
realize that it does not matter what part of the world you are from, we are all
humans. At the end of the day, there
will always be someone there to help you out.
It was funny even, because we ended our interviews at a local
university, and students were actually asking if they could take a survey. If we had to have more than ten surveys
completed, there is no doubt in my mind that we could have fulfilled the
request.
In
chapter 21 of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tom learns that the Italian
police were searching for him, so he had no choice but to become Tom
again. To show how much he disliked this
idea, Highsmith wrote, “He hated becoming Tom Ripley again, hated being nobody,
hated putting on his old set of habits again…”
Here in Italy, we have formed several habits that we never had
before. For example, we all naturally
say “no grazie” when we are offered something, eating salad before a meal seems
unnatural now, and drinking more coffee in a day than the entire U.S. population. Once
we arrive back in the United States, it will be weird forming back into our old
habits. Everything that we have done
here the past eight weeks will slowly be old habits and become nothing but
memories.
Ciao Emily,
ReplyDeleteGreat quote from the book. But, you don't have to go back to the same old habits. Don't go back to who you were before. You have been affected by this experience. That's ok. That's great. Don't lose what you gained here. this experience has helped you see things in yourself, good things. Don't give them up!
I completely agree with you about completing the surveys. I have no doubt that we could have completed a lot more surveys if we needed to just in the university alone. I agree with professor too, instead of conforming to our old bad habits we should just incorporate our new habits with the old. great blog!
ReplyDeleteOk looks like I'm jumping on the bandwagon with what Professor and Katie say, we just need to incorporate our living here into our living at Walsh! while I'm not much of a coffee drinker I really don't want to give up all the sweets Ive been eating here! Good blog Emily!
ReplyDeleteEmily, I loved your last paragraph. This experience had helped all of us grow and I agree with you about the habits that we have picked up since being here. Its going to be very weird going back to the U.S.
ReplyDelete