Monday, January 28, 2013

Cultural Complications


Good morning from sunny Roma! Since I arrived, I have felt very much faced with complications and frustrations, and I am yearning for the adjustment phase that I know I will eventually reach. Some of these elements of “culture shock” are my focus in writing today.

My luggage was, of course, lost immediately, and I had to wait nearly three days until it was delivered. This was rather irritating, since my carry-on bag was entirely comprised of shoes, and I barely packed an extra outfit. If ever you are traveling abroad, I beg of you not to make this same mistake. I was not very inclined to venture out and explore Roma before I had any of my belongings, understandably enough. So, I spent the first couple of days mostly contained to my apartment, while my roommates were mostly not.

Speaking of roommates, I did express concern over my living situation in my last post in which I was anticipating the prospect of living with others for the first time in quite a while.  Four of us are strangers, and two are friends from home.  Thus far I do not feel particularly drawn to nor offended by any of them, though only time will tell how our relationships might develop, and surely for this some co-venturing is in order.  On the whole, I am satisfied with our arrangements.  Our apartment is lovely and only a fifteen minute walk from AUR campus.  We are situated in the mostly residential area of Monteverde, where I can hear the conversations of Italian families through paper-thin walls and gaze at the surrounding terracota for hours.

I did actually have to venture out to the Salvator Mundi International Hospital on my second day in Rome in order to have removed some stitches, which had been placed in the U.S.  Finding the hospital was much easier than expected, and I found it to be a pleasurable visit despite that I was there under unfortunate premises. The nurses were old-fashioned, wearing headdresses in a style similar to Catholic nuns, and my Italian doctor was so lovely and kind.  I sat, content, listening to discourse of their Italian chatter, noting whichever cognates and recognizable linguistic traits I could. The environment was sterile, but the experience was certainly not.

This was the same day that orientation activities took place, and I was very much lost on my way back from campus to my apartment.  I certainly stuck out like a sore thumb as I checked each street sign, walking twenty meters before throwing my hands up in the air and turning around, making my way down the same streets over and over again.  I eventually wound back up at campus, where I found my roommates and walked home with them.  It was frustrating, mostly because I was in a residential area, but in most of Rome half the fun lies in getting completely lost.  I was lost again a couple of days later when I took the wrong bus, or rather, I took the correct bus but in the wrong direction.  Although this resulted in my missing an obligation, I decided to view this as an opportunity to acquaint myself with foreign parts of the city as I rode all the way down the line, and then all the way back. I do think it is important to view these frustrations in a positive light; such learning experiences are necessary in order to reach adjustment.

Now that I’ve been reunited with my belongings, I am quite willing to get lost – and to lose myself – in the city.  Today I start classes, with Italian 101 at 4 o’clock.  I am enthusiastically awaiting this course, since language difficulties have been some of the most frustrating of all so far.  Each time I go out I try to prepare myself for whichever social customs I should expect to comply with and whichever words and phrases I may need to use, but whenever I use them I am suddenly faced with a rapidly-speaking Italian whose vernacular baffles me.  Fortunately enough, the Italians are very kind and appreciate the effort I put in to speak their language.  When I went to the farmacia to get some toiletries while I was still awaiting my luggage, the Italian-speaking attendant was patient and cooperated with me until we understood each other.

So now I will try to prepare myself for another day learning Rome and the Roman way – expect a progress update in a few day’s time.

Ciao!

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