The final days are upon us

NOooooo...we are spending our final week in Rome together writing a 7-10 page paper! The past few days have consisted of very late night work sessions, gelato runs and a lot break out dance parties in the computer lab. The pressure of writing a long paper in a foreign country can do a lot to American students.

Aside from the late nights and early mornings we have enjoyed more meetings with professionals and professors of agriculture in Italy, art history, labor unions, and even the European Commission and the Parliament. The program has such great connections with prominent people in the country and through it we are able to meet with people and potentially get jobs or internships through them. The knowledge I have gained throughout my travels in Rome has stunned me! I came to Rome with the thoughts that it was going to be a big, dirty city with too many people and too many confusing transportation lines and though the latter two are quite accurate, the first two have been altered.

Upon reading the METRO during my ride on the METRO, I came across an article that actually said that Rome is one of the greenest cities in Europe in terms of green space. I am still on a hunt to justify this statement and plan on visiting Villa Borghese, which is filled with gardens and a museum that is said to have the most green space...the city is not necessarily dirty but I guess with the heat and the non-air conditioned public spaces comes sweaty people and the trash seems to shine more as the sun reflects off of it...it really depends on where you are because the closer you are to the tourist attractions, the more clean the area seems to be. Oh the politics of it...

The city is huge. Maybe not as big and complex as New York, but it is a pretty big city that with time one can memorize a lot of the hot spots and having only been here for three weeks I am already getting used to the public transportation stops and I can recognize the sites and some streets, but at first it seems to all hit you at once and can be overwhelming. There are people everywhere. No matter what time or where in the city. Everywhere. From all over the world and all with different intentions in mind. Each person has a story and it is quite amazing. I just sit and watch people pass by and try and guess 1. where they're from 2. who they're traveling with and for what reason 3. what they're planning on doing for the day and 4. just how much fun they're having in Rome. It's quite amusing and passes the time when sitting on 45 degree Celsius buses and on the crowded-germy METRO or even just while taking "una pausa" by a piazza. There is a huge difference with people watching in Philadelphia and in Rome because here there are so many more interesting people and people come from ALL over the world.

The nights have gotten longer and hotter and actually more fun because we have been spending more time talking and procrastinating with our work. It's just what Rome does and what it will continue to do until we hand in our final papers and give our final presentations. We're delaying our thoughts of actually leaving and we already established that tears will be shed and numbers exchanged. It's inevitable. Each of us has a life to continue after this journey we shared and it's pretty amazing that each one of us has come from different places with different outlooks on life and with different paths to follow in life.

One of the most life-changing things I have read this whole trip is THE ALCHEMIST. It's funny because I was making a list of all the books I wanted to read when I return home and on the list included THE ALCHEMIST. I walked into the bathroom one day and there it was on top of the windowsill. Someone from the program had received the book as a gift for the trip and I ended up borrowing it to read. I started on the beach on Saturday and finished the book on Tuesday. I just kept reading it: whenever I rode the METRO, in between classes and every night before bed and as I read, I kept notes on the beautiful sayings in the book. The book spoke about one's Personal Legend and love and truly touched my soul. I couldn't have read a better book at this point in my life. It has given me the confidence and motivation to move forward in life and it has helped quell the fears that have been holding me back. I am ready to take on the next step in my life and this is exactly what I wanted out of this trip.

This experience. This book. This time to myself has been one of the best things I could have given myself. I still have some time left here in Rome and here in Italy in general, so I am ready to continue on this path to discovering myself and refining what it is that I want to do though this will keep changing as time passes and as things around me change.

Just know...food is involved. ;)

OH yea...new word of the week= gelatare-v. to get gelato.
conjugations= gelato, gelati, gelata, gelatiamo, gelate, gelatano

more to come...the saga continues.