Walking With a Purpose

After a topsy-turvy month of August, I am beginning to settle down to a way of life that I am pleased with and that I need desperately. It has not been fun and August has just thrown obstacles and decisions and even opportunities at me, but overall it has stressed me out! I came back on August 1 from Europe and since then I have been trying to figure out where my next step is and I believe I found it. After long hours of thinking and many sleepless nights tossing and turning with ideas and plans for the future, I have finally settled down.

Well, I love food and cooking and giving people advice on healthy living when it comes to dieting and changing one's lifestyle, so I have decided to pursue a career in the food and health industry. It's not your average career choice though because I will blend my journalistic skills with my culinary skills, as well as my knowledge of all things vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free/organic etc. etc., and most prominently Italian.

I have found myself exactly where I guess I had been hiding for years now- deep within. This dream has always been in the back of my mind, but for some reason I was intimidated by the fact that the industry is hard and demanding and I could never be as good as some of the top chefs or health professionals, but really I was only denying my deep rooted potential to do great things.

Though being back had it's negative effects, I feel I have tried as hard as possible to turn them into positive things. I have applied to jobs in and around the city involving food and places that will help me get the food experience I need to test the waters. I may have found just the right place for me and now I can take on as much as I want and take advantage of the experiences that await both in the kitchen and out of the kitchen.

It's taken many hours of yoga to slow down my mind and calm my body of the stresses that have been inhibiting me to see clearly what is and has been right in front of me. Finally this life of the Italian vegetarian who loves traveling blog has become the foundation to a lifelong career that I will continue to establish for myself.

P.S. Traveling was a possibility this fall, but I had bigger ideas in mind and going back to Italy seemed to be a sort of regression back to my old way of thinking and wanting to escape reality, but not I have discovered a sort of purpose for my life right now and that is to explore food and health, so I am going to do it. Let's see how it goes...

Let's Get Saucey!

Every year my family and I go to a farm in Jersey to pick tomatoes for our annual sauce making event. Well, because the rules have changed since I was little, we are now forced to go to the farms and just buy crates of tomatoes that have already been picked. It is a bit disappointing especially because it was such a monumental event that I looked forward to as a child. We would get up bright and early and drive out to the farm and get down to business in the fields. It was a bit easier for me to crouch down and pick the tomatoes because I was O so tiny, but it would get a bit difficult for my parents to crouch and bend and crouch and bend, so I would do most of the work ;) (at least I made it seem that way). So every year we would get itchy and buggy in the tomato field and drive on home with crates of tomatoes in the back of our van. A few days later we got going with the sauce making process.

This year, though we didn't pick the tomatoes ourselves, we still loaded up the van with crates of tomatoes and headed on home to lay them out on the porch. The tomatoes were simply beautiful! We gave them a few days to fully ripen and then it was ready to get saucey! My parents and I prepped the jars, the pots of boiling water, the tubes and the tomato machine and we got going. I was the squisher (as I have always been) and when my dad would put the tomatoes at the top of the machine, I was there ready with the wooden spoon to squish them down into the machine so it could do its job of separating the sauce and the skin. Once the tomatoes go through the machine, we take the skin and put it throw the machine two times to get any final tomato sauce out. What we're left with are tubes of red, freshly squeezed tomato juice that we turn into sauce once we jar them, boil them and wait for the seal to pop.

It's quite a lengthy process with little steps in between the actual steps of picking the tomatoes and jarring the sauce, but it is a process that has been in my family for generations. The annual sauce-making day is quite a venture and a bonding experience for the Sellecchia's. No one can deny that having fresh, homemade sauce with your pasta is the best thing an Italian can hope for, as well as those who eat the food ;)

Can't wait to cook up some sauce and get going with the spaghetti. I think the water is boiling now, so I better run and put the spaghetti in! Buon Appetite!

Post-Dream World

This has been interesting to say the least. After spending time in Rome and then spending a week in Longano there was no way I could imagine going back to Philadelphia. How would I manage with the different weather, the different people, the different living situation and the different lifestyle overall?! Was I crazy for not staying in Italy? Of course I was, but really it was time for me to go home and reunite with my life back home. The time away was just what I needed to reevaluate things and help me decide what my next move will be...

I was alone a lot of the time in Longano, but it was something I had wanted for a long time. It allowed me to write and read and do things I never have time to do at home. It was relieving not to get cellphone service 95 percent of the time in the mountains, as well as Internet service. I was literally not connected to anyone except my family and my boyfriend. Space was limited and time seemed to fly by. My stomach was definitely always growling and the steep hills up and down the mountains kept me in shape. Most importantly time with my Nonno offered a feeling of acceptance and connected me back to my family. It was beautiful to be living with him and keep him company as he lived the summer away from all of us back in the States. I even decided to do an interview with him and get some footage of the town so I can make a documentary when I return. Exciting! Creative! Journalistic!

The flight home was sad, especially because I was leaving my Nonno and after our time together we formed a special grandfather/granddaughter bond that we probably wouldn't have formed if we were just hanging out at home. Longano brought us together and gave us an inside look into how each of us thinks and acts. It's funny how living with someone for just a short time makes you that much closer.

The first time I saw my family it felt like a year had passed. I knew that it had been a long time, but I didn't think it would feel that awkward. :) I was glad to be back home hanging out with my family even though I felt like a new person. This experience has definitely changed me a lot and I have been opened up to a lot more opportunities as a young woman and young journalist. Though I was looking forward to dinner upon arriving home, I was looking forward to showing pictures and telling stories for the next week to everyone. We ate Chinese food for dinner because I was not about to sit down and eat another Italian meal! I needed a change!

Home home home! Reality is about to hit really hard, but I'm ready for it. I've been mentally preparing myself for a few months now for what was to come once I returned from Europe. I have a few ideas of what I where I want to start on this journey to discovering my career...I just need to get started!

Pompei in a Day

I did take a two-day excursion back to Rome and then to Pompeii with Peter and Anneke from the program just to break up the time in the mountains. We spent two nights in a camping villa outside of the center of Rome. This place was fantastic! It was like a whole other world and not nearly what I expected. We lived in a chalet all alone with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a porch and even air conditioning! This was so foreign to me I had trouble controlling the temperature in the room and seemed to always make it colder than it should be. The camping villa was filled with chalets and bungalows and various bars, restaurants, a pool and even an Internet café. I was in love with all of that, but it got even better when we could see the stars and the moon shining so brightly in the sky above us. This place was perfect and we took advantage of its beauty every night. There was also a supermarket across the street, so we raided that and bought a bunch of food so I could cook us dinner. I fried up some potatoes, zucchini, peppers and eggplant, as well as fried up some lemon-peppered catfish. Delicious. I was so excited to sit down like a family out on the porch and enjoy a home-cooked meal together with a nice bottle of wine to go along with it.

The next day Peter and I spent in Pompeii because we wanted to take a day trip further south and we chose Pompeii. We had no idea what to expect and though we did our research on how to get there, we still managed to get lost. Hey! It wasn’t our fault because we specifically asked a “worker” at the mini train station (that brought you directly to the Pompeii archeological site) what track the next train for Pompeii was leaving and he told us so we trusted him. Well, we waited for about a half hour and fought to get seats on the train and lo and behold it was the wrong line. We kept riding in the wrong direction and decided to get off at one of the stops that we could transfer onto the right train. We backtracked a little, but we met this nice English woman who took us under her wing and showed us the way. We finally reached Pompeii and walked toward the site together. Our stomachs were growling and since we now knew the way, we stopped for a small pizza just to fill our tummies. We did the wrong thing and stopped at a touristy place, but really we had one of the best pizzas we’ve had in awhile there and enjoyed all of the other tourists around us. There were true Italian old people sitting behind us, so it gave us a bit more reassurance that it wasn’t completely touristy J Of course I ordered my pizza Neapolitan with fresh tomato sauce, basil and anchovies. Yum!

When we finally made it to the archeological site and paid the 11 euro entrance fee. I tried getting the student discount but when they asked for an EU student ID I had nothing to give them…oh well it was worth a shot. The map was only help to us later on our journey through the site because in the beginning we kind of just followed roads here and there and stumbled-literally- upon different sites and things to see. We followed the main road and it was fascinating how much we could see how the old city used to be. The street was so well preserved and so well excavated at that! We followed the road down and there were houses on either side of the street and it was as if it was still a functional city! Pretty amazing! We peaked in a few houses and some were still filled with mosaics and paintings on the wall and even barrels and pottery still sat at various rooms of the houses. It was totally how everyone describes it- the eruption came and preserved everything exactly in the way that it was functioning that very day. No one had time to escape and there was no time to move anything. Incredible. When we walked into a house, we noticed that it was set up like a kitchen. The information panel explained that it was the “fast food” lunch hall that people used to visit for a short time, grab their food and drink and then head back on the road to go about their day- it was just like the Romans did it and pretty much how we do it today.

The day at Pompeii ended quite sooner then we originally planned because we got a phone call from our Italian friend Renato. He was leaving to go back home to Sicily and there was no way we were going to let him leave without a proper goodbye at Roma Termini! SO Peter and I power walked our way through the rest of Pompeii, even though we didn’t see all of it, and caught the next train back to Napoli. Once at Napoli, we ran to the train to Roma. We planned on taking the 5:30 train, but somehow even after making a long stop in the bookstore, we made it to the track in time to catch the 4:30 train that just so happened to be leaving 15 minutes in ritardo (late). How crazy! We ran and got a seat and sat in with some older guy who must have thought we were nuts. We got comfy and though my ticket said leaving Napoli to Rome at 6:30, the ticket lady let me go and Peter had his 7-day pass, so there was no problem there! Perfect.

We made it to Termini with even enough time to browse the bookstore there and get lost in the aisles. Renato called us and we met up with him for a quick dinner before he left on his overnight train. It was so sad to see him go because he was the one Italian that we all bonded with so much. He was a computer-engineering student and just about one of the brightest kids we’d met. He doesn’t have a Facebook because he knows how evil it is J He speaks English really well and always helped us when we wanted to learn new words in Italian. There was no way we wouldn’t have fun or go on some sort of adventure when we were with him- he is so full of life! This guy is one heck of a person and friend. If there is one person we will always remember from the trip it would have to be Renato.

Then there was me and Peter yet again and we were off to our camping villa outside of the city to meet with Anneke. There was the three of us left and we had nothing left but memories. I cried when we looked at pictures on Facebook and talked about all the crazy things that happened in the past month. But I always remember having a smile on my face while the tears rolled down my cheeks. There was never a thought in my head that could deter me from feeling so happy and in high spirits about my time in Rome. I will surely miss the neighborhood, the kebab shop and our favorite café and gelateria, la residenza, the workers in la residenza, the Italian students, the professors and professionals we met, the ponte 2010ers and the whole feeling of being in another country- a country I call my home- with so much to do and so much to learn and experience. Most importantly though I will miss the long, sweaty, hot, congested bus and Metro rides that we had to take nearly every day and sometimes twice a day to get around the city…NOT!

Il Fine :(

Need sleep. Five days of four hours of sleep or less. Need sleep.

The final week of the program was surely not spent getting much needed rest and relaxation. Heck no. The days were filled with final class trips and final meetings with professors and writing sessions in the computer lab. The nights were filled with a bunch of late night computer lab dance parties, gelato group outings, ping pong challenges using flip flops, trips out into the city and much much more. There wasn’t any time to sleep! We were enjoying our final days altogether and all the time. I couldn’t help but just want to go to bed at 9pm every night and when I actually tried to once my room got raided by all my friends and there was no way I was going to call it a night.

I’m so excited to have made new friends and especially grateful for how incredibly caring and supportive each person was to me. There is not one person that I didn’t get along with and not one person that I wouldn’t do anything for. I thank God every day for giving me this opportunity to spend a month in Rome alongside such fabulous people and giving me the chance to meet professionals in Italy and spend time in my home country. There are a lot of things that could have been different and things that I didn’t really enjoy that much, but in the end who really wants to focus on the negative when 99% of the trip was one heck of a positive experience.

Everyone began to leave at different times and it was starting to hit me that the end was here. Unfortunately there is an end to everything and now, at my age, I’m finally realizing that it’s true and that I need to accept everything as it is and let things go when it’s time, but at least I have new friends and amazing memories forever.

Matt left. Anneke left. Chris left. Sunday morning Jordan, Lucy and Brittany left. Then there was Pete and me. The final two standing and the final two left to hold down the American fort in la residenza. None of us had slept the night before because we wanted to pull an all-nighter altogether. The Italians spent the whole night with us as well and I have to say the final week was spent more getting to know them than anything. We did a lot of things together: ate in the mensa, got gelato, played in the computer lab, played ping pong and foosball, went on mini adventures in the city, rode bikes in Villa Borghese, and simply enjoyed talking with one another and practicing our language skills. Oh there was also joke-telling exchanges, but for some reason we didn’t think their jokes were funny and they didn’t think ours were either…so we scratched that whole things out. Who doesn’t think Knock Knock jokes are funny anyway?! Apparently they didn’t find “orange you glad I didn’t say apple” to be very funny…damn language barriers.

Anyway we bonded. Of course we bonded the final week, however it happened and they said that it was unlike any other year for them because those ponte people in the past had nothing on the 2010 group- socially I guess. There was something about group that was overall social, funny, personable, intelligent, HALO talented, as well as overall incredibly fascinating to the Italians- I won’t argue the truth.

We gave our final speeches at a dinner we had together in an old Church located near the Fontana di Trevi.

I started to cry then but then really started once Chris left because it was really bothering me that the hallway was getting emptier and emptier and there was such an imbalance. So I just cried. And then I cried some more. I seemed to be the only one crying though so then I just stopped- for a few minutes until Brittany started crying then it was all downhill from there.

We exchanged contact information and decided to visit each other as often and as soon as possible. The northeast group was surely going to make that happen, but the South group, as well as the Cali girl might need to put some more effort out to make it happen.

The rest of my time in Italy was spent alongside family members and old friends. I spent many afternoons cooking lunch for my Nonno and me and many nights sitting in bed writing and watching Italian TV, but that was exactly how I wanted to spend my time anyway. I had spent over a month and a half traveling and always on the go that I couldn’t imagine doing it for another week after the program. I wanted time to myself to relax and mentally prepare myself for going back home.