Those 3 words were probably used a billion times during my 6 day trip to Italy last week.
Now let me just tell you, Italy was absolutely amazing!
I didn’t realize though, that English was not very prominent in Verona where 2 other group members and I decided to stay at.
We learned Ciao pretty quickly since we heard it everywhere. It’s neat that it can be used both as hello and good bye. How convenient is that?

I personally was a little spoiled in thinking that I would only need to know ciao (hello/bye), scusi (excuse me), and grazie (thank you) in order to make it through my week just fine – I had assumed that English would be pretty well spoken there.
I was wrong.
As soon as we got to our B&B where we stayed for 4 nights, we realized our assumption was wrong. The B&B was more like experiencing a stay with a host family. It was a large, beautiful home owned by an old Italian couple. And they spoke barely any English. This was a problem to us since the city centre of Verona was actually about a 25 minute car ride away and we couldn’t figure out how to get there at first. However, the couple were such sweethearts (we decided to call them our host grandpa and host grandpa amongst ourselves!) and they appreciated every effort we made in speaking Italian.

The first night that we flew in to Italy, we were all so exhausted that we didn’t do a whole a lot. But on the second day there, we had planned to take a day trip to Venice! At the Verona train station, we met up with 3 other more members of our C-90 group and all 6 of us headed to Venice together. Being in Venice was a bit more of a relief since the language barrier wasn’t as big here. Most shopkeepers came up to talk to us in English, and flatter us so that we will buy their things haha. None of us had specific monuments or buildings that we wanted to see in Venice; we all just wanted to wonder around and take it all in. And Venice was just absolutely beautiful. It really is a town that’s floating on water, and the houses are all so colorful and adorable!

I’m not a huge fan of tourist-y areas, but Venice gave you the feeling of home but at the same time it was a complete foreign place. It really was a magical time being there!

On the second and third days, we spent it in Verona.
The bus system from our B&B (Negrar, Italy) to Verona was very confusing and we didn’t really understand it during our entire stay there. But we did figure out how to get to Verona’s city centre so that was a relief. Verona was also another adorable city. It didn’t seem as ancient as Venice, but still had the look of having long history behind it. Although the buildings were older, there was a main street with lots of modern stores, mostly for clothing and accessories. Those were definitely fun to window shop at (:

A group of us decided to go see a castle on top of a hill, and the view was absolutely beautiful! It was a long way up, but definitely worth it. Not to mention we also got a little bit of nice, warm sun!

On our 4th morning, we bid adieu (or ciao in our case) to our host grandparents to head to Florence. Even though we didn’t get to have long conversations with them, we were able to communicate in bits and pieces and that was such a great feeling. Going to a country not knowing the language, but still being able to connect to someone can bring such happy feelings!
I decided to travel to Florence by myself while the group left a little bit before me because of train situations. It was only traveling by train, but it was a great feeling traveling by myself in a foreign country. The other group members made sure I was okay, and we met up once I got to Florence. Now Florence was a little different that Venice and Verona. It has a bit more contemporary feel to it. The buildings looked a bit different and there were many more English speaking people. My highlight in Florence was probably seeing the duomo. There were so many intricate details on the building I couldn’t even imagine someone creating it.

I only spent about 3 hours there but it was great. That night we headed to Pisa, our final destination.
On our final day, we spent the day in Pisa. Of course we had to go see the Leaning Tower. And it really was leaning! I didn’t realize this, but there were also 2 other church related buildings right next to the leaning tower.

We were all pretty tired this day since we had to carry around our heavy backpacks. There was a nice patch of green grass next to the leaning tower of Pisa and we decided to take an advantage of that and laid out and enjoyed the almost 80s weather. I’d like to think that I was able to get a bit of tan on! The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was such a great moment and the best way to end our amazing week at Italy.

I was able to see some beautiful buildings, views, and adorable houses during my trip and also learn the struggles of a language barrier which was a great experience for me. I enjoyed every minute of my stay in Italy and I definitely want to go back again! Next time, I will hopefully know a little more Italian though (:

Cheers until next time!

Aya

It’s hard to believe that our C-90 group has already been here at Cambridge, England for over a month. Wow, time flies!

So far during this month, we have gone on 2 big group trips to London, and the Lake District. Both of these trips were splendid and of course, I took a lot of pictures 🙂

London was really all an awe. The only negative impression that I got was that there were SO many people there. Everywhere you go, there’s people, people, and more people! That got a little tiring. But what can you say, it’s London! Other than that, it was really neat seeing landmarks that I have only seen on TV before. We saw the London bridge, the London eye, and – the main entree – the Big Ben. The Big Ben really impressed me because there were so many delicate details throughout the building that you can’t really catch from looking at a picture. We spent a total of 2 and a half days there but it wasn’t enough and I know that I definitely want to go visit there again sometime this semester!

Our second trip to the Lake District was probably my favorite out of the two. I have actually never heard of it before so it was almost like a blind date, waking up from a coach bus after a 3 hour drive. As soon as I got off the bus though, I knew this weekend was going to be a blast. I saw mountains beyond mountains, with absolutely no flat lands. We hiked on the first and second days and they were quite an adventure. A lot of us were determined to become friends with the hundreds of sheep we saw, and we all were happy to be taking in vast amounts of super fresh air. On the third day we went to see the Chatsworth House, home to a duke and duchess, and the house was so big! It was also absolutely beautiful.

So those 2 trips were we’re definitely a blast. And in 2 days I’m headed to my first own trip outside the country – Italy! I cannot wait for Italy since its always been a place where I have wanted to go to. Let’s see how romantic this country is!

Differences between the UK and Europe certainly exist. I can remember three occasions on my trip when people in Europe asked me what I thought of the English people – meaning, “What do you think about how different they are?” Being placed in the position of responsibility for representing all of the UK was difficult, because, with my little experience interacting with the English, I did not feel qualified to answer. Sometimes I said this, and other times I just put a stutter-filled answer together.

A funny sign I found in Wales which represents the way I feel when asked, "What do you think about England?"

The English are more reserved than the Europeans I ran into. Everyone I spoke with seems to have been aware of this, both the English and the Europeans joked about it. This mindset may not last long though. While in Poland, Alaina and I took a free walking tour that ended in a pub crawl where we talked with two English guys. One was extremely out-going, and the other told us how he was trying to break out of his Englishness and get up to date with the 21^st century. He lamented the fact that, “most people in England seem like they stepped straight out of a Victorian novel.” The youth throughout the UK seem to be more outgoing than their parents, and with the advent of the internet, I do not see them being able to resist becoming a bit more outgoing.

Welcome to England!

The Europeans may have seemed extra stuffy in comparison to the people I met in Europe because most of the people I met were from the Mediterranean, an area known for its outgoing people. In Croatia, the woman we stayed with had her daughter bring us free wine after we arrived. In Italy, our host cooked us two very special pastas, and then his flatmate gave us two of his aunt’s homemade liqueurs. This type of behaviour seems to be rarer in England than in other parts of Europe, but things have to go on a case by case basis. One of the adult scholars in my course at Anglia Ruskin invited Alaina and me to dinner, and they were extremely hospitable. Germans are also known for their reserve, as are the Dutch. So, making a blanket statement about the differences between the UK and Europe as a whole is quite difficult. There are stuffy pockets of civilization throughout the world.

Beautiful Croatia, home to nice Mediterranean people.

One difference between the UK and Europe that I am comfortable making is that the UK seems to place more importance on pub culture than Europe. The number of pubs I can see anywhere in England vastly outweighs the number I found when I travelled through Europe. One similarity is the importance of football. Everywhere I went, football was one of the most important things on young men’s minds. Music in certain areas of Europe differs from the UK. Both places make heavy use of American music, but Europe differs from the UK in that they enjoy listening to electronica. Hostels in Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands all played a great deal of electronica. The style of dress appears to be similar throughout the UK and Europe when it is adjusted for income level. Rich cities in Italy featured people dressing like people in Cambridge, where poorer cities in Croatia featured people dressing like Norwich, England. All in all, this trip has showed me the similarities between people more so than the differences between them.

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I feel like a modern day Roman. Despite following two weeks of deciphering Polish, Hungarian, Croatian, Slovenian, German, and Italian, being greeted with the English language was surprisingly underwhelming. Everywhere I travelled seemed to have, at minimum, one English speaking citizen every fifty feet. Ordering food in Poland is as simple as telling the waiter you speak English and waiting for her to bring the employee who does. Granted, many of the places I visited were tourist locations where English speakers make up the majority of visitors. Even still, I heard two French women use English to bridge the language gap between them and their Italian bus driver.

This is not the bus I rode - though, I wish it was.

Aside from exposing English’s status as the universal language, these past two weeks helped to give me a better understanding of the unappreciated privileges I have had as an American. The “American Dream” hardly exists outside of America. England has a population density of 397 people per/km compared to America’s 33, so most people live in apartments or small row homes. Many of these are old, and I’m sure home repair costs are through the roof. The same probably goes for Italy where every stereotypically beautiful, Italian apartment seemed to be in a state of disrepair. The Slovenian bed and breakfast I stayed in, situated directly next to the country’s beautiful national park, had to be rebuilt after it was occupied and destroyed eighteen years ago when the country was at war with the Yugoslav’s People’s Army. Dubrovnik, Croatia was bombed twenty-five years ago and had to be nearly entirely rebuilt. Aside from the civil war, America has not had to cope with fighting on its own soil; and its people have a lot of space to build their homes.

Believe it.

Capitalism originated in England, but it took a firmer hold in America where the economic system itself has become an export. In all the countries I visited, storefronts and advertisements seemed desperate to emulate the American way of doing things. Successful attempts were pleasing only in so far as advertising in America is, and unsuccessful attempts made clear the ways in which capitalism consumes culture, transforming tradition into no more than petty salesmanship. Thankfully, genuine Italian pizza still exists, and my Dubrovnik host gave me a free glass of homemade wine. Capitalism made my trip to Europe possible; I’m not about to start complaining. But, ever since I couch surfed in Budapest and my host explained to me how some of its people wish communism would return because then everyone had jobs, I have not stopped thinking about whether a complete laissez-faire attitude is the best way to treat people well.

A lot of good can and has come from the adoption of American value systems. But, I think it is important to keep in mind that responsibility for society as a whole is the modern day Roman’s double-edged sword. If dissent is similar to that in the following clip from Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian,” I think everything will turn out just fine.

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