american pride and otherwise

Haha! You thought it would never come but here it is…the final blog update of italy…forse. I’m going to have to reach far back into the recesses of my memory to make sure I don’t leave anything out but I’m sure it will come to me. So lets see…where did we leave off? ah yes, let us begin by saying, how often do you study abroad in the country that happens to host the winter Olympics in the brief three months you happen to be living there? Clearly this was an opportunity that could not be ignored. Tess and I found ourselves all wound up and ready to show off our American pride but with no conveniently located hostel. So we did what any two young impressionable girls would do…go to lake como. We set off early on a Friday morning ready to conquer the lake and the alps (at least as much of them as time would allow). Red bull kept me alert during the train ride and we made it safely and soundly to quite possibly the cutest lakeside town ever. We promptly left our bags at our hostel and made a beeline for the lake. As has been the custom during our winter abroad, we were the only people braving the ferry on this day. But don’t let the date deceive you, it was a stunning day and let’s be honest, when you have what basically turns out to be your own private boat, things are bound to work out. We spent the afternoon cruising from town to town, pausing occasionally to enjoy a particularly stunning view of houses set on a hillside above the lake with the alps looming in the background, excitedly watching snowboard cross with the Italians in a waterfront bar while dreaming of our own Olympic adventures that the next day would bring and sipping some vino with the afternoons usuals on the patio overlooking the lake. Nevermind that the Italian man asked if we were twelve or that the ferry captain thought we were insane for sitting outside, we were in heaven at lake como and we were going to do it up right! That night we treated ourselves to a little local prosecco and season 2 of the oc before heading off to a romantic seafood dinner. If you are wondering whether tess and I are actually on a three month honeymoon instead of a study abroad, you aren’t too far off actually. We called it an early night with the thought of torino in the morning bouncing around in our brains.

Saturday morning crack of dawn: tess and I hop on a train to Milan, then Torino and try to figure out how to get to our Olympic event: 2 man bobsledding. That’s right, as the Italians say, bob. Straight up cool runnings, “feel the rhythm, feel the ride” Olympic bobsledding. After a quick jaunt around the surprisingly industrial torino and the necessary photo opp with the Olympic rings we set off for the alps. Yes, we had to change trains in Oulx (pronounced ooooooool) and yes, we quickly exhausted the capacities of our digital cameras. Upon entering the actual venue we were like two kids in a candy store. The greeters had us dancing with joy and grinning stupidly with delight: we had arrived. We were at THE OLYMPICS. We refueled with some lasagna (I mean we are in italy ladies and gentlemen) and then explored the venue. Official Olympic gear was bought and many a photo was taken. We attempted to see just where our stunning charm and ridiculously good looks could get us and managed to get up to the starting line and catch an up close glimpse of real life Olympians. We made friends throughout the day of the American and foreign variety (even though one of these conversations started with a swiss guy asking “whats your problem?”) and even managed to meet the man who made the runners for one of the American teams. His giants hat gave him away as a san Franciscan and we bonded over our norcal pride (did I just write that?). the event itself was a trip. Tess and I tried to snap as many pictures as possible in the hope of catching a bobsled in action. We enjoyed some degree of success. On our way out we stopped to cheer on the official Olympic cheerleaders (who by the way could have used a better uniform designer…I mean this is italy) and caught the end of curling on TV on the bus back to Torino. Utterly exhausted and ridiculously content we practically crawled back to lake como and our beds. Despite the threat of delerium we got up early, tess to head to Zurich to meet up with the elusive Kieran and myself to head back to Florence and the reality of my democracy midterm. All in all, we could not have been more content with our first and hopefully not last foray into Olympic spectating. We also came away with the unexpected memory of an Italian lake town that beckoned us to return and a promise to do so as soon as possible.

Our next weekend did not turn out exactly as planned but still wound up pleasing to say the least. Friday we took a much too early eurostar to rome with the entire program for our second bing trip. We had had a late night and the prospect of a 9 am walking tour through a rainy albeit glorious rome was not exactly at the top of my to do list. I comforted myself by treating myself to a lime green 2 euro umbrella and borrowed aviators. Our first stop was san pietro in vincoli, actually very exciting because it was one of the places my family and I missed on our rome trip due to odd closing times. It was stunning and I was really just overwhelmed by Michelangelo’s sheer genius. The Moses simply cannot be described (as most things I have seen in italy cannot). Then we trekked to the colosseum and did the roman forum and the campidoglio. This second time around reminded me of my thoughts when seeing these ruins for the first time in December with my family. The grandeur of the mere remains just blew me away and provided a much needed reminder that we, now is just a speck of dust in time. It humbled me after being so sucked into our nation’s great capital in the fall. We are so arrogant to think that we will continue to be the leading world power. If rome could speak it would shout “civilizations fall! Leaders come and go! You can have your time in the sun but your ideal nation cannot outlast eternity.” And yes, this may sound pessimistic but the fact remains…its real…its history…look at Britain and get ready. Because the way our country is going, with iraq, with the world, with itself, this is just the beginning. Oh and learn Chinese…because they are the new America.

Perhaps this negativity was brought on by my preparation for a presentation on Iraq. I read a great and troubling book by stanford’s very own larry diamond (you should read it: squandered victory). it basically told the story of the administration arrogantly rushing into iraq expecting everyone to immediately jump on the democracy bandwagon without offering the slightest peace offering such as a staff who understood the country (even just the language!) or enough troops to hold down the proverbial fort while chaos ensued. While this account wont exactly get you singing the star spangled banner it might inspire you to wonder what exactly these leaders we elect are doing and why no one is there to keep them from invading a country and then just watching it fall apart. And at the same time maybe it will get the people who sit around and whine about how they hate george bush to stop being babies and DO something about it. And I am not talking writing your congressman, woman, person. We might not be at the top of the world for much longer but we should at least try to bow out graciously instead of chucking the puzzle and leaving the world to pick up the pieces.

Ok after that necessary bit of rage, back to rome. We rounded out the morning with a trip to the pantheon: yet another remarkable feat of ancient civilization. Well done romans, well done. We stopped for a necessary pizza and then we were off to the Vatican. And by the Vatican I’m not talking the crowded, sweaty, rushed sprint through the museums but an honest to goodness private tour for our group of thirty. With a tour guide to boot! It was much less overwhelming as our tour guide gave us a sort of highlights tour and then gave us a good half hour in the Sistine chapel. The girls and I successfully metroed back and checked into our hostel. And then the exhaustion of midterms and a daylong walking tour in rome set in. Jamie and I decided to opt out of a night on the town and go for pizza and a movie with the uomis.

Tess and I had planned on heading to napoli and pompei the next day but a forecast of rain spoiled our plans. Instead Jamie, emma and I decided we were in no shape to extend our roman holiday and took a peaceful train back to Florence after a little impromptu shopping in the train station. I took the afternoon to rest up for the evening’s exploits. Because we rarely all found ourselves in Florence on a Saturday night and had been feeling a little homesick, we decided to call a choose your own theme night and make dinner reservations at THE Mexican restaurant in Florence. And so it went: we rolled into Tijuana at seven thirty in costumes ranging from jungle party to the olsen twins. Our frat partyish attire let us fool ourselves into thinking we were at celias and that campus was just a hop, skip and a jump away. We talked about missing California and our firsts when we got back to the states: first meal, first phone call, first drive. And we all made it home before we turned into pumpkins at midnight.