This morning I woke up with a growling stomach. I managed to get out of bed and stumble my way from my living room bed into the kitchen. I gulped down a couple of drinks of milk to satisfy my hunger. Still dazed and unaware of my surroundings and a stuffed up nose I bumped my head in the ceiling. The BAMB!!! definitely woke me up. I quickly dressed for out Italian language class and headed to UW Rome Center.
In language class, I learned to count from zero to twenty. My Italian skills are improving day by day - if I say so myself. I learned to ask: dove lavori? dove habiti? in addition to our already mastered sentences to encourage conversation with native Italians. During class, Jenny handed me two pills to reduce my fever. Hopefully, this is a temporary sickness and will pass soon. After language class, a couple classmates and I decided to seek out pizza. However, I ended up buying a ball of meat and rise and another filled with rice and cheese; which felt like goodness to my stomach.
After lunch, all of us gathered in our seminar classroom and discussed the progress of our internships. During this time, I was reminded of last night’s adventures. To start, Sarah and I took a cab to meet Arcigay to discuss our project for the remainder of our time in Rome. However, we were dropped off in the middle of the ghetto - as Sarah puts it. We had no idea of where we were and with my little to no Italian and Spanish managed to ask for directions. All I have to say to that man - is that karma is bound to get him. After a half an hour of… I hope we are headed in the right direction and I hope we are safe... we stumbled upon the right street. On the bright side - this was an adventure and our Italian skills were put to good use.
After vividly remembering such instances I was brought back into class and we were choosing pairs for our assignment. Señorita Gina and I decided we would tackle the tast together. Once we arrived at Piazza Vittorio we began "hunt our prey" to interview an immigrant and a native Italian youth. Our initial attempts were futile we couldn't manage to maintain a conversation mainly because of language barriers. We kept rolling with the punches and maintained a positive attitude. Gina and I placed ourselves in "their" shoes and if someone approaches us and wanted to talk about immigration then we'd probably wouldn't want to engage in conversation. So, I began to share my story. I shared my story and my struggles being an immigrant to the US. This seemed to open the doors to conversation. During these interviews, I realized that a support group of different immigrant minorities is present nearby Piazza Vittorio. Different ethnic groups can gather and interact with one another in their mother tongue and celebrate their customs and culture.
Afterwards, Manka took us for dinner to an Indian restaurant. By the looks of our plates - I believe that we all seemed to like the food. Later, we filled our stomach with gelato - pistachio and almond flavor for me. YUM... We then took a train or a bus to come back to Campo di Fiori the movie "The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio". What strikes me the most about the video were feeling of resentment and intolerance demonstrated by their chants: "Go home illegal aliens, we will not tolerate any impositions. What racism? What immigration? This is nothing by invasion." What is scary to think is that these were the struggles that were being faced by immigrants ten years ago. Nowadays, laws and its enforcement or lack therefore of hasn't progress; but has implemented actions for the worse - ignoring human rights. There is lots to think about; and lots more to learn while in Rome.
For now that is all.
-Ciao
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