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(06/17/09 10:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>FLORENCE, Italy – The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of travel, both within and outside Italy. Last weekend, I traveled to London for a 24-hour trip to visit someone very special. Then, four days later, I climbed aboard a flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, on a planned weekend excursion with five adventurous students from our IU program.Returning from both trips back to Florence made me finally realize how much like a second home this place has become. The feeling of stepping off a train and quickly, assuredly walking back to our beloved Hotel Villani emits a confidence and familiarity that we did not even know we had achieved. On these side adventures, I stare out the windows of the trains and planes. I see the alien countryside flying by as I daydream and listen to music that reminds me of so many things I miss. By this time, our second home is almost done with us, and it is almost time to return to the States. Just as we became comfortable, it seems. There is something about Florence and our small hotel where we could look out over the city together. There is something about the old, romantic mysteries behind a city that has stood so long and seen so much. You can hear it in the air at night, when everyone is chasing after the fun to be had here. You can smell it as the shops open each morning and release the scents of their pastries, glistening under the glass. We will miss this, but we are also grateful to be returning to our lives back home, where the people who love us are waiting to see us again. Perhaps the best memories were captured within the dozens of drawings, watercolors and inkings we have toiled over. Every vision of Florentine life imaginable is held somewhere within the sketchbooks of these IU students. Even photos cannot match their worth, because creating art requires us to stop and truly look, not just see something long enough to click the shutter. We will miss our terrace, the endless vino, exquisite dinners with friends and guests – including IU Provost Karen Hanson – and the sheer magnitude of history and culture around us. It is time to move on, however, so we can take our international experience back with us and try our hands at the next challenge. From Florence, Italy, arrivederci.
(05/31/09 11:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>FLORENCE, Italy – Only three weeks into our adventure in Florence, we already feel as if we have nothing to do with those “other” tourists.We, as expatriate, refugee students, immersed in our Renaissance culture, are something else entirely. We push past hordes of visitors with their wide-angle lenses and radio headsets tuned into the voices of their tour leaders, because we have things to do. Lunch, shopping and the ATM are all to be had between classes daily. The pulse of this city, this culture, is becoming second nature. We react to sights and sounds as if they were our own. We find ourselves unsurprised by the little things anymore. Restaurants, conversations, train stations and medieval church etiquette are trivial at this point. The sunsets begin to leave us unfazed, but they are magical nonetheless. Seeing the waning light on the Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio, distant Tuscan mountains, and the Ponte Vecchio – the only bridge spared by German bombs during World War II – reminds us that many shadows have been cast on these places, and we are witnessing only a very few of them. But we are privileged still. The sheer amount of this art and architecture we are exposed to, and the history behind it, forces our foreign eyes to take a closer look. Every painting and sculpture in this rich city has meaning, investment and powerful motivation. It all comes to bear, coming to form a very real part of the city that was built around its financial and cultural wealth. Easily ignored as newly anointed Florentines, now we are finally hearing the buzzing of political and civic life. Firenze and Toscana are about to have elections in June, and this has brought loud, confusing rallies for various figures daily. Political discourse has even reached the point of bringing the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, to our streets. IU students spotted him outside Louis Vuitton with full police escort to protect him from throngs of admirers.Noticeably, our hotel’s proprietor, Erminio, in his hilarious paranoia, even goes so far as to spell the French president’s name “Sarkozy” in his Wi-Fi password – just in case the European Union is checking up on him. Other symbols of Italian promotion are also to be seen: the newly released film “Angels & Demons” could not be advertised or exploited more heavily than it is here in its home setting. Seeing the movie in Italian dubbing, with expert Tom Hanks impersonation, only makes the experience more validated for some reason. Everyone who hails from Bloomington molds to our temporary home in each person’s own way. Mostly, having camaraderie close at hand makes this place feel like a displaced version of our beloved IU – just without the Sample Gates or Indiana Memorial Union. Some small measure of solitude can be found simply by listening. If we only stop to listen to the noise and the music alike, humming up from the streets to meet us on the terrace at each night, we can hear more than just our own conversations. We can start to hear the life behind the veil of thousands of years of history. We can begin to truly understand this place, without it becoming just another vacation for our scrapbooks.
(05/17/09 10:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>FLORENCE, ITALY – Arriving in Florence after 16 hours of travel could not have been more fulfilling. The last thing I saw before making the turn onto our hotel’s street, Via delle Oche, was the monolithic, looming shadow of the Duomo. It rose from the piazza like the dream I knew it would be. Now I see that same wondrous structure every night from the terrace of our pensione high above the narrow streets that we are just starting to memorize. Strolling the streets of Firenze can at first be a confusing mess of winding medieval navigation, but it quickly becomes a favorite evening-time activity, when gelato, cappuccino and people-watching are at their best. Walking among both Florentines and international visitors alike, we get no sense of cross-cultural hostility or boundary. Rather, there is an understood symbiotic and economic relationship that binds us together. And more importantly, I have never seen so many faces light up upon seeing students try out their newly acquired language skills. Something about the effort put forth by us as visitors is so appreciated by those we now live among. This hasn’t arisen specifically or obviously because of our instant international Obama credibility, but from something greater.All this is appreciated so much more through the lens of the intensive culture, language and art classes we find ourselves in. Being forced to draw every inch of the Duomo or the statues in La Loggia or having to struggle through restaurant ordering or requests for directions in Italian truly tests us. Through this, though, we have already grown so much as students. The rooftops and alleys seen far below us pulse with this life that we’ve been able to make our own as well. The drive to descend each day and join the fray is irresistible. We find ourselves craving this culture and everything it has to offer. We find ourselves wanting to experience every nook and cranny, to uncover Florence’s ancient mysteries, to get to know each other and make memories for a lifetime. These feelings are only intensified by the incredible pleasures to be had here. From the unbeatable food and endless wine to simply being in the environment that birthed the Renaissance, we as IU students are all stimulated in ways we never imagined. We have acquired a new family both in the people of Florence with whom we eat, elbow-to-elbow, and in each other as expatriates. Though we are challenged daily to adjust to our new temporary homes, depending on each other as fellow students, and without the people we love who are a world away, we approach it all with a sense of adventure still. Each day brings us closer to understanding this place and the complexities of a city that has existed since well before Christ. The only thing left now is to always remember our place as visitors and respect the culture and history with open minds and hearts.