It is hard to know now, less than a
week into the trip, how I will have changed by the end of it. However, if I
have to guess the first thing that comes to mind is confidence. Even in the
short amount of time that we have been here I already feel more confident, in
greeting people, ordering things, and especially navigating. Of course though,
we still have a lot more to learn and of course we will make plenty of mistakes
along the way. But, all of these skills that we are learning here in Italy will
also carry over to our lives back in the U.S.
In
The Italians by Luigi Barzini he said
that people who travel to Italy do things that they normally would not do in
their native land. I was not sure what he meant at first but I think I
understand it better and will even understand it more by the end of this trip. Even
in these first couple of days I found myself pushing through people on the
crowded trains and guarding my purse from practically everyone. These are small
examples, but they are not normally things that I would do if I were at home,
but it seems somehow to be more appropriate here. It was interesting to notice
this. Another part of his book that caught my attention was when he said that
people who have not traveled to Italy, or Europe in general, are aware of some
sort of inferiority. I hope that when I go home to my family I will not be too
smug after having spent eight weeks abroad.
I also imagine that I will learn how
to work more efficiently in a team, and with more patience. Because of the
nature of my majors at Walsh, group projects are few and far between; most of
the work is done individually. And while I have had plenty of opportunities to
work in groups and with partners in high school and at Walsh, I have never had
to navigate a foreign city with people my age who also were not sure of what
exactly to do. Trying to do all this with ten other people is not easy.
However, I already think that we work well together but I also think that by
the end of this trip we will all be able to improve in listening to each other
and working together even more.
I suppose that while returning home
I’ll have a heightened sense of compassion for the people living in the U.S.
who do not speak English at all or very little of it. I will understand now how
it feels to be somewhere where the language and customs are so very different
from one’s own. It is intimidating to go to the grocery store and trying to
locate certain foods, interact with the people, and pay with strange money.
After having experienced this all myself, I know that I will not get frustrated
with someone who cannot communicate in English, which would be hypocritical of
me.
There are a lot of ways in which a
person may change after travelling abroad, and so far I have just begun to
scratch the surface.
