Prompt 2 GL 350

What have I found exhilarating and oppressing?

            I have not been long since the group and I have been in Rome and traveling and visiting different places with in Italy but as expected it does not take long for one to feel the immediate culture differences between Italy and the United States. As an over view so far of the journey I can say overall that I have find the experience to more on the exhilarating side rather than the oppressing side which I am sure that is how a majority if the not the whole group feels the  same way. There are certain things that make me feel more than the other I suppose that is Italy’s “Charm” working its magical spells on me. As Barzini had said,”Sheer Superiority does not interest them as much as the special quality which imbues everything, animate or inanimate, in Italy and nowhere else. (54)”

            One of the specific things that I have found exhilarating on these first few weeks is the different sights. It is one thing to read something in a history book and see pictures of these things but to see the mass beauty in person is just absolutely breath taking. You walk around and see these huge gardens you see these massive churches that are carved and decorated on every inch of the building leaving to wonder how the construction of these buildings was ever completed. Then you go inside and these churches are just lines in gold marble and beautiful paintings and mosaics from floor to ceiling. You just really do not even know what to do with your eyes because there is so much to look at. Another thing is just the cities seem to overflow with culture. You have all the street performers playing flawlessly on their instruments giving you beautiful soundtracks to the piazza’s as you see hundreds of people talking enjoying each other’s company and enjoying the weather and of course the gelato. This brings me right into the next thing, the food. By far have had some of the best pizzas and the best pastas I have ever had in my life, it has been a true blessing for my taste buds, What is even better is a lot of these foods are freshly made but yet are too damaging on your wallet.  I think there is just so much history packed into these cities that you can just go anywhere over and over again and just learn something new every single time so in a way the old things never seem to get old.

            Everything is not all peachy here though there are plenty of things I find to be oppressive, some things would go away with learning but others are a part of the society. Now the weather has been a mix for me I love the sun and semi warm weather like around 60 degrees so some of the days here have actually been perfect for me but I really hate rainy gloomy days. Now I know some might say its better than the weather home but oddly enough I actually love the snow so I wouldn’t mind the weather at home either. These wet depressing gray sky days though to me I find oppressive. Another thing I find oppressing is the way the traffic dives here. There are so many dangerous corners and narrow roads that make walking dangerous in the first place but through in a whole bunch of speeding cars with no care for any rules of the road and it really make you fear for your safety when walking the streets of Rome. Even being in a cross walk doesn’t guarantee that the car while stop for you which can be pretty stressful when walking through the city. I have said earlier the sights and views are gorgeous but I would be lying if I said I enjoyed the walk up the mountains sides to get to those places. Every society has different crimes that people must worry about that in other places you do not have to look for or really worry about. Well the pick pocketing I find to be very oppressive you can never really relax when you’re out in public you always have to be a little bit on edge at least to make sure someone isn’t trying to come take advantage of you and steal the things right out of your pockets. I always feel like I have to watch my back and check my pockets very 50 feet to make sure everything is still there. Lastly I find not being able to fluently speak the language to be pretty oppressive. Communication is so key especially when you are charting unknown territories and when what seems like basic communication I often forget the words and how to ask certain questions or understand what people are trying to say to can really be frustrating. But that is something that can eventually be fixed with just patience and studying the language.

            Overall like I already stated overall I found this experience to be much more exhilarating than oppressive and I have loved every second that I have been here so far even the walking because the journeys to get to places in their selves add to the excitement of your experience. Every place has their ups and downs and these are what really personally stood out to me as the ups and downs of Italy in these first few weeks.

“Henry James suspected that the pleasure of Italy was inseparably tied to the human element, the people who had created the landscape almost with their own hands in the course of so many centuries.(55)” - Barzini