Final blog GL 350

          Being here in Rome has taught me many lessons about other cultures and other ways of life. It has really taught me to be more understanding and more patient overall. I think one of the major things about this trip is it teaches us to work with people who do things we don’t understand. It forces students to learn about people to find ways to better communicate with them to get the things you need. These are some of the things that I think have made me a global citizen.

            Something Global citizens should be able to do is learn their surroundings fast, without depending on the internet and google to always be there. During this trip I have had to learn Rome in and out, the bus system and train schedule. I had to learn the roads without using my phone at all; I had to use a regular map.  If I got lost I have to find a way to communicate with people to find a way or find someone that spoke English. This process teaches patience. Trying to get directions from someone who speaks very little to no English can be very frustrating for you and the person trying to help. But if they can see that you are trying to understand them and communicate in a way that is easier for them they will appreciate your effort.

            I also know now the effort it takes to really learn and appreciate a culture that is not your own. It doesn’t sound hard but it truly is easier said than done. You do things to not upset locals so you drop your usual everyday habits to do things that are the regular for them. You truly embrace every part of their culture from food to public behavior to see the world from their view. That’s one thing I have really done well here in Rome and I think that’s a big part to being a global citizen. Just completely engulfing one's self in another culture to understand why they do the things they do and what it is like to be in their shoes. If everybody could be more understanding in this manner there would be so many less conflicts in the world.

            When you take the time to learn other cultures like we have on this trip you become more understanding, which in turn creates less conflict. If somebody doesn’t know about your culture and does something that is disrespectful in your culture. But you understand their culture and you know that in their culture it is in fact a respectful gesture. You can prevent so many bad situations from happening over just a simple understanding.

            Everything I have described have been skills that I have learned being over here in Rome. And I feel like such a better person knowing another culture so in depth and being able to better understand people I could not before. Not only that but as global citizens the experiences you have people love to hear. You see places people only dream of seeing and people love to hear about the experience. I can now go home and tell people about my amazing travel adventures, the things I seen and crazy situations I may have ended up in. It just makes you a more interesting person and people will love to hear you talk about your experiences. These things are what make a person a global citizen and this is why I feel like the Rome experience made me a global citizen.

Final Blog SOC 490

What can U.S. take from Italians as far as health promotion? I think both systems could take a lot from each other to improve on either side. Looking specifically at the United States I think there are a few important key points that the U.S. could take from the Italians. The Italian health care system is not perfect but a lot of things that they have a lot of different things that they implement that would be really helpful if it were implicated in our society.

I think it would really be nice to have an emphasis on getting kids active in the States. I remember during one of our classes in Rome there was a period where they would take all the kids out to be active by participating in competitive sport. I know in the U.S. there is recess and gym but there is no extensive period of exercise like there is in Italy for their kids. The diets are also very different and I think the diet is healthier in Italy than in the United States. One thing I have noticed is Italians have a lot more home cooked food with groceries bought from local markets than in the United State. Which again I think is a lot healthier than the food that we eat. We eat so much fast food and foods that are pre-made that come in cans and it is very unhealthy. Here in Italy everything is made at home and if it’s not from home more than likely it was still made from fresh ingredients. With most of the stores being home run businesses you really get better quality food then what you get at most places in the United States.

The general Italian life style is a lot more active I think than the average Americans. In United States the only time we really work out is planned work outs. We’ll go to the gym for an hour or two then go home and relax. I have yet to even see a gym in Italy; they don’t really have the workout style that we do. They just walk everywhere or they ride their bikes and overall they Italians are just so much more active. I mean the other day I seen a lady dressed in work clothes and high heels riding a bike up a huge hill, which I think is insane. You definitely would not see anyone in the States doing that. Not saying the way we work out is not good but I think if people were more active in their everyday lives like Italians and we weren’t sitting around so much everybody would be in so much better shape.

Our health care is starting to move in the direction of the Italians which I think is really good. The Italians have a much more group minded health care system and that’s what we are moving too. I think that the health care system is a lot like a sports team. The health of the country is a lot better when everyone takes care of each other and picks each other up. But it doesn’t work if you have one superstar and the rest of your team is awful or doing poorly. In other words you have few people that have the money to afford the expensive health care while everybody else just suffers without it. These are things I think the United States could pick up from Italy. 

Blog #6 SOC 490

           When the question is brought up if disease can be cured through prayer I think the answer is yes but I do not exactly think it is the power of the prayers that cures people. During our class discussion, topics were brought up like if we thing God knows all, if free will is real and do we truly possess free will? I think really to answer this blog question these things need to be addressed.

            For starters I am a strong believer a free will, I do think as humans we have free will but for us to possess this there are some things that cannot be true. Like God knowing the future, if God knows the future then that means we do not have free will. It means everybody is on sort of a rail and regardless of what they do or think they are doing, their life will go a certain way because things that are meant to be will be. I disagree with this; I think it is all in the power of the human mind. A popular philosophy idea that I agree with is God does in fact know all but only the past and the present. He knows everything that has happened and everything that is happening at this very second but he cannot see at all into the future. I don’t believe God picks and chooses what bad and what good things happen to people. I think things just simply happen that are out of anyone’s control. Some people get sick, some people win the lottery I think these are events happen randomly, not because it was a person’s destiny.

            What does this have to do with the power of prayer you might be asking? Well this is getting to the point of how I think the power of prayer works. If you believe God is all knowing even into the future then you think the power of prayer works. But there is a difference in the reasoning; these people might think that God chose them to survive their trials. That is was their destiny to get past these troubles and they were supposed to learn some sort of lessons. Regardless of if you think Free will is real I do think God tries to teach us that we cannot do things alone, that we need other people. I think that this strength that cures disease is not from him but the inner strength that lies with in humans. When we come together this inner strength grows improving our chances of survival.

            I believe that when people tell you that they are praying for you or even if you’re praying for yourself it gives you this inner push to fight and not give in and to survive. If someone tells me their praying for me, you get this feeling that you can’t let that person down. You don’t even want to do it for yourself, you want to do it for them, you want to be their miracle. Of course the person doesn’t know what’s going on in your head. To them it’s a miracle from God but really it was you inspired by their prayers and fighting not to let your loved ones down by not giving up. I think this is the power of prayer. A person by themselves who has given up on themselves will not survive. It’s not destiny or fait for them not to survive they just are not receiving that inner boost that you get when people are there for you pushing you to keep fighting. Now I am not saying if people are there for you will automatically survive but I just think it pushes you in a way you couldn’t be pushed otherwise. You want to be there for them to make them happy, not because of yourself, not because you were meant to survive, just for that feeling you get when you see everybody that loves you, smiling and embracing your presence because you  made it. So in that prospective yes prayers do cure diseases, you push yourself to live because you know how much you mean to the people around you.

             

Blog #6 GL 350

Rome is like the origin of the Catholic Church, when you go through the city and visit all of the different historic monuments you can just see how the Roman lifestyle has just always intertwined with the Catholic Church and vice-versa. Roman people often reflect the catholic traditions and do everything in the name of the church. You can really see this devotion in the construction of the buildings. Nowhere else in the world can you find massive beautiful churches covered in the wonderful arts of the most skilled painters and sculptors in history on every block that you walk. You can also see this devotion in their words as well; they have always truly appreciated what has been given to them by God. “I fall, I stray, and yet your beauty makes me happy and nothing else can please my heart in love with everything sublime but that, descending here to me on earth, you are not set apart…” – Michelangelo.

            The Catholic Church is even usually understood to mean the same as Roman Catholic Church. It’s obvious that a culture has made a major impact on a religion and way of life when the name of your city is globally understood and combined with the name of the actual religion. If you look at the Italian health care system it always has and still does reflect the ideas of the Catholic Church. The church believes in caring for everyone around you, loving everybody like they were family because everybody is family. One must take care of the others around them and in return other people will take care of him. Barzini often talks about the importance of family for the Italians and how much support they will get from their families. Italians are a very close knit people. This is how Rome has always operated, looking at the grand scale of the churches view and taking care of its entire people. In the past Rome made aqueducts and public fountains to give the people of the city places to receive fresh drinking water, who otherwise would not have this precious resource. They built public bath houses so people who could not afford the luxury of a bath could come and clean their bodies for a price so cheap any citizen could afford it. An endless amount of public churches so that any person could come and give praise no matter what class they were or how much money they had. Even the public Piazzas, every class would gather here and socialize with each other. These allowed all of Gods children to come together in one area to simply enjoying each other’s company and conversation. These piazzas would allow people to ignore the usual boundaries of social class. Even when you look at modern day they have created a universal health care system. So that everybody including the poor and the rich could have access to the health care when they or sick, injured, or just need a checkup and medicine. Regardless of job and income they can receive help and that kind of community support is what the church emphasizes.

            How is the Catholic Church global? Well I personally have never been to mass in a catholic church ever in my life until this trip. I do know many catholic people though. My girlfriend and her family are Catholics, her parents are from Mexico and she is from Columbus. I have many friends at Walsh from all over the United States who are also catholic. Now these people have often explained to me how mass works and the things that they do in each mass. What I found amazing is that even all the way over here in Rome they have the same exact routines. All over the world Catholic churches have the same routines in different languages. These traditions are the same across so many miles, so many different people and through so many different countries. That is truly the definition of global. During the Easter mass it was truly noticeable how global the catholic church is. During the mass as i sat awaiting the pop you could literally hear about 15 different languages in the c rowd as I listned to people talking. Also what I found to be very interesting is during the mass about 10 different fathers came up to tell a prayer all on a different language. It just truly shows how vast the catholic religion is because the mass amount of people from different countries that will appear for a major mass. My step dad had even sent me a picture of CNN covering the Easter mass and the message the Pope was giving. The roman catholic religion is truly global and a message that is delivered all around the world.