From England - A Final Reflection

England, apart from the British accents, which we all love, really didn’t feel too different from America. Then again, this whole Eurotrip I haven’t felt entirely in another culture like I had in Italy. I know one reason was that I felt never really felt out of place during this trip. In Brussels, with visiting my old school and former go-to restaurants, of course I felt right at home. In Paris, my French carried me enough to not feel out of sorts and I still had vivid memories of visiting Paris many a time, along with Amsterdam. Then London, well is as close to America as you can get without being in America. The restaurants and shops were another big thing. In Italy, there were no chains or variety of choices for the most part. Every shop and pizzeria was family run and the only chains were grocery stores, which there weren’t a ton of. Contrastingly, in all the cities we visited, there were chains everywhere, from KFC and Pizza Hut to Staples and Best Buy – stores that simply don’t exist in Italy as far as I saw, even downtown in Roman tourist areas. I just got a different feel from Rome than the other cities, it seemed more culturally authentic then the others. I know that everyone wants to scream at me how bias I am because of how I lived there and knew the ins and outs better but I’m trying to be objective and really do feel like if you want a taste of authentic culture within a major European city, Rome (or Italy) is definitely your destination. However, Rome also does not have solid public transport, extraordinary customer service or the variety of food options that these other cities did. Everything’s a give and take. I am very happy to say though that I can count on my hand the amount of times in Rome that I had food that was not Italian in nature. Then again, I can’t blame Londoners for not wanting to have solely English food places everywhere.

Late semester relaxing & reflecting in Villa Borghese

Leaving this morning really wasn’t that tough. I have to say, the saddest I was about leaving was two Saturdays ago when all my Roman friends left. That, to me, officially marked the end of my time studying abroad. The past two weeks have been great, but they’ve felt like a vacation. I’m not in Rome anymore, and I’m not in Baltimore. It was a weird feeling, I’m not exactly sure how to describe it. In my perfect world, I’d be in Rome for the summer with some kind of job (tour guide) and perhaps even studying there again Fall semester. I don’t know how possible it is but I’m also not ruling out another study abroad opportunity at this point either. But yeah, after I got over everyone leaving Rome, it wasn’t as hard to return home as I thought it would be. Walking around Rome with Adam for those 4 extra days felt so weird, seeing all the sights and bars I had just been with my Roman friends; it felt like I was looking back at another life, especially in the case of when I took him to eat at the Archi Bar next to school only about 20 hours after I had been there celebrating the end of finals with everyone. I had so much fun living there this semester, I learned so much both in and outside of the classroom, expanded my worldview, became more aware of so much about the world, I met so many great people, saw so many great places; I really am struggling to find a negative, which I’m normally good at doing in situations. I got no sleep that last Saturday, I just laid there thinking about the great 4 months that I just had. I also remember getting no sleep my last night in my apartment in College Park in the Fall but I didn’t even understand what great life changing experience I was about to have at that point. That Michael is so changed now, but don’t worry, I’d say it’s for the better, but again, I might be bias, I am me after all. Per questo, vi ringrazio, Roma. Sempre, forza Roma ed Italia.