Bologna Baloney: 2013

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Feelings about leaving (in other words: a post you should skip because it's too sappy)

So, given that my last post was in February, it might seem kind of silly that I'm posting now. However, I've deemed it necessary because today is (basically) my last day in Bologna. I'm not sure if it's the impending doom of leaving that got me up at 7 this morning, or the deathly heat we've been having here for the last week.
Now that I've written that first paragraph I feel particularly stupid because (cliche warning) I really can't put these feelings into words. If this even makes it to my blog it will be a miracle. I'm just going to write down some dumb stuff and make you all read it.
Last year around this time I was packing up my dorm room in Chicago and saying goodbye to family and friends that I wouldn't see for a year. I remember how difficult I thought that was. Tosca and I sat for a long time on my dorm room floor, while she helped me clean up and pack so that we could extend our goodbye as long as possible. My friends gave me the world's coolest card (a page from a book with certain words circled that spelled out a message) and candy in the colors of the Italian flag. Both my parents came to the airport to send me off. My mom snuck a card into my suitcase which I didn't find until the day I moved into my apartment in Bologna. That was a complicated and confusing day and that was the day I needed her support the most. My little siblings diligently talked to me weekly over Skype even though, at age 4 and 3, I'm sure they have other things they'd rather be doing. My mom and brother came to visit me at Christmas, as did Hannah and Tosca at different points during the year. I received two folders worth of letters and postcards from friends and family over the course of this year, and I never ever stopped feeling the love from home.
This might seem emotional and you're probably sick of reading it, but it's these amazing people and my good memories of them that are making it easier to know that I'm leaving Bologna tomorrow and Italy in a month (for anyone that doesn't know, I'm spending the next month working at a summer camp in Lake Como) Just quickly, to my friends and family back home: I know I like to pretend that I'm some world traveler without a true home and no strings attached, but that is totally just me putting on a brave face because I missed you guys this year more than you could possibly know. And I'm going to need you now more than ever because saying goodbye to the people here is a whole different beast.
Those goodbyes last year were difficult, yes, but also somewhat simple in the sense that most people I was leaving behind I would see again in 10 months, 11 months, a year. Leaving Bologna is weird because the time until I see these people again is completely undetermined and quite possibly infinite. So goodbyes are complicated, because what do you even say to all these people that became your family in less than a year? I feel like in the past I've said that I hate goodbyes because they are sad and I don't deal with sad very well (but who does?) This round of goodbyes is sad, sure, but it's also more complicated than just "goodbye, I'll miss you." I think that's an element of this experience that I didn't expect, and I'm sure lots of people can relate.
Last night my roommate said to me "sicuramente è un'esperienza che cambia la vita" (it's definitely a life-changing experience.) Countless other people have told me the same thing. I can't speak to that because I don't know if I'm changed. How does a person know if they've changed? I think all I know right now is that I got to live in a cool city for a year and meet amazing people and I'm so happy I got to do it. I'm lucky too, to be living in the 21st century, where computers and cellphones make communication just that much faster and the world is that much smaller (incidentally, the same technology is what allows me to spread my sappy thoughts worldwide via this blog.)
So yeah, I'm leaving, and a small part of me is devastated but a bigger part of me is just happy and grateful that I got to do this and then the biggest part of me is so freaking pumped for the future.
And you thought this was going to be a sad post.

Bologna, ti voglio proprio bene.
Arrivederci!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A Thing That Happened Today

Ciao Ciao,

I'm going to get my Venice post up soon, but first I just wanted to tell a quick story today about a weird experience I had in class. The moment was so small and insignificant that you all are probably going to think I'm silly for even posting about it.

Instead of my regular contemporary history class this afternoon we had a special lecture given by Arundhati Virmani, an Indian historian who lectured about a historical atlas of India that she created. Besides being a really cool lecture, it was also given in English, because Virmani is not fluent in Italian. (Fair enough, I say, as her book is in French and she already speaks both English and Hindi fluently) So, as you can probably imagine, our professor gave short summaries of the key points in the lecture in Italian after every few minutes or so. I'm sure the constant switching of languages is what caused this super small and seemingly insignificant event.

Part-way through the lecture I looked down and skimmed the notes I had been taking, which as far as I knew, had been completely in English. Besides my usual trouble spelling words like "exercised" and "ideology" I was pleased with my notes. They seemed pretty good for having attended only Italian lectures for a semester-plus. However, one phrase I wrote stood out to me immediately. It goes something like this:

Ideal representations of India
--representing territory nella forma of a woman eg.

As you've all probably noticed, the phrase I wrote starts out in English with the words "representing territory" then switches to Italian at "nella forma," (meaning "in the form") only to switch right back to English with "of a woman."

Weird, right? My brain just decided to switch to another language right in the middle of a sentence. The weirder part? I didn't even notice until a bit afterward.

This occurrence is actually not that uncommon in the reverse. For example, if I'm in an Italian lecture and I don't know how to spell a word, I'll sometimes write it's English equivalent in my notes. This, however, is much more conscious. My brain recognizes the fact that it can't spell the word in Italian and then I consciously decide to write it in English instead.

It's also not that uncommon when I'm speaking. Here in Bologna, especially amongst my American friends, we speak a lot of Ingltano, (pronounced ing-ull-tah-noh) a made-up language that is mostly English but uses Italian insertions. For example, in Italy people say "boh" to signify "I don't know" and it's usually accompanied by a shrug. I use the word "capito" a lot, which means "I get it," and sometimes I'll say "secondo me" which means "according to me." These words have become so second nature to use (even in English conversations) that I sometimes don't notice when I do it anymore.

I don't really know anything about how the brain works and I'm a believer that it's a part of us that we still have a lot to learn about. I just think sub-conscious occurrences like these are weird and cool so I thought I'd share mine with you.

Monday, February 18, 2013

2 Months, One Post: Family Visits, New Years, and Rome

I last left off with a post about studying. Before Christmas I took 3 out of the 4 exams that I needed to take to finish fall semester. I took the last of the 4 at the end of January, and did fine, despite having caught the Italian flu the week before. So, fall semester? Check! Mixed feelings of relief from being done with oral exams and panic in realizing that I only have one semester left in Bologna.

On December 18th my mom and brother arrived in Bologna. I've realized that having visitors here is great because not only do I get to show off my Italian, but I get to show them around and in the process remind myself what I love so much about Bologna and Italy in general. This can be easy to forget when caught up in the stress of studying and exams, so having my family here around the holidays was very refreshing.

In Bologna, some of the highlights included the Teatro Anatomico, which I discussed in an earlier post, the 7 churches of Santo Stefano, and caffè affogato (espresso poured over gelato) at the Sorbetteria. My mom and brother also climbed Asinelli, the taller of the famous two towers.

I couldn't join them because of some ancient myth that if you climb it while attending the University of Bologna, you will never graduate. Let me be clear: I'm not a superstitious person. In fact, I've stepped on this bad boy more times than I can count:


The University of Chicago seal. The legend goes that if you step on it, you won't graduate in four years.

I'm not trying to mess with any Italian superstitions, though. Here's Mom and Ollie at a cafe near Santo Stefano:

After a few days in Bologna, we traveled together to the small city of Bolzano. Bolzano is so far north it's almost in Austria, so we got a taste of winter wonderland while we there, which was nice so close to Christmas.

The real attraction of Bolzano, however, was this guy:

Otzi, born circa 3300 BCE (photo from Wikipedia)

Otzi is a prehistoric "natural mummy" who was found all well-preserved in the icy mountain-scape between Italy and Austria. The actual location of his recovery has been largely disputed over the years. He has a whole museum devoted to him in Bolzano, only part of which is the actual mummy. The rest is theories about his death and reconstructions of what his life might have been like. Look at the juxtaposition of Ollie and Otzi right there. That turned out quite nicely.

After Bolzano, it was just Mom and I for Christmas. I'm going to share more about Christmas in Venice with another post. Before that though, Mom and made the pilgrimage up to San Luca, a church in the hills of Bologna. Ecco le foto:

The portico that leads up to San Luca is the longest in the world.

Wow this is getting long! Good thing it's mostly pictures. I hope you aren't tired because we have a ways to go.

I've never been to New Years Eve in Times Square, but I imagine that Bologna matches up pretty well given its size. Piazza Maggiore on New Years was like a mini Times Square, but without the police presence. Everyone was drunk, there was broken glass everywhere, and people were packed in all to get a view of one of Bologna's strangest traditions. Each year, they burn a giant statue that symbolizes the past year as a sort of "out with the old, in with new" kind of thing. This year the statue was of a wind-up monkey, intended to symbolize how as a people in 2012, we were too controlled by society and our surroundings. So, it stands to reason that the robot monkey had to be burned in a huge public demonstration, right?

Video! Guaranteed to make you dizzy!

The rest of January went by very quickly. The new people for BCSP spring semester arrived, which resulted in the rest of us getting all the free dinners that we got the first time around in the fall. I think I've mentioned this before, but when BCSP feeds us, they FEED us. My roommate Monica moved out in order to make room for our other roommate Elisa, who came back from study abroad in Belgium. Monica is still living down the street right now though, so we still see her every so often. I got the Italian flu, which sucked majorly, but I recovered nicely with a 28 (A-) on my lit exam.

Right at the tail-end of January I went to Rome with Noelle and Margaret. I've been to Rome before, on a high-school trip. I loved it then obviously, but it was cool to see these things again without being in an enormous group following a lady with a blue pom-pom on a stick. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but among the highlights for me were the catacombs, the spring-like weather, and the view from the top of St. Peter's.