Las Italspanglish Chronicles Dell'Italia: December 2011

I only clicked my heels together a few times before the hourglass released the last grain of sand that sent me away, for now.

Perugia. Four months. Full immersion. Umbra. Stranieri. Language. Personal growth. Goals realized.

These are just a few words prancing incoherently around in my head. I can't fully figure out yet how to puzzle them all together, to pencil them into my now American agenda to remember.

Studying abroad can't be summed up in a few words or phrases or conversations.

It's in scattered thoughts and hopefully not only in shoe boxes and on posters and in scrapbooks and through voices, et al.

A whole lot has happened since my last post. For simplicity's sake, I think I'll just go for the where I'm at now portion of this. And obviously, they're a bit scattered like my brain right now!

1) I have forgotten almost all the Spanish I have learned, and thus this blog is not so rightfully called "italspanglish" anymore. On the other hand, I am more or less proficient in general day-to-day Italian. Ho superato l' esame per livello B1! Woot! Woot! I passed the B1 exam! =]
I still have a lot more to go for sure, and I'm really excited to pick up where I left off this winter with my tutor, and to take/audit an Italian Conversation class when I get back to Plymouth. I even requested to be an Italian tutor if the need arises. Even further than that, I decided to become an Umbra Ambassador to share my experiences and inspire other students to make their own in future semesters in Perugia. Whatever it takes to keep what I've learned and to continue, you bet I'm going to do it! This obviously includes spending honey bunches of ~~oats~~ money on Italian movies and music. The language skills, and more profoundly, the personal growth I've acquired, are just too important to allow them to slip through the sand in my fingers.

2) I really connected to a few people in Perugia, and I'm excited for their budding friendships :).Shout outs to Renee, Gina and Jessica!!!

3) Overall, this experience has been first, the most difficult and challenging thing I've ever done; second, the scariest; and finally, THE SINGLE MOST REWARDING. EVER. I eventually re-remembered what I went there to do, which was to live and to stay outside my comfort zone for an extended period of time. And guess what? I DID IT!!!! =D And I even liked Perugia by the end. A lot! :] (The traffic and other Perugian quirks and I reached an understanding).
This has definitely been a humbling experience as well. Before I went to Perugia, anything less than an A warranted disappointment and frustration. I can tell you straight up, that I'm probably NOT getting an A for my final grade this semester. And you something? I'm cool with that. I'll settle for a B. It's not that I didn't work really hard, but rather it's the fact that I 'worked' in another way. Which brings me to:

4) I acquired instead of learned. Yes, I studied (mostly the first month), but I intentionally focused on spending most of my time getting out there to practice. I was literally imitating sponge-like qualities. After my midterm, I realized how much I was struggling with the listening part of the language. After this, I made it a point to immerse myself even further. I started going to Blockbuster (I know right? In Italy!) and renting Disney movie after Disney movie in Italian (this was after seeing "Il Re Leone" ["The Lion King"] in theaters with my friend Jessica). Then I started acquiring some Italian music. I can tell you that for about two and a half months, I only watched movies in Italian and for the most part only listened to Italian music ( I can only think of maybe four exceptions). Honestly, this right here was probably one of the few things I've ever set my mind to and kept up with consistently. Like, ever. You just can't procrastinate on learning another language. It's not something you can really cram in, especially in the environment in which I was living; I just had to soak it up, and again, acquire, one word, verb tense, and pronoun function at a time.

But back to 3) for a second, but really kind of 5):
3/5)

But before I forget:
6) Umbra staff is the shit. I've kept saying this because it's just true: they just have 'it'. They are the type of people that are really looking out for you, the people that make themselves approachable because of an altruistic desire to help, because they understand what it's like for you, and because they are just the most kind-hearted souls you'll ever meet. And if shit hits the fan, they want to help you cut the switch in any way they can. Not to mention, they will put up with any question you've got, whether it be about how to use the buses, where to find the hidden treasures of Perugia, if there's some project or volunteering opportunity you could get your hands on, or even if they're going out tonight and if they have a few minutes just to chat.
Also, my Italian professors both with Umbra and Stranieri were awesome. I got so incredibly lucky this semester, because I had such intelligent and caring people pushing me further and helping me along the way. GRAZIE MILLE! (Italians say 'thanks a thousand'. Who needs a million when a thousand will suffice?)

Okay, here for real:
3/5) It was challenging and scary because it was new and big and I was plucked out of my Plymouth pea-pod sized context (and Beverly's maternal ocean breezes) and then kerplunked into the CITY of Perugia, with nothing familiar to mom me into seamless adaptation. I felt alone for a while, like everyone thought Perugia was too small, and like to them the buses were the right size and foreign drunkards were just passersby and changing contexts was just another course syllabus with expectations for the semester (or sometimes lack thereof). And yet, I did adapt and change. As I thought (in hindsight), it took me a good deal of time to do so (say, 3+ months), but I ended on a high note. And it's rewarding because, well, it's simply 99.9% impossible to study abroad in a foreign context and NOT learn about yourself and grow into a better person (and a more worldly and cultured one at that).
And the real 5) part is that I'm ready to take everything and put it into practice, and start meshing it with U.S. culture. It'll be weird going home, turning 21 (December 29! Woot! Woot!), and getting carded for the first time, because it actually matters in the States; it's a 'big' deal. The cultural differences on alcohol will likely hit me then. We drank wine for a class party here at Stranieri in Perugia at the end of the semester. And it was in the classroom. And that was absolutely fine. I've posted pictures of beer being sold in the University cafe (which will be called a cafe, and not a bar once I get back home... interesting to think about...).

But the most important and worthy sfida (challenge), is definitely going to be to live this experience everyday. Don't shoebox it. That means don't just put all your souvenirs in a scrapbook and a box and forget about them, or hoard them because you think you can't hold on to your experience. That's probably one of the best pieces of advice I've been given, by multiple individuals (thanks Umbra!). Sure, I'll be making a scrapbook and posters of pictures and throwing my movie together of all the clips I took along the way from this trip, but I've already vowed to myself that I'm going to be active in some small way, everyday if possible, to keep this experience in the flesh (Shout out to Gina Blechman, for obvious inside joke reasons).

WARNING: Scattered ~~clouds~~ thoughts with a chance of ~~rain~~ brain storming.
I'm in limbo. I'm going home tomorrow (December 22). Bring on the transition. Ready or not, it's just an ocean and un sacco d' ore lontano (a 'sack' of hours away). Comunque, penso che io sia pronta.
Translation^

Arrivederci Perugia!
Ho detto "ciao ciao" al signore del "Ciao Ciao"; ho detto "ci vediamo presto" alla lingua; ho detto "ci sentiamo" ai miei nuovi amici. Ho detto tutte le cose che avevo bisogno di dire alle persone che ho incontrato e che mi hanno aiutato. Sono contenta, Perugia, perché avevo paura quando tu mi hai sballottato qua e là, sono comunque sopravvissuta, ho vissuto ed ho imparato i modi in cui si ama. Forse non era un grande amore, ma di amore, comunque, si trattava. Ho pensato per un po' di tempo che il lupo mi stesse mordendo, ma la fortuna è stata mia e il lupo è crepato! Ancora non so la storia del lupo esattamente, anche se questo detto è molto comune nella lingua parlata. Quindi ho bisogno di tornare presto in Italia. Ha tutto senso, ovviamente! In questo momento, però, so nel mio cuore che è giusto ed è anche bene che io sia tornata negli Stati Uniti, perché così potrò condividere le mie esperienze con le persone a cui voglio bene. Ti saluto, Perugia, e spero che tutti i tuoi studenti (nel passato, nel presente e nel futuro) troveranno la felicità. Ti auguro una vita piena di divertimento, di crescita e, naturalmente, di pace.

In bocca al lupo per tutto. Piano piano. Sta' tranquilla. Prova le cose nuove. Perugia, imparerò di te per sempre. Ricordati di me!

-HS