Memories, experiences can't be captured in quick conversation

By Abby Lubbers

Created:
03/10/09 2:42pm

Last updated:
03/10/09 2:47pm

No comments

Rome, Italy — Between sending e-mails to my family, responding to Facebook wall posts, clearing out missed messages on Skype, updating my travel journal and keeping this blog, I have been a busy woman. And that’s on top of studying for classes and traveling on the weekends.

This whole world of communication can get a little daunting — I often find myself needing to catch up on catching up.

But at least I am not the only person who feels this way. My friends here say they avoid going on Skype because of the ambush of people whenever their statuses switch to online. And there have been times when I waited a week to respond to an e-mail.

I’m not convinced, though, that this is necessarily a bad thing. After all, an important part of studying abroad is learning to be an independent person and to embrace new experiences. While I lagged behind in my travel journal, I mastered the Italian train system between Rome and Florence twice in one week and traveled to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria. I saw Michelangelo’s David in person and ate apple strudel in a small town in the Austrian Alps.

Apparently I also washed my clothes in color-safe bleach for the first two months in Italy, but we all make mistakes, right?

And while I have not written a novel for each of these experiences, they still affect me and help shape my time on study abroad. Yes, maybe I should have learned the word for laundry detergent — detersivo per il bucato — before going to the store, but whenever I smell color safe bleach it will make me laugh and think about my first few months in Italy.

But at the same time I have made a bunch of new friends, and I am learning a little more Italian every day. I have learned to be comfortable trying new metro systems and feeling that I could navigate my way around a foreign country.

And it’s those kinds of lessons and experiences that are hard to capture in a quick e-mail back home or a 20-minute Skype call.

So even if I return home with a few more blank pages in my travel journal, I know this semester will still have been some of the most memorable four months of my life.

With that, I am off to the Villa Borghese to do some reading, and maybe even update that journal.

Commentary

Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed

About This Italian Life

Journalism and political science junior and former State News reporter Abby Lubbers is studying abroad at John Cabot University in Rome for the spring 2009 semester.

Follow her journey of what it’s like to live and learn overseas.

This is Abby’s Italian life.

Follow this blog in your feed reader

TSN BLOGROLL More »

FEATURED CLASSIFIEDS: More classifieds »

In Employment:

In Duplexes/Rent:

618 STODDARD. Rent now for fall.

In Houses/Rent:

FRESH CONTENT More »

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:More reprints »

Westboro Baptist Church member Shirley Phelps-Roper of Topeka, Kan. holds up signs at a 30-minute protest ...
Junior center outfielder John Martinez bats a ball. The Spartans defeated the Gophers by, 3-2 within ...
From left, human biology junior Shaylyn Sinclair and media arts and technology senior Stephanie VanDoorn ...
Communications senior and cook for Spartan Signature Catering, Jeremy Epley makes pulled pork sandwiches ...
Breakdancers from two competing crews square off Saturday afternoon at Red Cedar Ransom. The breakdance ...