In the library, all thoughts lead to Rome

Alexa Magdalenski, currently a junior at Boston College, attended John Cabot University in the Fall semester of 2007. Magdalenski was a correspondent for The Matthew Online during that period. Her latest report comes with a different dateline. 

(Photo: Magdelenski, second from the right, takes a break from the books.)

BOSTON, April 2 - It’s been four quick months since my semester at JCU.  And now that I am back in the States I am plagued by wistful thoughts of la dolce vita. You know: gelato, crazy motorinos, and incredible Aristocampo panini.

As I sit here in the BC library thinking of internships and assignments, I wonder: is it my selective memory bringing me back, or did I once live something out of the movies?  Looking back, the semester seems so surreal.

Rome is surreal. On any given day you can walk where emperors once walked and gladiators once fought. You are a part of fashion being created. It’s not uncommon on a Wednesday to see the Pope at St. Peter’s on a break from classes. Today, a break consists of an appointment with a professor about my latest 20-page paper.  I’ll be praying to the Pope for an extension.

As I think back to last December, I was eager to return home. It was the longest I had ever been away from family, friends, and everything I knew so well. Homesickness was beginning to set in with finals. And waiting in five different lines to receive a package wasn’t what I wanted to do in my last days in Rome, but I was grateful that I had learned more than I ever thought I could. I was ready to move on.

Now, I don’t feel so homesick. I don’t have to speak a foreign language to survive. I don’t have to worry about calling across time zones and paying with those euro coins. I don’t have to deal with getting cut in lines and getting cat-called on the way to class. 

Eye contact on the street has been enjoyable. I am able to spend time with my BC friends and my new JCU friends and have the best of both worlds. Fitting is a lot easier than standing out.

But it’s the small things that keep bringing me back to Rome. It was the barista at our local bar that always knew my order and my favorite cornetti. It was getting lost in Trastevere, and stumbling upon the best pizza I had ever had. It was the lazy afternoons spent people-watching for hours in JCU's Lemon Tree Courtyard. 

As chaotic and strange as Rome was to me, it was the little things that brought the most peace and reaffirmed why I chose Rome in the first place.

Everyday in Rome was a learning experience and a gift that I will always be affected by.

Whether you are home from your semester abroad, or are lucky enough to be experiencing Rome right now, let us come together to toast to la dolce vita and the unexplainable ways it comes to shape us all.

Saluti.

Comments

[Mary Ann Ciotti]

Can you identify the girls in the picture? I think my daughter in in it. She's studying this semester at John Cabot university. Thank you.