La Dolce Vita di Kierea: Rome At Night

So, although I've been to Rome quite a few times and explored through most of the major sites, I am continually told that I need to experience Rome at night. This weekend, I FINALLY did! I sometimes study at the local library in Bracciano, and met a girl named Giulia there last week (It totally reminded me of BYU—making friends on the 5th floor haha) and she invited me to go out with her and her friends on Saturday. We started our night around 9pm, grabbed dinner, hung out in the town's Piazza, and headed over to a house where a HUGE group of people were watching a big soccer/calico/futball game. It was quite the interesting night. For starters, because everyone here wants to practice their English (I will seriously speak to someone in Italian and they will answer in English), I hadn't been using my Italian as much as I should have, but most of her friends didn't speak English, so I was forced—which I need! It was probably about midnight when the group decided to go to Rome! I considered just going home and sleeping, but then I reminded myself that I only have two more months here. I'll sleep when I’m dead. First thing we did was go to a bar, which was a bit strange for me because I'd never been to one. There were a few chuckles when I ordered water (and split a Nutella crepe with a girl named Livia), and the group seemed pretty intrigued by the fact that I didn't drink or smoke (everyone smokes here), but then just said, "Brava!" Which has basically the same meaning in English—good job!

After that, they wanted to show me the Olympic soccer stadium. It was probably near 2am when we got there, but if it hadn't been for the dark night sky, I would have thought it was the middle of the day. The only difference was that rather than tourists lining the sidewalks and streets, it was all the young (my age-ish) Italians; girls in designer dresses and 5" heels—every one of them! It was a mix between walking around in a movie and a high-fashion magazine. I wanted so badly to pull out my camera and take a thousand pictures, but I think that not drinking and smoking, not speaking Italian fluently, having blonde hair and not wearing 5" heels, was enough to differentiate me for one night; pulling out a camera would have been overkill. The only regret I have about it is not having a picture to show for it, but I'm sure I'll have many more opportunities to capture similar moments. I don't think I got home until 4:30am, and let me just tell you that I may have gone to take a nap at 7pm on Sunday, and accidentally slept until slept until 8am the next morning! The funniest part was that it wasn't even a particularly late night for the group I was with. Time is just different here, it may take some getting used to, but I have a feeling that these are the things I will remember most fondly. I don't think I'll ever look back on my experiences in Italy and feel like I missed out on anything. I only have 2 more months here, and I am going to live them up!

I didn't actually take this picture, one of these nights I will though; so I can capture the epicness of Rome at night
This photo doesn't do it justice!

Now, it may sound like I am just vacationing for 3 months, but I do spend a lot of my time working on my research project and doing other homework. I am looking into studying dating and courting practices of young adults in Italy here, and right now I'm basically doing a lot of preliminary work. I have to conduct between 10 and 30 interviews while I'm here, asking young adults about it and their personal experiences. I had my interview questions drafted, but I think I will be using a total of...zero of those questions. Being here, I'm already learning so much about it and I've realized that the questions I was planning to ask aren't even relevant. I was trying to study Italians from my American/BYU paradigm, which has pretty specific norms. Dating and courting here is much different—for starters, it's normal for people to date for four to seven years without getting married. Serious relationships begin earlier and last longer (without ever mention the "M" word). There is no such thing as dating around; going on dates with one person Friday, and another Saturday would leave you with a less than stellar reputation. It's easy to make judgments on a culture's practices and compare them to your own, but I've come here with the attitude that nothing is better or worse in either place; it's just different—except for the food, its better here ;). A friend I met my first day in Italy, Eduardo Garcia Griotti, told me that what he disliked most about some Americans (especially those from Utah) was that they would come here and be so opinionated, that they wouldn't take time to consider an alternative way of life, they'd just say, "No, I disagree. That's not right." I think one of the best things about traveling, is that it opens up your mind and exposes you to different ways of life. It changes your perspective. Giulia was telling me how it was hard for her to understand people who were so set in their ways, that don't want to travel, see new things or meet new people. I've got to admit that, while I do feel like I'm living a dream sometimes—just being in Italy—it’s been so much more than a vacation; I'm constantly reevaluating my thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and practices. I feel like I finally understand that quote, "The more I learn, the less I know." The more I learn, the more I realize there is know, and that I don't know it; it's like I get to the top of the staircase of knowledge, open the door on top, and find 100 more staircases leading to all sorts of additional knowledge. As much as I've discovered in my time here, I feel like it's just made me more aware of the fact that there is SOOO many more opportunities to progress. So, while there is no way to know everything, I'm doing my best to learn, and learning to be okay with ambiguity.

And, just some of my daily life adventures:

My host mom, Mara, and I made fresh Italian pizza the other night. It's delicious—the ingredients are much fresher here. We didn't use any pizza sauce, just a whole lot of olive oil, and then topped it with different things—tomatoes and mozzarella, shredded potatoes and cucumbers. (Italians do put some pretty crazy things on Pizza; I've seen hot dogs, French fries, salad, fish, and all sorts of random things that I would never expect.) Our pizza ended up turning out quite well!

My host mom, Mara, and I with the pizzas we just made.

Fresh Italian Pizza; before we cooked it

Homemade Pizza Margarita, fresh out of the oven

Ping pong seems to be quite the sport here among GANS (Giovani Adulti Nonsposati) LDS Young Single Adults); this is just us playing after institute one night. I definitely have a ways to go until I'm on par with some of the guys here. It kind of reminded me of going to Arlington and playing with Rob Ahlander and Ammon Spencer—intense. :)

While I'm used to seeing cats and dogs run across the street back home, I'm getting much more used to seeing foxes and, yes, hedge hogs in Italy. I swear they're everywhere! Diego and I are always on the lookout for them. Coming home one night, we barely avoided hitting one, and decided to get out of the car and see if we could find it. We did! It was trying to get through a little hole in the fence, and wasn't having any luck, so we decided to help it. Honestly, I think we were more likely to cause it to have a heart attack than anything, but we did manage to bend up a part of the fence and help it get 'safely' to the other side.