So... Here I am in my first year of college, studying media, loving writing, and looking out of my window every day, admiring the world. Well, maybe until the winter hit. Okay, it's a love-hate thing with the winter in Canada.
Here I am, an individual who has traveled a lot of the east coast of North America. I had a taste of the west when my family traveled to British Columbia and Alberta a few summers ago, and I loved it. The Pacific ocean was a shock to me- the way the coast drops so fast and the water quickly becomes dark. It also struck me how odorless the ocean was compared to the Atlantic.
I've been outside of North America twice, both times when I was five and six. When I was five, my family had a chance to go to Jamaica, and although I was so little, I remember a ton about it. A great trip.
When I was in kindergarten, we then visited the place of my dad's birth, Scotland. And I remember that trip as well, but probably not to the extent that I can recall Jamaica. What I do remember, however, is the castles and the house my grandparents were living in at the time. I remember the bedroom my sister and I slept in, with two twin beds and matching pastel-coloured comforters, and stuffed monkeys on each bed. My grandparents (now in Canada) still have those monkeys sitting on their dresser.
So, here I am. In school. And I'm looking outside every day at the Canadian landscape of suburbia, and I'm thinking: what better time to go out of the country than now? It's been a while. And hey, I realize: I haven't visited the other nation that has formed a huge chunk of my lifestyle: Italy.
I don't exactly know where I
got the idea... or why I decided to go now. But somehow I got it in my head that I should fly across the Atlantic by myself, and stay on the southern Italy coast with family that doesn't speak a word of English. And I'm not exactly fluent in the language.
But somehow, we booked the flight, and I'm due to travel on August 5th to Calabria, my first airplane ride on my own. And considering I hardly remember what it's like to be on a plane, and the longest flight I've ever been on was only a couple of hours, this should be an interesting experience.
Besides that, there are other things on my mind, like the language barrier. Since I'm going on my own, I'm staying with family, and they speak only Italian. Except for my young cousin, Francesco, who speaks English quiet well. I won't be staying with his family until the second week I'm there, so the first week should prove interesting.
I'm excited, though. This is the country most of my Italian relatives still live in, and I want to see the culture, the architecture, the coast.
I've been on Google Earth madly for the past while, looking at the little ocean-side city where I will be staying, and I've almost memorized the sights and roads from pictures. I know about the two volcanoes visible from the beach, I know the main square, the watchtower... But I'm sure that when I arrive, I won't be able to navigate the city from the ground!
It's an experience. The preparations are insane, though. Already my Nonna is dictating all of the clothing I will need to look stylish in their summer: heels, nice sandals, summer dresses, at least two new bathing suits, stylish sunglasses, a nice clutch and purse, non-tourist-looking shorts... And I have my own instincts, which are pretty much the same.
But what my instincts weren't prepared for was my Nonna going to Costco to buy a crate of bubblegum that I'm to carry over the ocean to all of the cousins in Italy. I guess it's true, I
should come bearing gifts. They
are letting my stay in their homes for two weeks.
On this trip, I'll be staying in the south, and many people say it is too bad I'm not exploring Rome and Pompei and many of the other great cities, but it's my first go. With the amount of money I have, and considering I'll be on my own, I am ecstatic just to be going. Next time I go, I'll do my exploring. This time, I'll explore around the city I'm in, and get to know my family.
Yes, it is intimidating to know that I'll have to learn an entire language in order to communicate (this gives me 6 months to perfect my skills). It makes me anxious. That's probably the most terrifying thing about this trip, is the language.
The bright side: I've taken a course in Italian, so I know the basics, the grammar, and most of the tourist lingo.
The not-so-good side: I still have a
lot to learn. Mostly hundreds of everyday words, like
book, toilet paper, and all the others. Eek!
I've heard that renting foreign movies is a good way to learn. So I think I'll start there, because copying dictionaries was giving me horrible dreams and headaches and stress so tangible that I could have strangled it with my bare hands.
Movies it is, then! With Italian dialogue, and Italian subtitles. At least so I can learn the language at that speed.
You would think that being around Italian-speaking people my whole life I would have known more of the language, but apparently not.
And we'll see what happens from there...
