Stranger...

Following a stranger on the street was the strangest thing Ive ever done.

I followed a guy outside of my appartment to the bus station. He had no idea that I was following him until i got to the train stop. It was so awkward that he had no idea that i was stalking him. I knew that he got the idea when i got to the bus stop and he turned around as i was taking pictures of him. He looked at me with a funny stare and i just walked away because i felt so uncomfortable. Come to think of it, i wonder where he was going...

People Watching...

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So sitting in one spot for 2 hours made me really aware of my surroundings…


Since I’ve arrived to Rome I have been to Trastevere about 3 times and this time around I defiantly noticed things that weren’t very visible before.

My roommates and I decided to take a cab ride to Trestevere and all split up. We didn’t even tell the driver a specific location. All we had to say was “Trestevere” and he knew to drop us off at the most popular spot. As we walked down the small streets we arrived at Piazza de Maria in Trestevere and right away I knew that this was the spot I wanted to spend my 2 hours in. There was so much going on, people there were so caught up with getting to where they needed to be and I thought that it was a good spot to people watch.

I sat down at a local café, ordered some wine and just sat. I noticed that this Piazza was kinda like a walk- through for the Romans and a nice tourist attraction for visitor. I saw and heard people for all over the world. I knew they were foreign because of their accents and languages. As I watched everyone pass by I couldn’t help but wonder where they were all going and why. I tried very hard to look into it so I stared to notice that lots of locals were walking by with grocery bags. I figured that there must be some kind of grocery store around where I was.




It was funny that I could differentiate the locals from the non-locals right away, even if they didn’t say a word. All the tourists looked lost or had a map, or had some other way of giving away the fact that they weren’t native Italians. I hope I don’t look like them to the locals.





I also noticed a lot of dogs. Dogs were the main theme of my 2 hour sit. EVERYONE had a dog. And they all look so miserable. I feel like the owners just drag out the poor animals and they don’t really want to be out there. But they are sooo cute.




The most interesting thing that I’ve seen during my stay was the “Shirtless guy”. He was just creepy. He was defiantly crazy. I don’t know whether he wanted money or what but he was harassing random people that were walking. What was shocking to me was that every time a little kid walked by he would touch them on the top of their head. All I thought to myself was that if a random, dirty man on the street touched my child I’d kill him. It made me really thankful that I was sitting at a café because I don’t think that he was allowed to go and harass me, but he kept giving me this crazy look which was pretty creepy.



Also, there was a drunk guy who was sitting by the fountain in the middle of the piazza and even so often a new, empty bottle of booze would appear next to him.


I thought it was really funny that the guy that dresses up as the Egyptian statue was getting dressed to make some money in the center of the piazza. It was kind of cool to see him out of character.


It was also really interesting to see the piazza because I feel like I came at the perfect time. I watched everything transform from day to night and saw the different types of crowds drift by me.

As I was getting up from my 2 hour sit there was a show in the piazza. There were guys with bongos and African dancer. It was great to see the piazza turn into a festive place for both tourists and locals.

Even though this part was not during my stay there (it was still in Trestevere after my dinner) I saw a homeless guy with a dog and her puppies. It was the most precious thing that I’ve ever seen. I think we played with those puppies for about 30 minutes and must have given him 10 euro. If it were up to me I would have stayed there all night with that bum and his puppies because I Love dogs more than anything. I have a dog at home and I miss him so much 

I Have about 50 Maps but...

I have a map and I actually learned how to use it! But most times I don’t feel like it does me any good so maybe I didn’t truly master the art of using a map. I almost always find the where I am located on the map, but it’s hard to find my targeted destination. Sometimes, even when I do find my destination, I get lost because I don’t navigate myself correctly.

Before I got to Rome, I had NO IDEA how to read a map. It was all a big mess of lines to me. I guess this is evidence that when I absolutely need to learn something that I have no knowledge of, I’m actually capable of doing it.

Maps are such a useful tool. I feel kind of bad that it took me so long to figure out how to use one. But better late then never. A common misconception of mine was that all maps are the same. I recently learned that this wasn’t the case.

The use of a map was particularly useful today when getting to our on site destination for neighborhood narratives class. Although we used about 3 different types of transportation, we got to where we need to be in somewhat of a timely manner. This is not something that my roommates and I are used to because we usually arrive very late to the on-site class meetings. I am actually looking forward to coming home to Philly and using a map there. Everyone says that the city of Philadelphia is just a big grid on the map, so I guess that using a map to get around there should be a piece of cake compared to the windy little streets of Roma.

Labyrinth

When Hana brought up the notion of the labyrinth, I immediately thought of Borges reading. I read this story in my death and dying class and I simply loved it. I thought that it was the most interesting thing when Borges rationalizes the psychological stages that a person goes through when he finds out that he’s immortal. The person enters this confusing and complicated maze to which there is no end. The person also loses his sense of individuality because everything he does or experiences will happen again eventually.

This is the feeling that I get when I get lost in Rome. I feel like I keep making circles in an endless labyrinth. Each time I make my way around a specific area and come back to the same spot. As one would imagine, I quickly become confused and pissed off because I’ve been to the same place 5 times and can’t seem to find my way out. This is what differentiates being lost from drifting: While drifting, I’m not looking for a way out. And because I’m not looking for a way out, I eventually find my way out during my drift.

Trestevere Scavenger Hunt: Day 1

Lost or Just Drifting?

Lost. Something that I’ve become way too familiar with in the past few weeks. I HATE the feeling of being lost. I think that I acquired this feeling in Rome though because I associate being lost with being late to class or with being too far from our home in a foreign country. When I’m in Philly being lost isn’t so bad because I know that, if circumstance called for it, I could easily call a friend and they could point me in the right direction. In the worst case scenario I could ask a random person on the street. When in Rome, unless I have the phone number of a teacher, I’m pretty much screwed. The language barrier is defiantly something that sets us apart from the rest of Rome. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt like more of an outsider than I do here- in terms of orientation. Sometimes I feel like our differences in language gets us more lost than we already are because everyone seems to give us a different route to get to where we need to be going. However, I found it very interesting that there have been plenty of times that Italians gave us the proper route with almost only body language.

If lost is going in the wrong direction with the intent to go to a specific destination, its something that I’ve been good at lately. The tension and stress that I feel most of the time when I’m lost something frustrates me to the point of tears. In general, I’m a really emotional person. I take lost of things to heart and tend to let one small thing float around in my mind.

The upside of being lost is that I get to experience parts of the city that I have never seen before. Being lost also obligates me to find my way no matter what.

On the other hand, I LOVE to drift. Drifting is such a carefree activity, one in which you don’t worry about where you are going or how you will get home. I feel that drifting is made easier and less stressful with the constantly running taxi system in Rome. I feel very secure walking around without a specific destination knowing that I’m not on a strict time schedule.

I feel like this was one of the reasons that I enjoyed drifting so much in Trestevere today. I was just discovering and exploring new parts of my new, temporary city. I loved to just wonder and drift from one location to another without the hustle and anxiety of finding a specific place. I think that I especially enjoyed it because I was with friends and fellow classmates who were with me in the same situation. When I’m with my friends in a foreign place, I automatically feel a sense of relief because I know that I have people with me who will (hopefully) be with me until the end of the drifting experience. Together, we could work our way out of a dilemma or “lost” situation.

Looking for artifacts made the experience much more fun. You don’t realize your true surrounding until you walk with eyes on the floor. I saw everything on the floor, things that you wouldn’t expect to be laying there unless you specifically look for it. Everyone back home always told me that Rome was a dirty city, but I didn’t notice that until I started picking junk off the floor…

Map Myself

For my Inner/Outer map assignment, I decided to make a triangular fold-out map. For my outer map I decided to keep it simple because I believe that anyone can go on a vacation or visually see extraordinary sights, however, it depends on whether or not the person takes it all in an appreciates what he/she sees. Personally, I feel extremely fortunate to be have this opportunity to stay here in Rome and to be able to travel to different European cities. I know that not many people my age get to go through this life changing experience and this makes me appreciate my parents more than ever. So for my external map I simply chose to make a pop-up map of Rome leading to a pop-up map of Venice (which is where I went for the weekend).



My Internal map shows all the sensation that I am feeling. Everything from my brain down to my toes, the map expresses what I am feeling. I took this part of the project very seriously because at the moment that I was doing this assignment I was feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety and frustration (travel agency/public transport). I portrayed my inner most feelings and connected them to each part of my body. For example, from my head I drew a bubble of things that I was pondering all weekend