Now that I have been home for about two weeks, I’ve had adequate time to reflect on my abroad experience through ISA at The American University of Rome. It was a four-month experience that ended up feeling like a couple weeks. I made some of the best memories I have and did things that very few others can say they did in college. Visiting Amsterdam, Prague, and Dublin was an absolutely incredible experience I got to have as well. However, most of my trip was spent in my home country of Italy. Living here with some of my closest friends required many, cultural adjustments to conform to our temporary place of living. Italian culture is much different than what we experience here in the United States. They put much more value on certain things that Americans may not (an example could be meal time). However, what required the most adjustments on our end was how they consume, not just food but anything. I realized there that Americans certainly have a stereotype surrounding us of being over-consumers, particularly regarding energy, materials, and food. We are used to having bountiful resources at our fingertips whenever life calls for them. This is very much not the case for the rest of the world. While living in Italy, I think we all realized the beauty and simplicity of living with less.
One example of this could be the energy in our apartment. Hot water there is typically divided and not unlimited as so many of us are used to. For everyone to have a desirable water temperature, it usually required us to take shorter amounts of time in the shower. This was something that many of us were not accustomed to. However, in doing so, I became exponentially more grateful for my apartment-mates consideration and selflessness. Another example in our living quarters was not having dryers. Dryers are a commonplace household item in the United States, but not so much in Europe. What I didn’t realize was that these machines require a remarkable amount of energy (and aren’t even entirely necessary). We used our washing machine and actually hung our clothes out to dry. While this may seem like a small insignificant difference, I believe it speaks volumes to the Italian culture of only using what you need. It’s really not necessary to use all that energy and hot water when you really think about it, this was something we all had to come to terms with early, and it became a very normal part of life there. Small changes can make a real difference for everyone, even an entire country. Our energy and water consumption footprint in Italy was certainly significantly smaller than what we do back home.
Another example is food. In the United States, I realized we are used to super-sized meals. This doesn’t just refer to fast food anymore, either. Meals at sit-down restaurants back home are much larger than they are abroad. For the first month, we were leaving meals and finding ourselves still a tad hungry. However, as the semester progressed, I saw the value in eating less. There is little need to indulge to the point where you are full every meal. This is something that Americans have grown accustomed to and likely expect. In a lot of the world, however, food is meant to be valued and enjoyed. I hope this part of myself that I have developed is something that sticks around. I’ve begun to eat slower and really understand what I am eating.
I think all three of these examples speak volumes to the differences in culture that we all experienced. I am not saying that one is better or more correct than the other. But there is value to be seen in both lifestyles. I will be forever grateful for some of the lessons I learned while abroad.