First Peek at Siena Schedule and Housing

Come va? (How are things?) With just over a month until departure for Italy, we have been working with Miriam Grottanelli (Director, Siena School for Liberal Arts) on housing and course schedule information. While details might be tweaked, and more details are yet to be solidified, here is the first peak at the plan for summer.

Housing: All of you will live in a large, comfortable apartment just outside and below the city wall (you don’t hear that often), not far from the Siena School classroom facilities. By “below,” you will discover this means a valley below the mesa on which much of medieval Siena sits. The commute into school will thus be up hill. You will be encouraged to commute by city bus (they’re cute), if you get tired of climbing the hill. The “commute” home can be walked much easier, as you might imagine, or the bus will work as well. There is a bus stop very close to the apartment.

Academic Schedule: We are making some slight changes to our plan, given the small cohort of students. You will all take the same courses. Katie Phelan will teach the 3-credit Siena sustainability course, and Prof. Vasquez and I will co-teach our Public Realm and Anthropology of Food courses (3 credits total). For students who wish to emphasize either of these courses, we will ask students to choose a term research project that ties into one course or the other (or perhaps both). Research projects will be flexible (though meeting certain standards), based on your own interests.

Imparare Italiano (To learn Italian): All students will take 9 real-time hours of introductory Italian language instruction, most of which will be taught at the beginning of the term. This requirement will likely be built into the 6-credit requirements for the program overall. We will also expect you to practice your newfound language skills for various aspects of our courses!

Program Schedule (Tentative):

May 14 – Arrival in Siena
May 15-16 – Intensive Italian + Orientation
May 17 - Introduction to all courses and Q&A session
May 20 - Intensive Italian
May 21 – courses officially begin
Tues/Thurs mornings: Katie Phelan’s course

Tues/Thurs afternoons: Paradis and Vasquez course

Wednesdays: Local excursions with Katie’s course OR evening guest speakers (excursions will include a winery, an organic/biodynamic farm and an animal farm).

Fridays/weekends: Occasional single/multi-day excursions with Vasquez and Paradis (Definitely Florence, others still pending approval.). Fridays, Mondays and weekends without planned excursions will be open for students to explore and travel responsibly, as desired. Please note, you will be expected to prioritize all academic program classes and activities. You will also need to spend some quality time outside of classes to complete your research projects and related assignments. Beyond this, you will be “free to move about the country” (to use a Southwest Airlines slogan) if you wish.

Palio Week (thereabouts): Siena School staff and guest speakers will provide histories, information, and course assignments related to observing and interpreting the Palio-related events. The Palio horse race is July 2. All of us will gather for discussions on July 3.

Reminder: Pre-departure Meetings April 20 (from Kyle Conway). There will be two mandatory pre-departure meetings for this program, both taking place on Saturday, April 20^th in the Franke College of Business Building. The first will be a general information session that will be held on that day from 10:30am – 12pm OR 1pm-2:30. You can choose which meeting you’d like to attend. Then, after the general session, you will meet once more with Thomas Paradis and Miguel Vasquez for a program-specific pre-departure session. This will take place at 2:30 in the same building. Again these are mandatory and have been already displayed for you on your study abroad application, so be sure to reschedule any engagements or duties for that day.

That’s the plan as we know it! Stay tuned for further updates as we move into our final month before departure. Ciao for now.

See you in Siena! Our Air Travel and Palio Info

Now the reality is setting in. We have been cleared by the NAU Center for International Education (CIE) to proceed with our 8-week Sustainability Program in Siena this summer! We are finished with recruiting and beginning to plan.

I am going to attempt to use this blog to provide useful information and perspectives for our students, as well as personal experiences and anecdotes for all readers. Our adventure is now beginning, and it will conclude with a literal “bang” with end of the Palio horse race on July 2 (with a few days more in Siena thereafter).

Check out this 10-minute video of the Palio, with English subtitles. A nice introduction to its history, culture, and sense of community. Thanks to Linda (my wife) for finding this!  

My wife, Linda and I booked our airfare a few days ago, from Flagstaff to Florence, and from Shannon, Ireland back to Flagstaff. We plan on spending about six days in Ireland after we conclude our Siena program. Though we will need to make our way to Ireland from Siena (likely a discount European airline), we secured this round trip for just over $1,200, much less expensive than the typical round trip through Florence. Perhaps some of you are curious about our flight?  Here are the basics:

Flag – Philadelphia – Brussels – Florence (arriving Florence around 12:00pm on Tuesday, May 14). All via U.S. Airways. You can also arrive in Rome and take the train or hire a transfer (more expensive usually), though the trip north is about twice as long (or more).

Getting to Siena:  We will provide some guidance on this aspect shortly. For starters, Siena is on a branch line (railroad lingo) that connects off the main line from Florence to Pisa. It should be relatively painless to take a regional (regionale) train from Florence to Siena, with one connection. It’s probably about a 2 hour trip including the connection. We will likely use this train route for one or more day trips to Florence during our program!

Ciao for now.

 

The Siena Sustainability Program: Summer 2013

Study in Italy, Under the Tuscan Sun!

Three NAU academic units in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences (SBS) are partnering with the Siena School for Liberal Arts to offer the Siena Sustainability Program for 8 amazing weeks this summer, 2013! Especially designed for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Anthropology, Department of Geography, Planning & Recreation, and the MS Sustainable Communities Program. Other interested students from NAU and elsewhere are encouraged to apply.  Topics include sustainable food systems and agriculture, cultural anthropology, urban history, architecture and design, public spaces, community development, social research methods, and more. This blog post provides the details as of this writing.

Official Application Page: Click here for the official Study Abroad application page provided by the NAU Center for International Education (CIE). This is where you will apply for the Siena program and find more information about what to expect for housing, costs, courses, etc.

Siena in Photos: See the Flickr Photostream for Siena by Prof. Tom Paradis.   

Program of Study: Students will be required to enroll in six NAU credit hours, which includes the following academic “package”:

• Choose one 500-level topics course (3 credits each) offered by either Prof. Tom Paradis (Geography, Planning & Recreation) or Prof. Miguel Vasquez (Dept. of Anthropology).
• Everyone enrolls in one additional course (3 credits) taught by a professor at the Siena School for Liberal Arts.
• All courses and students participate in a workshop with a renowned European guest instructor, and a symposium in which students present or otherwise participate. The Palio will provide the primary academic topic of the program’s final week in Siena (see below), held annually on July 2.
• All students learn basic (or more advanced) Italian language during the 8-week program.   

Program Dates:

Arrival:              Tuesday, May 14
Orientation:      Wednesday, May 15
Program Start: Thursday, May 16
Program End:   Thursday, July 4
Departure:         Friday, July 5

This falls within the NAU 3-week summer intersession and the following 5-week Summer Session I. Students can return to NAU for Summer Session II if desired after the July 4 Holiday.

Who Should Apply? Undergraduate and graduate students interested in topics related to environmental, agricultural, and urban sustainability, community sustainability, livable cities, and urban design. Especially intended for students in:

• BS Geographic Science & Community Planning (including geography and planning majors) 
• BS Parks & Recreation Management,
• BS/MS Anthropology
• MS Applied Geospatial Sciences,
• MA Sustainable Communities,
• Related majors in History, Sociology, Environmental Science, and others interested in sustainability topics and European/Global studies.
• Students from other universities who are intersted in this 6-credit program. Transfer the NAU credits to your own university

The Palio Experience: Engage with one of the world’s most enthralling community celebrations. Learn its ties with history, community, sense of place, and local pride. The last full week of this program will focus on the Palio, held on July 2. Watch a 12-minute Video of the Palio by the Discovery Channel.

Program Costs: The cost per student for this 6-credit program is $6,130. This price includes tuition for 6 summer NAU credits, student housing in Siena, all NAU fees and health insurance, special workshop guest instructor, field excursions, and all costs associated with the Siena School for Liberal Arts and its facilities. This cost does not include airfare. You will be encouraged to find some relatively painless ways to lower your costs, which can pay for airfare and more (see next section below!). This is considered an affordable study abroad program compared to other similar experiences overseas. See if you can take advantage this year!

How to Lower Your Costs: A variety of options for scholarships and other funding sources will be available to students, including the following:

• Scholarships of between $500 and $1,500 through the Center for International Education (more info forthcoming).
• Additional travel funds through the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences (more info forthcoming)
• Take advantage of departmental scholarships (GPR or Anthropology) that can be applied for future NAU tuition
• Some students can plan to use leftover financial aid for the summer program, if it is not all used for fall and spring.
• Other  opportunities for student travel funding and scholarships are being explored as of this writing, and will be announced.  

How to Apply: The application process will be fully online, through the NAU Center for International Education web site. See the official application site for more details and how to apply!

The Faculty: Join Professors Thomas (Tom) Paradis and Michael (Miguel) Vasquez who will represent the two NAU courses taught in Siena. Both Tom and Miguel are recognized at NAU as President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellows, one of NAU’s highest teaching honors. Both have various experiences with teaching and research (and eating) in Italy. CONTACT Dr. Paradis or Dr. Vasquez to express interest in the program and to ask any questions on your mind! Email thomas.paradis@nau.edu or michael.vasquez@nau.edu. They are both very friendly and approachable! And, they want to take you to Italy!

Professor Miguel Vasquez, NAU Dept. of Anthropology

Professor Tom Paradis, NAU Dept. of Geography, Planning & Recreation

Exploring the Siena School: One Week Away

Siena, Italy. The Palazzo Publico and Torre (tower) del Mangia, begun in 1297 as the “city hall”.

As it turns out, we couldn’t stay away from Italy for too long. After a six-month hiatus, I am reactivating this Blog to report on our next adventure. Linda and I are in the final week of planning for a brief return to Italy, specifically to Siena (four days), Viterbo (two days), and a one-week cruise out of Rome to see more of Europe. I am scheduled to meet with the Director of the Siena School for Liberal Arts to learn more about their programs and operations. Our former college dean expressed interest in exploring how our Department of Geography, Planning & Recreation might form a closer working relationship with the Siena School by potentially sending both faculty and students in the future. (The Anthropology and Sustainable Communities programs are also involved with this interdisciplinary exploration.) While teaching further south in Viterbo last fall, we made a weekend expedition to Siena and another NAU faculty member who was already teaching there. It gave us a chance to explore the city a bit more, beyond a previous one-day visit with a guided tour.

The urban geography of Siena is socially divided between 17 contrade (districts) that compete twice annually in the local horse race known as the Palio. The Wave contrada won the most recent Palio, on July 2.

The Siena School is starting to expand its course offerings (in English) to include aspects of sustainable agriculture and planning, food production, and other exciting cultural options. They are already promoting two new courses for this coming fall: 1) Food, Identity & Culture in Contemporary Italy, and 2) Sustainability, Community & Organic Architecture. Our department may fit in quite well with these and future courses. While in Siena, I will also plan to explore whether or how our current core classes might be taught by faculty in Siena along with their own offerings. There may be potential for our students to take a semester, or part of a summer to study abroad in Siena! Among many other aspects, Siena’s well-preserved medieval city features one of the world’s most famous public spaces, il Campo, where the Palio horse races are held twice each summer (The Wave contrada, or neighborhood, apparently won the Palio a few days ago on July 2). It would be a wonderful study-abroad location for students interested in sustainable communities and agriculture, urban design, architectural history, art history and drafting, tourism geography, and many other related areas.

I will provide a full report when this reconnaissance is complete. If all goes well, we will begin promoting Siena this year, something for students to think about. For now, I’m ramping up my rusty Italian language training once again…

The central public piazza (Il Campo) in Siena is one of Europe’s most famous public places.

End Game: Lessons Learned in Living Abroad

In general, Europeans take Christmas very seriously. As we prepare to head home, Christmas scenes now dominate public spaces Europe-wide.

We are down to four days remaining until our return trip across the Atlantic. Major grocery runs with the roller bag have ceased, and our landlady has visited to conduct our final business and to say our “arrivederci’s”. We have tallied our remaining cash in euros, planning more carefully now to spend it on short-term food and last-minute souvenirs or gifts. At least one suitcase is packed, and bags are filled with clothes and shoes to be donated to local charity. Winter finally set in last night as a cold front is now bringing wind and our first hint of snow (sleet or graupel, call it what you wish). The Christmas market is in full swing in the town center, and strings of lights and decorations line Viterbo’s main shopping corridor, Corso Italia. It’s a good time now to take stock of our own decisions and judgments to see how we fared, now with hindsight to reflect upon. What worked well, and what not so well? What decisions reflected veritable brilliance? Good luck? And bad calls that we learned from? Here is a running list of our own lessons learned after our first semester abroad:

Brugge, Belgium. My last photo on our last trip in Europe before heading home. I'm sure we'll be back some day!

Congratulations for a Job Well Done (through planning or dumb luck):

• Prior to our departure to Viterbo in August, we placed set amounts of euros into separate envelopes for items including the first month’s rent and deposit, train and taxi fares, and a few other fixed costs. When it was time to pay, we removed the designated envelope without having to worry whether we had enough cash. In Italy, cash is still preferred for many transactions. One envelope, I remembered this morning, was for “emergency backup” cash, containing 100 euros. We took this on early trips around Europe in case our credit and debit cards didn’t work, to avoid running completely out of money. This not only provided a safety cushion for travel, but allowed for a nice final surprise this morning when I recalled that we still had the 100 extra euros stashed in the envelope!
• For cell phones, we purchased two basic, inexpensive phones after arriving in Viterbo. We decided to use the “pay as you go” plan, whereby we simply visit the nearest Vodaphone or Tobaccheria store (no kidding) when we need to add minutes. We pay cash, and they add a set number of minutes to our phones. This was a simple, inexpensive, no-hassles approach to providing phone service in Italy. We (Linda and I) immediately added the USAC staff members and each other to our phone contact lists, and consequently never had to remember our own phone numbers (I placed my own phone number in the contact list as well). Using our American phones turned out to be a big hassle, and didn’t work as predicted (eventually Linda’s Droid phone started magically working, but we still don’t know why).
• Not having a car had its benefits, though the “car issue” also appears in our second list below. As for the bennies, the costs and hassles of owning or leasing a car for four months were eliminated with the decision to rely on mass transit and foot power. This was made possible by a related good decision to find an inexpensive apartment within close walking distance to the university and the train station (two of them). More suburban living would have required a car. Instead, we enjoyed a medieval life style within a walking city that is now 800-plus years old. At least four grocery stores of various scope are within walking distance, and probably more that we did not patronize. Restaurants, university functions, classes, casual shopping outings, and festivities in town were all within easy reach of our centrally-located apartment. The train took us everywhere via a 1.75 hour trip to Rome and to connecting trains or the airport. In these ways, we did not miss having the expense or hassles associated with a car.
• Having a reliable, strong internet connection in our apartment was a high priority for us, and we worked with our landlady to provide it. Upon inquiry in August, internet was connected to our apartment for a small installation fee, and a reasonable 20-euro monthly fee thereafter. We have since learned that few if any of the student apartments were provided with internet, necessitating that they find alternative and sometimes unreliable services elsewhere. With decent internet, we were able to communicate regularly with friends and family, and I was able to get work done efficiently, both for classes here and for projects and obligations back home. Both of us learned to use Skype well, for visually communicating with Linda’s family, and for my occasional academic meetings. And, without any viable TV option here (we don’t watch much, anyway), it was useful to check out various internet news sources and download a few favorite TV shows onto the computer once in awhile. I at least caught up on my newest favorite show, “Suits,” so now I won’t miss out on the story line upon returning home… More important, I rarely needed to use the USAC office computers since they are typically in use by staff members for more pertinent tasks. I only needed the USAC office computers to print class materials on Wednesday afternoons, and I accomplished this during Pausa Pranzo, when everyone else was away. So, I like to think that I avoided bugging the busy staff because we had decent internet. This was one of the best decisions we made, and it has paid off wonderfully. It is, in short, well worth the planning in advance to secure such a connection to the world.
• We planned in August to take many of our clothes on a one-way trip. Much of our wardrobe here in Italy is not coming home with us. This was Linda’s brilliant idea, and it is paying off now that we are taking stock of all that we are packing to bring home. We purposely packed older clothes and shoes, with some exceptions, expecting that they would be donated at home within a few months’ time, anyway. So, why not bring them to Italy, use them, and leave them here? Indeed. We have three or more bags of clothes and shoes prepared for our landlady, who will take them to a local charity after we leave. In place of all that empty suitcase space are gifts and souvenirs from our European adventures!
• On a related note, a few weeks ago we shipped one large box of souvenirs and gifts to Arizona and asked our friendly neighbor to look out for it on his doorstep. Not knowing if it would take a month or more to get through Italy and customs, we shipped it early. To our surprise, it arrived within two weeks, so will be waiting for us upon our return! The 100-or so euros and language barriers at the post office were – in our estimation – well worth the benefit of reducing all of that weight and space in our remaining luggage. By shipping one box and leaving many of our old clothes here, we may take less baggage home with us than what came with us in August!
• It was certainly wise for both of us to take an introductory Italian language course prior to our arrival here. Although it would always be better to gain more competence with the language, for my own time and effort this was a perfect match. An attempt to become fluent in the language would have been over the top, as it would have been to take further Italian courses. I did not feel I had the time or energy to devote that much effort, given my “day job”. Both of us picked up more of the language as we interacted here for four months, and my introductory-level Italian was just right for “getting around” Viterbo and Italy as a whole. Sure, fluency would be nice, but not realistic in my case.
• Although perhaps stating the obvious, it was a wise decision to plan on traveling around Europe as much as possible while enjoying our convenient proximity. To my moderate surprise, most of the students learned to do so as well. While being sure to keep my top priority of teaching in focus, there were plenty of opportunities each week, and during various national holidays, to “light out for the territory” and take our chances with various train systems and so-called discount airlines (we now have experience with Wizz Air, Ryan Air, Easy Jet, Vueling, and Brussels Airlines, for better or worse – though most were fine once learning their own internal protocols). Although exhorbitant taxes and fees prevented us from enjoying the advertised “discount” fares as we might have hoped, seeing places from Britain, The Netherlands, and Belgium to Hungary, the Czeck Republic, and Poland would not have been feasible had we not been living here for four months.
  

  This kid may do something different next time (actually, all McDonalds employees were wearing these, but I don't show the back side here...)

Things We May Do Differently Next Time…

• We probably did not need to ship two large packages to Italy prior to our arrival in August. We first shipped a large box, followed by an actual soft-sided suitcase. Both were addressed to the local USAC office here in Viterbo, and both contained a wide assortment of convenience items that we imagined would be used during our stay – everything from dish towels and wash clothes to scotch tape and finger nail clippers. The main bulk was taken up by the bed comforter and winter clothes and jackets that we decided to ship in advance. While that part was probably wise, many of the household goods were, on hindsight, not necessary. The prohibitive cost of shipping these items was not offset by the savings from not buying them here. And, neither package arrived in Viterbo until one- and two-months respectively after our arrival. They got caught up in customs, and we had to pay an additional fee here to receive one of the packages. A good thought initially, but certainly not worth it!
• Renting or leasing a car would have provided certain benefits, even if renting a car once every few weekends. Our freedom and mobility were certainly reduced from not having “wheels,” and otherwise routine trips to a major shopping center on the edge of town required a 40-minute bus ride and often a taxi to get home when the buses didn’t show up when we thought they should. Though all of our daily needs were met within walking distance, our typical American freedom to “move about the country” whenever we wished was severely limited. There are towns and sites around Viterbo that we likely would have visited had we rented or leased a car. Still, did the “bennies” of not having a car outweigh the cost of freedom? We’ll leave that for others to decide.

We will miss the USAC staff and students, most of whom posed here during a trip to the Italian Parliament in November. "Grazie a tutti" for an unforgettable adventure!

 

The Sixth Sense: Encouraging Viterbo to Try Something New

The vision behind Sesto Senso, Alex enjoys a rare break in the early December sun.

What does it take to open a new restaurant in Italy? From what we have seen, the feat requires someone who doesn’t sleep much. Beyond this, one should probably be super-energetic, creative, business-savvy, and knowledgeable of local Italian politics and protocols. They should also be comfortable tackling interior design, historic renovation techniques, hiring and managing, and most certainly the culinary arts and restaurant cuisine. Wrap these personal qualities together, and you’ve got a restaurant entrepreneur in the making – from my perspective. Alex brushed off the term “entrepreneur” when I described him that way as a compliment a while back. From my view, the label certainly applies to his personal efforts to open not one, but two restaurants in this small, medieval city. It takes a sixth sense to be an entrepreneur in Italy, and we have been fortunate to follow Alex’s progress with his latest vision.

We came to know Alex (Alessandro) due to proximity and coincidence. We needed to keep track of places where we could eat in town during the three hours of “Pausa Pranzo” from 1:00-4:00pm each day, for one thing. Second, his place is just a quick skip away from our apartment. Authentic, non-touristified towns like Viterbo shut down during Pausa Pranzo, as it’s called, essentially breaking up the work day and providing quite a different daily routine than found in America. A neat Italian cultural trait? Yes, indeed. Frustrating for Americans when trying to find food or groceries? Yes, indeed.

On a hot day in late August, then, we were thankful to see a little sign close to our apartment. It advertised lunch for 10 euros, open for much of Pausa Pranzo. The place is called Sesto Senso, and it quickly became an occasional hangout for us. Soon, we wanted to support Alex’s venture and introduce him to our own guests, so Sesto Senso has been a required stop on our itinerary with friends and family. Here’s a guy, I thought after seeing the lunch sign, who is bucking the Italian trend by opening during the early afternoon. At one point Alex explained, “Isn’t this the best time to be open, when nobody else is doing it?” Indeed!

Working with his Italian mother and a couple of staff members, Alex had opened Sesto Senso a few months prior to our arrival. After learning that he spoke some English due to a lengthy stint in Miami, he became one of the few locals with whom we could converse regularly. It turns out he welcomed the opportunity to practice English as well, claiming to be losing his English-speaking ability with few such acquaintences.

As for the restaurant name, Sesto Senso, it remained a curiosity to me for several months, and Linda and I contemplated the creative logo, with “Sesto” spelled backwards. I had thought it might be difficult for most people to read the name, though perhaps if you read it from the other side? In any case, a creative approach to a sign, but what about the name? I brushed it off for awhile as just another Italian name that might mean something to locals. I finally inquired about it only recently.

One day I opened the mighty Google Translate tool on our computer and entered “Sesto Senso”. The translation was immediate: “Sixth Sense”. No way, I thought to myself, this is so cool! (I’ve been listening to amazed college students for much too long this semester…) I wonder if he knows about the American movie? He did spend a few years in the States. Well, to this day I cannot confirm that he actually named it after the hit hollywood film (one of my favorites, it turns out), but he did confirm knowing about the film. I finally asked as we stood outside chatting. I told him I entered Sesto Senso into Google Translate, and he cut me off and said, “Yes, the Sixth Sense – like the movie,” followed by a slight grin. Whether inspired directly by the movie or not, we have come to the conclusion that it is quintessential Alex – creative, and willing to try something different. Since then, he has developed a web site for the place (minus Haley Joel Osment imagery).

Another story line has emerged here, beyond the walls of Sesto Senso. Alex acquired a lease on a city-owned property for a second restaurant. The place is located right on the highly visible and walkable Piazza della Erbe, a small but incessantly busy public square in the heart of medieval Viterbo. A couple of my students researched this piazza for a class project, and so it has been fun to share some of Alex’s experiences with my class. This is a fantastic place for a new restaurant venture, given the heavy foot traffic. Erbe is a major social venue for the Italian locals during their almost-nightly “Passeggiata”.

For the past few months we have enjoyed hearing the stories of progress, renovation, frustration, and planning associated with Alex’s latest entrepreneurial adventure. Not yet knowing what he intends to call the place, his vision is to open an American-style steakhouse, something unheard of inside the Viterbo walls. Even Alex acknowledged that the Viterbese tend to be set in their ways with respect to cuisine: “All they like to eat is Italian food,” he mused, adding that “I want to encourage them to try something different, not like the same pizzas they eat all the time”. Still, hedging his bets, he is using a strategy he calls “fusion,” that includes mixing various local Italian fare with the otherwise foreign American-style cuisine.

Wow, we thought, an American steakhouse. Most people here still stare us down because it is still rare to see Americans. If someone can pull it off, it’s Alex. While enjoying occasional chats, his frustrations show through. He speaks of the delay in completing city paperwork, or the slow progress on interior renovations. Starting a small business from scratch is a challenging thing in America, let alone Italy. It was not a surprise when we learned that his original plan for a grand opening in November was unfortunately going to come and go. As of November 30, the big, white paper sign covering the door still advertised OPENING NEXT. “Next what?” I asked Linda. We thought the sign was amusing, and quite telling. We hoped that Alex could get the place open for us to participate in his success before our departure in late December.

As of a few days ago, Alex had set a date: Saturday, December 17  is the big day planned for opening Alex’s grand experiment. We will informally let students and others know about the plan. After countless walk-bys through Piazza del Erbe, Linda and I had not been able to get a sneak peak of the place under renovation, until only a few days ago. After parting with Linda as she began her volunteer teaching earlier this week, I too had a “sixth sense”. I hustled back to our apartment, gathered the camera, and headed to Erbe. For the first time, one of the doors of “OPENING NEXT” was open, and I took my chance. Peaking in, I found a work crew putting the finishing touches on the renovations, with Alex perusing wine catalogs with a colleague. He tweaked the loose glass top on the bar that had yet to be glued in place and motioned for me to look around. Linda and I think he can do it, given what we’ve seen of the progress. It’s Alex, so if anyone can do it… We’re rooting for him, and we will be one of his first loyal pairs of customers upon opening day – perhaps with a few American students to share the evening with!

As a footnote, we will be sure not to order the pasta carbonara on opening day. After several orders of that dish over a month’s time at Sesto Senso, Alex gave us a hard time one day: “Don’t you dare order the carbonara,” he said only half-jokingly. Alex encourages people to try new things, to get out of their habits once in awhile. This is an important lesson for Viterbo, and for all of us.

On Teaching Abroad: Part 3

This is a continuation of my previous two posts that include my personal reflections about teaching and living abroad. I am crafting these as “tips,” though the less prescriptive word, “observations” may be more appropriate. In any case, welcome to Part 3 of this series, and take from it what you wish. My fourth observation constitutes the remainder of this post.

4. Just Go to Say Hello

That is to say, try to be realistic about the extent to which you can integrate with your host community. With only a little over four months of time, it may seem like a lot, but it will fly by rather quickly, and the language learning curve is slow for both students and faculty. As a personal anecdote, a few weeks ago I was sitting in the otherwise abandoned USAC office during their lunch break as I prepared materials for my afternoon class. The staff tends to leave the radio on when they leave, so I typically enjoy a quiet concert of pop music while I am working there. To my surprise early on, many of these songs are sung in English, and many originate in the United States. On this day, one song caught my attention because it was catchy and cute, simply titled “Hello”. It is now on my iPod. It’s not an overly complicated tune, but the main verse throughout came to hold an alternative meaning for me: “I just came to say Hello,” she repeats many times, hoping her date will get the message. This is what she tells her boyfriend at a party, clarifying throughout the song that, while she’s his “darling” for the evening, she’s not interested in doing much more than saying “hello” and leaving. She doesn’t even “really care if you don’t have much to say”.

The “Hello” song became a light-hearted way to describe my personal sentiments – and stark reality - related to living in Italy for the semester. I really just came to say “hello,” and I need to be satisfied with the limited amount of involvement I can ultimately enjoy within this community and through its language. The bottom line is that I came to teach students in an exciting, novel place for a few months, and enjoy a rare opportunity to live in the same foreign place for longer than a week. My expectations did not really move beyond this, however, as I had no grand illusions of becoming an Italian local or becoming fluent in the language. Neither of these can be accomplished in four months, and I would not suggest to most people that they try. There may be cases where a faculty member is already proficient with the host country’s language or plans to remain in the country for a full year instead of a semester. In these or similar cases, the VP (visiting professor) may realistically expect to become more involved with the place, and perhaps more fluent with the language. Otherwise, it was helpful for me to be realistic about my own expectations for learning the language in advance. Most of the students are not proficient with the Italian language, and I have “gotten by” here with an introductory course’s worth of Italian prior to my Viterbo experience. While I have picked up words and practiced phrases throughout my stay, it’s a very slow process of learning. But I am confident now that I can get around here and Italy, and to communicate with Italians politely and hold simple conversations. At this point, I’m satisfied with that.

I have been hearing similar accounts from students and other past and current faculty members. Some students had been hoping to integrate more fully into our community here in Viterbo, perhaps through making new friends, becoming more proficient with the language, enjoying community activities, and so on. This is a commendable goal, though it seems a lot of us have hit a “wall” in terms of how integrated we can actually become within a four-month period. To their credit, USAC provides numerous opportunites, not the least being the pairing up of “language partners,” promoting cultural events, and offering volunteer experiences. Still, the language is not learned fast enough for most of us, and local neighbors are friendly but have been forming their social networks for years or decades (or longer). It is not realistic to expect that students or faculty will be able to integrate more thoroughly.

This perhaps seems somewhat contradictory to the incessant call for students to “immerse” themselves in another culture to promote global awareness – again, a worthwhile goal ideally, but not realistic for a semster away from home. Though it has been disappointing for me and others to hit this “wall” lately, it is the reality of still playing the role of visitor within a host community. Everyone is still learning and experiencing more than they can process, even without that elevated goal of immersion. We’re really just going to say “hello,” and to take our rich experiences with us on the rest of our own life journeys. And, if we can give something back – intangible or otherwise – to our host community, so much the better.