"Italy Changed my World View" Past Review

I could spend these paragraphs writing about how much I have learned about architecture in Italy. I could talk about how the experience of actually seeing the Pantheon is so much more powerful than reading or studying it. But the immense knowledge and experience I gained from studying in Rome, isn't what I found the most important. Italians are different than Americans. They are often late. They take their time getting ready, but drive like maniacs. They drive on their horns. In fact, one day I saw a car and a woman on a scooter nearly have a wreck, honking and yelling insured and then a window was rolled down. That was the part where I thought I was going to see Italian road rage. They both started laughing and then went on about their ways. Italians are sometimes late because they take time to get ready in the morning, or perhaps they forgot about the scheduled bus strike. They take pride in their appearance. Coffee breaks and smoke breaks are an important part of daily life. It's not about the coffee, which is excellent, or even about the smoking, it's about taking time out of the day to slow down and take a breath. Nothing is hurried. I had no dishwasher and no dryer. Cooking and cleaning was a long, but fulfilling process. I became part of a dinner circle, where we took turns cooking and cleaning for one another. The dinner circle was the family I came home to every night when classes were over. I actually came home for a change. I developed a relationship with the man I bought fish from at the fresh market, never learned his name, never spent time outside of the market with him, but he knew me. He knew my broken Italian and I understood his broken English. Pointing however was our main means of communication. It took a long time to do laundry. After washing the clothes, I carried them to the drying rack, sometimes I hung them out the window, and on rare occasion I ventured up to the unattractive but endearing roof top, full of character, with views of the other roof tops and in the distance the buildings that I studied located in the historic district. As an architecture student the things I put on hold in my life were doing my laundry, cooking, eating, sleeping, taking time to get ready in the morning, things that an Italian would find appalling. And for what, to earn a B+ instead of a B? A friend of mine, a good bit older than me, recently dropped out of the program. Her doctor told her that her blood pressure could not take the stress of working constantly, not eating, and sleeping very little. She is working her way back into the groove of things after taking a semester off. I am proud of her. School is something that most people say it is best just to push through. But it's not. I am fortunate to be so young while attending college, I have fewer things to worry about. No husband and no mortgage is good for me. I need to make time to go to counseling. I have to learn how to deal with stress. Not all stress is bad, but nervous breakdown stress is very bad. I want to thank you for granting me this scholarship because it gave me a chance to try a healthier lifestyle. Although being late is not on my agenda, I feel I have an unique opportunity to find a balance, because I have been at both ends of the spectrum.