// Sono una studentessa. /// I am a student. //

These days, I’m just like a university student-- finding myself in bars and coffee shops and around dining tables, ruminating on ideas and what-ifs of life with others.

I guess though, the stereogypical professor or romatic or philosopher "does the same"... I have an image of C.S. Lewis and Tolkein's Inklings group in my head. ...

Topics of this season / this "semester" of life are in my head and they naturally spout out of my mouth in words formed into questions or comments. Here are some of those "subjects" on this life semester's syllabus.

Note: all the photos accompanying this post were taken on my recent travels in Parisian art galleries, Barcelona airports, Berlin reconstruction sites, and of every city's metro floors.

Worldwide Cultures.
Culture (as in the Petri dish—our often unknown, unacknowledged yet lived-in environment that we’re quite used to and comfortable with—often judging other Petri dishes as being inferior or severely lacking).

It’s what we don’t talk or think about until we juxtapose it with another… until we’ve gone without it and are trying to understand our symptoms of discomfort and withdrawal. Two nights ago, I shared a dimly lit table with two Brits, an American, and Dutch boy doing what I’ve been doing for over a year now—comparing our ways of being in the world (day-to-day life habits, emotional temperatures, mental processing, values, morals, sports, etc.). I remember doing the same while in a little white Fiat Punto driving over grape-vine-d hills under Mount Vesuvius last year ceaselessly it seamed.

Mindsets, Definitions, and Worldviews.
Worldviews (as being the intricate system of definitions—every person, place, and thing having a specific role and series of attributed qualities and “functioning” in those roles almost exclusively. I believe that even the most open-minded of us humans has a framework like this. Everything named and ordered just so. If we tweek our definitions or roles of a thing, person, group, or place, the whole also is altered. A shift occurs. A paradigm shift of sorts.).

I have literally taken notes while in a TEFL teachers meetings the last to years... including last Friday's. It’s easy to say something’s bad (a rule, a method, a business structure), or even worse than bad. It’s easy to curse or craft a general complaint. However, it’s more of a challenge to really take the time to understand the WHY behind the actions—the thinking/worldview/definitions that motivate, excuse, inspire, and justify those actions. Not only is understanding born of that time taken, but also a deep sense of compassion and appreciation for who they are as an intricate human being. Sure, one continues to disagree—perhaps more fiercely :)—but one can appreciate the other as being a human being worthy of respect.

I had “an Italian language lesson” with my Italian friend Monica over a coffee shop table (here in Italia, we call them bars) on Sunday morning. She introduced to me these Italian expressions:

Immedesimarsi = “to put yourself in another person’s shoes”

Example: Bisogna immedesimarsi in una situazione della persona perche e la forma piu importante di repetto—la miglore forma di respetto.

Translation: You need to put yourself in the person’s shoes because it’s the most important form of respect—the highest form of respect.

I’m happy to be an adult that can, instead of rebelling like a teenager-to-parent relationship, seek to relate adult-to-adult—seeking to understand, communicate with the other regardless of differences, and appreciate the other more deeply in doing so.

Advertising.
Advertising (as being the financially-invested-in and overtly declared needs and “needs” of the general or a niche-group public for fiscal success and/or domination of a consumer retailer-- when it comes to flyers, ads, billboards on the sides of freeways and on airport walls, TV commercials, etc.).

I have a great desire to catalogue and study every photo I have taken over the last 3 years of advertisements in the various countries and cities I’ve visited. My friend Monica (mentioned above) is in the business and also, like me, has an interest in psychology. She gave me the idea of a thesis project for grad school on the topic.

I have found every city in a country or country in the world to have a different angle/strategy/technique/execution of defining what they consider to be the needs and “needs” (I mean needs = valid, universal, lowest-common-denominator human needs AND “needs” = synthetic needs that are based on a twisted and projected reality.) of that specific people group—having invested in employees' salaries to first study the population and then execute “art” based on research.

My cousin who, pre-motherhood, was in the marketing industry with Porshe, validated the above as being a reality of the business. Monica, an Italian ceramics advertiser, says the same. So here I am, camera in hand, trying to see it and sense it and understand both the research and the art.

The Nature of Language(s), generally speaking (no pun intended. :) … ).
Language (as being the box of expression made up of combinations of individual words, grammar/syntax, and other intricate forms.)

Because my job is to teach a specific language to people that all speak another specific language, I find myself talking with others about the nuances of language.

SO MANY PEOPLE have asked me how I could come to this country to live without having even HEARD the language before my arrival. Others have asked how I could possibly travel alone for days on end in countries in which I can’t speak without the help of a meager phrase book. It’s actually easier than most people think! Over the last 2 years of living in non-English speaking countries—being subject to overdubbed dialog in films, unrecognizable signage, public transportation timetables, etc.—I have found that the human race is more alike than apart.

Sure, we think language (joining forces with culture) is such a chasm separating us all wholly and categorically. However, I have utilized other forms of language, other than words, and have found such connection and understanding reached in spite of the breach. What forms? Ok. It sounds over simplistic, but I’m telling you, it’s from personal experience. Sincere and kind eye contact. Hand gestures accompanied by sincere and kind eye contact. A smile. A tough look of warning. Firm, straight-backed stance. Ok. You think I’m insane. That’s fine. I have experienced what I’ve experienced, and you’ll have to experience experiences of your own to experience it for yourself. :)

Anyway, it’s a fun topic to think about. There’s tons of categories within the category.

Foods and Beverages.
Foods (quite an obvious topic when being an international living overseas). I’m not going to go into it, but I’m in Italia. You can imagine. :)

I will say, however, that I’ve found Italia to be the most interesting country when it comes to food, since every region has its marked specialties which is based on the nation’s political history (if you get a chance, read “The Dark Heart of Italy”, written by a Brit who experienced much of the nation and wrote an incredible account) of hostile separation between towns less than 100 km away from each other. Each region literally staked its claim to fame not just in its political structure, but its culinary art.

Seeming obsurdities still exist like the “fact” that you “can’t” have pesto sauce with tortellini because pesto is from Genoa and tortellini is from Bologna. It’s a giant cultural “no-no” to this day. There are people that have lived all their lives in Italy without having been to Rome, or even a town 20 minutes away. (However, I have found that as being more globally universal, for all of us non-tourist residents in whatever town we find ourselves.)

The English language.
English (as being what it is and being sought out by the nations of the world as the marketplace tongue).

Ever since Radolfo Cimmino, the Napolitan engineer who I visited in his office twice a week on his lunch hour last year, I have been getting better and better at defining, paraphrasing and giving examples of all sorts of words and expressions in the English language. It’s quite the mental calisthenics, but a blast. The challenge is to define an English word with other English words instead of going to translation. It’s fun!

Relationships.
Relationships (as being housemates, lovers, long-distance friends, long-distance family).

Relationships grow in the constructs of shared time and space. When the sharing changes because of distance—be it closeness or far-ness—the time is spread out differently and the relationship big-picture-wise changes. I’ve both mourned this fact and celebrated it.

Some people end up seeing your darker hues more than others just because they have a way of showing up when you’d rather go unseen in your anger, moodiness, or overall discontent. It’s funny how you can live with two different people at two separate times and both have had a different experience of you—a little more of “this” (personality part, character quality, self-expression, etc.), a little less of “that”. It’s been that way with me and my various housemates. Interesting.

Art, Theater, and Architecture.
Art (as being the expression of the emotions, values, ideas, ideals and lifestyles of individuals and people groups—in fine/classic art museums, on walls and trains as “graffiti”, on theater stages, buildings both new and ancient, and modern art museums which often have a multimedia component.).

One of my life goals is to go to the Modern Art museum of every city I visit. Why? Because I really am passionate about the desires, dreams, actions, and attitudes of this my generation. I think its fascinating to look at the common denominators of the world’s this-generation-humans and the differences from country-to-country or city-to-city (not just individual-to-individual).

I feel like I’ve been in a 2 year long, hands-on art history class. :) I recall the scene in “Mona Lisa Smile” (starring Julia Roberts), where she takes her 1950’s, all-girls college art history class to see a Jackson Pollack painting face to face. Immediately, she says “You don’t even have to like it, but just experience it” or something like that. … There they were face-to-face with the textures and colors of an expresser so Other to their time and space in society and culture (1950’s).

I find myself in that same situation—often confronted with loaded classical-style art that is out of my frame of reference as being from young America. I find myself there day after day, week after week, art exhibition after art exhibition, church after church. With more and more education (in my case, hands-on education), I find myself developing educated likes and dislikes and opinions. Instead of liking everything cause it’s different and other and old, I am more choosy—having a personal preference and gradient of good—better—best. Developing the taste buds if you will. :) And these lessons, like all lessons in this post, continue…

Spirituality.
Spirituality (as being the beliefs and disciplines and way of one’s soul whether channeled through religious forms or not).

This is definitely going to be the most un-specific and abstractly commented section in this post. By choice. Theology was my major and spirituality has been an attentively cultivated part of my life since I was a child. I find myself being more honest in my personal spiritual search and more honestly seeking out where others are at in their spiritual lives. Enough said on the subject for now… more to come.

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"Semester" Summary.

All the above subjects that I’m being taught in are so dear and appreciated. Even if they weren’t at first. :)

A giant thank you to my teachers: my ESL students, my housemates and colleagues who are also internationals, various boyfriends, my God, my parents, my long-distance friends, new friends and acquaintances of European nationality, my family members on both the Roth and Mello sides, my bosses and mentors and elders who have inspired me past and present both, and you, my online traveling companions who make me think.

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 8:30 AM