I Feel So Grown Up

A couple times over the past couple week, I’ve stopped whatever I was doing, looked up at whoever I was with, and said, “Man…I feel so grown up.” The first time it happened, I was walking with Magown and Amanda Jones from the Traiano Library back to our flats. Three Americans in Rome, backpacks on our backs, sweaty from a day of site visits, lined up single-file to help us navigate the crowd. The phrase “backpacking through Europe” immediately jumped to mind – sure, we’re not exactly staying in hostels or taking overnight trains halfway across the continent, but we were wearing backpacks in Europe, so I’m gonna go ahead and count it. Aside from the time we spend in class four days a week, we’re pretty much on our own. We don’t have to report to anyone, make it home by some kind of curfew, anything like that. Whatever we do outside of class, alone or together, near or far, legal or illegal, is completely ours to decide. We’re living in Rome.

Another time it happened was when Cheuk and I were making dinner last week. I’ve lived in the Quad for the past two years, and I’m living there next year, so I’m still relying on the dining hall and Bevo Bucks for food. Here, though, we decide what we want to eat, head over to the supermarket, buy it, come back to our flat, cook it, and eat it. We’re a bit limited both by funds and by our collective culinary know-how, but I can’t help feeling like we’re playing house every time one of asks the other, “What do you wanna make for dinner?” Our repertoire so far includes various combinations of pasta, tomato sauce, ground beef, salami, cheese, eggs (ten eggs for a euro, it’s a friggin’ steal), bread, olive oil, and, of course, Nutella. On the seventh day, God didn’t rest. He created Nutella. The two of us made our way through a 500g jar in just over a week, and we’ve already put a good dent in the 750g jar we bought after that. We rationalize the sheer volume of chocolate we’re putting in our bodies by taking into account all the walking that we do.

I also feel grown up when I think about how much my sleeping schedule has shifted since I’ve been here. At school and back home, I’ll go to bed at two, three, sometimes four, and get up well past noon. Here, though, our days are so full that I’ll start feeling pooped around eleven. Last night, I stayed up till about one to finish up some reading, and I caught myself thinking, “Wow, I’m up late.” Also take into account that our classes start at nine every morning, meaning we have to leave no later than 8:40, meaning we need to get up around 8:00, 8:15 if we both want to shower and eat breakfast. I’m not sure what’s weirder, the fact that my body’s used to the schedule, or the fact that my mind is, too.

Anyway, we were pretty much on our own for the weekend. Friday, we saw the frescoes at the Chapel of Santa Maria Antiqua and then the Colosseum. The Colosseum wasn’t quite as big as I expected it to be based on movies and postcards and stuff, but when you stand on the deck and just look around, it hits you just how massive the thing really is and how much manpower it must’ve taken to build it. I got some good pictures, obviously. Saturday was our first sleep-in day – woke up at eleven, worked on my paper for a couple hours, lunch, more working on my paper, supermarket, dinner, then hanging out in the Amandas’ room.

Sunday, a group of us got together for brunch in Dhananjay and Harrison’s room – by pitching in three euro or so, we all got scrambled eggs, bread (fresh bread, not packaged), jam, Nutella, fresh fruit, and coffee. Lots of coffee. After that, we headed over to the flea market that’s set up every Sunday afternoon. Anything you could possibly want to buy, from clothing to food to electronics to souvenirs, they have a dozen booths each. The only thing I bought was a power converter so I could plug two-pronged thingies into the three-prong outlet in our wall. We wandered around the city for a couple hours after that, bought some gelato (current favorite flavor: lemon), dinner, then back to our respective flats for a night of reading.

Monday was paper day – we have two five-page papers due every Tuesday, and the library’s open all day Monday, so I don’t foresee any other Monday here being any different than this one. I finished my first paper on Saturday night, but I still had to add the bibliography and throw in a couple citations. I did all the research for my second paper, wrote maybe three hundred words, then photocopied/printed everything I needed to bring back home with me. At home, I got three and a half pages done before the Amandas knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to head over to the Spanish steps and the Colosseum all lit up (it was night by that point). Of course we went (again, more pictures I’ll put up on Facebook or Filckr at some point), of course it took longer than we expected, of course I didn’t make it back to my paper till just before midnight, of course it was worth it.

Nothing too overwhelming on Tuesday, just a couple site visits and the afternoon off. I napped for a few hours, ate dinner, hit up an Internet café for my e-mail/Facebook fix, and read till bedtime. Same thing today.

I think I’m all written out for the time being. No fun anecdotes to close off with, just a general feeling of contentment as I’m finally getting the travel bug out of my system. On Sunday, I sat on the steps of the Piaza Trilussa for about an hour and just peoplewatched (yes, Microsoft Word, that’s a word). I probably saw more Americans than Italians wandering through the market. At some point, a guy sat down a couple rows in front of me and played his sax for about half an hour; that was neat. Anyway, hope summer is treating everyone well enough. It’s 7:42 a.m. CST as I’m posting this, so have a good day, I guess.