Abhorring the Debauchery

Courtesy of Kessler/MTV/PictureGroup

I am having a very hard time right now keeping my anger inside about the Jersey Shore cast. So now I have to get it off my chest.

I previously wrote about how I successfully managed to avoid watching any episode of Jersey Shore on television, and even after it transplanted itself onto the Italian airways, I still avoided the debauchery. Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said for the poor people of Italy. Not only has the MTV program started to broadcast into Italian homes, the cast of the show has also literally landed on the boot-shaped peninsula.    

Cooking By Mom’s Encouragement

Noticing my heightened interest in nutrition and meal choices, my mom encouraged me to cook dinner once a week for my family. Not only would it allow me the opportunity to spend time in the kitchen to prepare a meal, but my cooking would also encourage the family to eat healthier and lessen my mother’s burden of cooking. This suggestion came when I was fourteen. At first, I was very reluctant. What did I know about cooking beyond boiling water for pasta and reheating leftovers? Very little. However, I was willing to make the attempt and enter a domain that had long been foreign to me.

Admittedly, spending time in the kitchen initially induced a great deal of anxiety and fear. In high school, I became more conscious of the negative impact food could have on my physical appearance and behavior, and I came to realize the significance such factors could have on peer judgment. My relationship with food during my teens emphasizes Carole Counihan’s understanding about individuals’ concerns “with not eating too much or not letting food consume them. They fear losing the moral authority that comes from the self-control, and they fear the social condemnation that comes from being fat”. Food took this reign over me that created limits; I became so overwhelmed by the importance of nutrition and the negative aspects of my bodily image that I began to devalue food’s sensuousness. However, this all changed when I became a player in the kitchen.

Adventures of Getting Lost

My sister loves to tell “epic” stories. Whether she is describing her long waits in the driveway of her best friend’s house or the latest gossip from her high school, my sister is a true Italian as she raises her voice to elevate the drama and gestures her hands to emphasize her points.

It seems that not a day goes by when Jackie does not have at least one story to share. The other day, after coming home from a lacrosse game, she proceeded to skip all the details about the final score or her playing time, and instead she talked nonstop for more than five minutes about how she and her best friend became lost in the opposing team’s school and had to ask countless times for directions to the bathroom. She said that the two of them asked multiple times where they could find the bathroom, but repeatedly the instructions failed them. It was only after the third attempt that they finally found their desired destination, a spot the rest of the lacrosse team had seemed to find rather easily.

An American’s Perspective on the Royal Wedding

Like millions of other people, I spent last Friday morning eating my breakfast in front of the television while watching the spectacle of William and Kate’s royal wedding. As I watched the beautiful ceremony, a part of me wished I could be in the city of London to feel the energy and to witness one of our generation’s most momentous occasions. Studying abroad this semester in London, my roommate Kate was among the millions who crowded the streets of London to see Will and Kate become husband and wife. Anxious to hear all the details about the royal festivities, I asked Kate to serve as a guest blogger. Thanks, Kate! 

I have to admit, I wasn’t that into the royal wedding.  When my friends heard I was going to be studying in London this semester, their first reaction was always to exclaim, “You’re going to be there for the wedding!!” And I always agreed that it would be pretty cool to see a little bit of British history, but it wasn’t something I gave a lot of thought; I was much busier preparing for all the other, more pressing matters of adjusting to life in a foreign country, and I just did not have time to give Will and Kate much thought at all. When I got to London, however, it was clear that people here didn’t share my indifference. Every souvenir shop, postcard stand, and magazine I have seen has featured the couple prominently on all sorts of memorabilia, from teacups to posters to dolls. 

Longing for a Conversation

I am in language withdrawal.

Right now I am suffering from an inability to speak in a foreign tongue. Having lived with Flavia and gallivanted throughout Italy for the past four months, my mind gradually began to think in two languages. Although I was far from bilingual, hearing Italian words became music to my ears and conversing in the tongue felt like singing a beautifully, eloquent song. Today, however, I am back in a country where ain’t, yo, home boy, BBM, and lol, among others, are everyday words and phrases.

In high school I studied Italian for three years, but I was unfortunately unable to continue with the language as a senior. Lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it), Georgetown required that I study a language during my undergraduate career. Looking to review and renew my interest in the language of my dad’s ancestors, I enrolled in intensive Italian courses during my freshman year at the university. As a student in the College, I was only required to take Italian through the intermediate level, so I completed my language studies at the end of last spring, or so I thought…

Me and Mr. Hemingway

I realized that Ernest Hemingway and I have a lot in common.

Not only did Hemingway make his living as writer, something I strive one day to do, but he also traveled the world and shared his global experiences with readers throughout the course of his brilliant career. As he once said, “Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.”