Airports and Italians

I loooooooooooove airports. I love them, I love them, I love them. I love watching the planes take off, I love daydreaming about my next adventure, I love meeting random people while you wait. I think my favorite thing about airports though, are the reactions to the return home. Witnessing the reuniting of loved ones after time spent apart is great :) Faces are decked with emotion and it is always a surprise which emotion will reveal itself, as reuniting can be an overwhelming thing. For some reason I always cry when I return home, like a sobbing drained hobo collapsing into the arms of my mom and dad, then again, that might have something to do with the fact that usually my luggage has just been lost in a different hemisphere and I have been in transit for the past 46 hours with nothing to eat but microwaved hot-pockets. The reuniting experience is a powerful one though. It begs the most natural gut response when you see loved ones again, nothing is rehearsed or strained. You are simply reacting. If you ever need a pick-me-up, go sit at the arrival gate of your local airport and watch the events unfold.

I flew to Rome the other day and met a handsome Argentine while waiting for my plane. We spoke broken Spanish and English together and then he swept me off to his villa and we rode Arabian horses together into the sunset...OR NOT. But we did have a nice little chat in his beautiful language, which brings me to my point--languages can either be a beautiful window or a frustrating barrier. This week I experienced both. The window can be fun and a little boost to your ego when you see how your four years of simple high school middle-America Spanish can get you by, but then there is the REAL test of skill--actually putting that language into context and going to the respective country. And that I did (in this case I went to Italy). While in Rome I spent time with a good friend who happens to speak three languages, clearly trumping my one. All her friends speak 3 languages as well..none of which are English, and yes, I can hear your sighs of pity for me, if you were wondering, thanks. Point of the story--we didn't speak English for 5 consecutive days. That's 5 days in a row without "Like, so I was like, tired, and then he was like hungry and then like.." I would like to think that I don't actually sound like that, but it's harder than you think to speak without slang and the improper usage of words. This is where the barrier comes into play--they were all carousing and joking and singing together in a bond created by their common language. I have never felt so foreign in my life. I felt like I had a big fat stamp on my head labled "IGNORANT". My high school Spanish and Italian just didn't cut it. My computer generated "PROFICIENCY" degree awarded to me during senior year meant nothing to these people--for all they knew, I was speaking Yiddish. However, as the night wore on I have to admit I had the time of my life and although I didn't get my point across most of the time in words, I am pretty good with charades and can say I represented America well. And most importantly, these "strangers" soon became my friends despite our lack of common nouns and verbs. Patience and kindness can go a long way when you are far away from home.

Last point. Italians-gotta love 'em. So bold and confident with hand gestures being thrown everywhere. It's as if someone told them that this is their very last day they will ever be Italians and they're getting it all out, as much as they can, giving it their all, showing the world why it's great to be Italian. I like that. They know who they are. That's why I don't mind when I get a look that could kill from the clerk as I slide a 20 euro bill (for a 1 euro item) across the counter, followed by a string of Italian phrases about why I can't bring smaller bills and how now she has to go back and get change...it all sounds like "Ave Maria" to me, that is, if I don't listen to what she is actually saying.

I signed up for language courses the other day. Be prepared to see my best.