The World Cup Effect

Captain’s Log: Day 10

When I was in college I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend the summer abroad in Rome, Italy.  It was an amazing experience.  Since I was a student at St. Mary’s, we were able to stay at the Christian Brother’s “Mother House” (or BroMoHo as we called it…) in the heart of Rome.  We had little dormitory style rooms and had access to classrooms where we would spend the morning learning Italian or having other studies.  One of the brothers was our chef, and provided delicious Italian breakfasts (the same every day – crusty bread with soft cheeses, jam and eggs), lunches of salads, pastas and various meat and I distinctly remember him picking apricots from the trees on the grounds for us to snack on.  We explored the history and architecture of Rome.  We learned about the Etruscans, ancient pottery, “fibula” (aka. ancient safety pins) and mosaics.  We learned how to ask directions in Italian and shop.  We ate a ridiculous amount of pizza (zucchini was my favorite) and gelato.  We drank chianti and bought clothes and shoes.  We celebrated Mass with Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s square and climbed to the top of the Vatican.  Sometimes we would travel to other parts of Italy in our Mercedes bus with Bruno the driver, who treated us like his little car full of children.  It was magical.  In fact, two of the people I met during this trip have become some of my best friends and travel buddies, and we did the whole backpacking in Europe thing when we graduated from college.  

St. Mary’s also has a thing called “Jan Term” where you take only one class during the month of January, but you’re taking it all day so it’s essentially a whole semester of class rolled up into four weeks.  There are many travel courses that happen during this time, and I was lucky enough to be able to travel to New Zealand one year.  We seriously hit that whole country.  We started in Auckland, and then traveled to the far north of the island, where we spent time kayaking in a mangrove forest, hiked volcanoes, experienced Mauri culture and learned that "take away” meant you were taking your food to go.  On the south island some people in my class went bungee jumping (I got my belly button pierced instead…) hiked glaciers, stayed on dairy farms, and saw the most stars in the sky that I have ever seen.  I also may or may not have peed myself while float tubing in a pitch black cave with glow worms.  (Did you know that the inside of a cave is 0 lux – which is total darkness?  To compare, outdoors ranges from 10,000 to 100,000 lux… Seriously, one of my scariest things I’ve done – we had to literally jump off a ledge into the dark abyss with a float tube, landing in an underground river that you can’t see, and linking up with the person in front of you, praying to Baby Jesus that there wasn’t some weird creature in the water under you.)  I did NOT enjoy that.  But I survived, and it was another amazing travel opportunity for me. I am dying to go back with my kids one day.  

Traveling to other countries like this has really made me appreciate different cultures and experiences. Standing and looking at the Forum or the Pantheon in Rome and realizing just how ridiculously old those structures are makes me realize how young the United States actually is.  But what’s wild is that I have never looked at the United States like I have through the eyes of all the people who are here visiting the US for the first time for the World Cup in the past couple of weeks.  If you haven’t seen any of the highlights of the Scots in Boston, or the Japanese in Texas, or the people trying things like Chic-Fil-A for the first time, or discovering how amazing air conditioning is, you absolutely must do a deep dive into Instagram or whatever your social media platform of choice is, because it is FASCINATING.   I have always been proud to be an American (P.S. we’re not going to talk about anything political because that is a hot mess of things that I don’t want to get in to…but overall, I like being American), but to see all these people from all over the world coming here and seeing us for who we are is so refreshing.  I love that people are surprised that we’re nice, or that we give free refills (and ice!) on your sodas.  That our kids really do ride yellow busses to school and it’s not just something that was made up for movies.  That you can get an absolutely delicious brisket sandwich at Bucc-ees and the best tacos you’ll ever try from a taco truck in a parking lot.  That watching baseball is magical and the National Parks are gorgeous.  We have always been a country built on immigrants and dreamers, and I love that it actually feels like the world is seeing us with new eyes.  I hope that this sense of wonder and appreciation for us as a country, and the admiration of other people and cultures that Americans seem to be getting, continues – and I hope that we as Americans realize that other cultures and people are special too.