Final Reflections

As I write this, I'm sitting in a chair in Hotel Des Artistes in Rome. It sounds bougie, but I'm not engaging in intellectual discourse with painters, writers and musicians. Honestly the artwork on  the walls is kind of bad. This is just the cheap hostel that Julia and I are staying at for tonight, as we spend a day and a half exploring Rome.

When someone asks you what 'yeet' means.

This morning I woke up and realized that I would be leaving my little room at Via San Giorgio 12, Ingresso No. 3, and heading out into the rest of Europe on my own. It sounds cliche, but the time really did fly by. It seemed like so long ago that I stood at Logan Airport with a group of mainly strangers, wondering what to expect of the coming weeks. My memories of our time spent in Cagliari, however, seem to be a blur. I think that because I had no strict expectations or itinerary coming into the trip, I had a much more relaxed mindset. When I left this morning, I still felt that there was so much more for me to do and explore. I ate at maybe 20 restaurants- a meager sampling of the hundreds around the city, where my favorite could still wait, undiscovered. I wanted to visit more neighborhoods. I wanted to see more shops on Castello. I wanted to bike the trails around Devil's Saddle. I wouldn't say that I am disappointed I couldn't get to do these things, I just feel abruptly cut off. It took me at least 5 months to get used to the city of Boston when I first came, to learn its ins and outs, nooks and crannies. In Cagliari, I had only 5 weeks. I just got settled into a routine of things, a comfortable lifestyle of going to class, eating dinner out, and going on weekly excursions. Now I am jerked out of it.

Actual photo of the dorms after our departure

I can't say that I expected to learn as much as I did, and I didn't realize I had until I reflected on the final project. Our group worked intensely for 9 hours one day to completely draw up a waste management plan from scratch for the city of Boston. The next day, we gave presentations on our proposal and submitted a formal report. Writing report sections took me over two hours, and I poured out pages of information on the work we did. Afterwards, I realized that a month prior I could have at best written a few paragraphs on waste management. The schooldays were long, the work was intense, and the technical visits were at times smelly. I often lamented the assigned blog post, assignment, or project as I heard about it a few days prior from other students (no, I never bothered to check the schedule). While the courses absorbed much of my attention and kept me in many nights I wished to go out, the knowledge I gained was worth it. Altogether, my Dialogue experience has been an excellent one. I don't know another circumstance where I would get the chance to gain so much technical and cultural knowledge at once!

Many thanks to Professor Annalisa Onnis-Hayden for her hard work to make the trip both educational and fun. Weekend excursions gave us the chance to sample many aspects of the Sardinian culture and landscape. The technical courses were informative and thorough. Equally as important was our wonderful TA Sarah Mac. Thanks for slogging through all of our blog posts, thoroughly grading our assignments, and always being a hoot at Foghorn's!

Who said TAs aren't allowed to have fun??

Ciao Bella!