The Italians on Campus

Note: this is actually about Monday the 15th 

The first cultural difference we learned about Italians was that which we learned on the first morning at breakfast.

Italians do not queue for anything.

This morning was no exception, and the Americans ran en masse to beat them to the cafeteria for breakfast. Alas, we did not succeed, and we were stuck in the daily formation of a straight line of Americans surrounded by a loose funnel of Italians.

Other than that, there is another American program, one Russian program, one Spanish program, and roughly 140 Italians. UCD is a very large language learning school. Fortunately, one of ours, Sheridan from D.C., speaks Italian because she lived in Rome for five years. Yesterday we were playing capture the flag and kept interrupting a simplified outdoor rendition of Midsummer Night's Dream that was their summer project. So naturally, we stayed to watch. When they were done, we asked some of the Italians to play with us. One was relatively fluent, and those friendly ones who spoke pretty good English joined us. Giuseppe, Angelo, Francesco, Marta, Maria, and Sylvia joined, among others. Angelo and Francesco were wearing Batman costumes and ran onto the field yelling "nana nana nana nana" from the sixties Batman show theme,

Naturally, they were the ones I talked to. Angelo was really sweet and curious about everything, he and I sat out of the next game to chatter and help him with his English. A lot of the Americans were really excited to meet the Italians but didn't know how to communicate with them without going too fast. And so, he sat with me on the curb of the parking lot where flags were being captured and we talked about our cultures and where we had been and where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do after high school. This was all yesterday.

Their last day was today. We went over to their section of dorms where they were celebrating, and they ran up to us and asked for a million pictures. Once that was over, the American girls tried to talk to the Italian guys all at once, which thoroughly confused them. Angelo kept looking at me for translations, and eventually we gave up trying to translate and went back to yesterday's conversations. He said he wanted to come for college in America to learn English better and experience something new. We joked about visiting each other, I in New Orleans and he in Naples. When we had to finally go inside for curfew, everybody exchanged some of the most genuine and heartfelt hugs I have ever witnessed.

So yes, we had lectures on Irish music and sport this morning, and I was given three scoops of mashed potatoes with lunch today, and we did a workshop on architecture and practical design where we made chairs out of cardboard, but what we're experiencing here is so much more important than I would have dreamed of. We collectively grew from annoyance at the Italians in line at breakfast to fast friendships within a few days, and then as quickly as they had joined our lives, they were gone.

But Facebook exists, so I think we'll be okay. In the meantime, we'll miss the funnel-shaped queues and the confused looks at American chatter. And that is how we met our first Italians in Ireland.