inauguration nite!

Wed 21 Jan 2009

Monday night was American night, which Christine cooking about 40 tiny hamburger patties at her apartment. A few guys thought the burgers were a bit too wimpy and brought some giant patties of their own. When I say giant, I mean about the size of seven or eight McDonald's big Macs put together. Plus a whole bun, onions, tomato, lettuce, and ketchup. I didn't see them actually eat the burgers, but I'm told that it happened.

Kally and I, the vegetarians, have veggie burgers. Considering I'm still not entirely sure what they were made out of, but them were pretty good when Christine prepared them. It was good to know, at least, that some vegetarian options carry over from the US.

Tuesday was Beth's birthday, but also came with much anticipation for the inauguration. I brought my laptop with me to SMG so I could stay updated throughout the day. My jaw dropped at the photos on cnn.com–I knew the mall in DC would be packed with people, but I hadn't thought about it enough to actually picture the thousands literally upon thousands clamoring around the Washington monument, looking like thousands upon thousands of ants running around an anthill.

Still, I had two classes to get through. My 5:30 date with Chelsea to do our homework (70 words about our best friend, and yes, Stacey, I wrote about you) was put off when we realized my culture class ended at 5:30 and the inauguration proceedings would start at the same time. But even before that, I had my first renaissance class and the first culture class with the other professor, aka NOT the one who hates Under the Tuscan Sun but has some masochistic wish to teach it anyway.

Professor Kittel, who teaches the renaissance in italy class, has a surprisingly strong presence for such a small woman. She has short black hair cut into somewhat of a messy bob, glasses that probably aren't from this decade, and little care for a fashion sense. And yet, slight as she is (her jaw protrudes from how thin she is and she can't be taller than my mom) just her stature seems to commandeer so much respect. She has such passion for her subject and reads aloud, as she puts it, as fast as the italians talk. She speaks English just as fast.

We were minutes into class when I knew it's going to be the most difficult class I'll be taking here, but for sure also the most interesting and rewarding. She had only just started her introduction to the renaissance when I knew she would be the most fascinating professor. She strings words together when she speaks in the most thought provoking ways. And, like the antithesis of most professors, she admitted to not knowing the exact date of an event in a war (to which, she said, "I know, it's shocking that I'm a history professor and I haven't memorized every single date) and still managed to improve her credibility.

I know I just rambled on about a professor for two paragraphs, but when I was sitting in that first class with her I was thinking of what Chelsea had said a day early when we were discussing the benefits and downfalls of tutoring italiani in inglese while in Viterbo: "I'm here on vacation," she said. At the time, I had been in complete, unwavering agreement, but as that idea kept running through my head during Kittel's class, I couldn't help but feel the exact opposite. Yes, I'm in Viterbo for a break from American life. But I'm also here to get a chance to think about things differently and explore new ideas. It may sound cheesy and bookwormish, but I realized I'm really stoked to learn while I'm here. As a result and in spite of the six books we have to read during the semester and the five kilometer walk I'll have to take in a few weeks.

Renaissance class totally pumped me up for the half hour between classes, as I daydreamed about all the junk I'd be learning. Also, I was pretty high on an Obama rush, anticipating the inauguration. It made culture class a bit difficult to sit through, but I did enjoy the change in professor and chance to actually learn about italiano culture, history and politics instead of one woman's fictional idea of Tuscany.

5:30 p.m. came with a mad rampage of the entire class through the tiny italian doorway out of the classroom, out of the university and onto the streets. We sped back into the cover of the city walls and across town to get to the bar where about half of USAC was already sitting and watching Biden get sworn in. The owner of the bar/ristorante had been nice enough to give up part of his pausa pronzo to stay open so we could watch, and he even found a channel on the TV in inglese for us.

Like many of the others, I ordered a drink (a Salvatore for me, it was a dark beer and really good) and stood by the bar while a good half of us filled up every chair on the side of the ristorante with the TV. Watching Aretha Franklin sign the national anthem (in that hat??) was good comic relief. I was surprised how moved I was by the quartet playing "Gift to be Simple," but I guess the moment got the better of me. But when Obama was sworn in and during his speech, I couldn't stop smiling. It was impossible.

And I wasn't the only one. I looked around the room to see a few of the girls actually crying with happiness, and others gazing humbly with awe at the television screen. For a moment, it was strange and sad to realize I wasn't at home, in the US, in DC, watching this happen. I thought about people at home watching it happen at the exact same time. I imagined how amazing it would have been to be back working at CBS that day. But I realized that, for the majority of the time, I hadn't even thought about the fact that I wasn't in the United States as this historic event was happening. Standing in the packed bar, with a cold beer and my friends in italia, I might as well have been in the western hemisphere. I felt just as though I was in America with friends as I stood in the bar in Viterbo with friends.

It really was an amazing night. I could tell as it was happening that it would be one of those events where I'd forever remember every detail of exactly where I was while it was happening, only not because of some awful context like how I vividly remember the entire day of 9/11. And, even more amazing, Aaron took us to a small hole-in-the-wall place that made donor kebabs where Kally, Kittel's daughter and I were able to get some ridiculously delicious felafel.

Today was good as well, because with Alex from Maryland I met a couple italian students at the universita and had a chance to talk and practice inglese e italiano back and forth. Other than the italian students that some USAC kids live with, these were really the first italians from the university that I met and had a chance to talk to, which was really cool. But even throughout the day, the synapses in my brain would randomly fire and I'd flashback to the night before and how amazing it felt to know that I left America with George W. Bush as president, but I'd be returning to a country led by Barack Obama.