I flew into Rome via Fiumicino and took the airport train to Trastevere, switching to another train that dropped me at Quattro Venti in Monteverde. I had once again packed too many bags for this overseas journey and carrying them the few blocks to my Airbnb was absolute hell. It actually felt like that. It was the hot, sweltering heat of early August 2021, and—around that time—Sicily had just broken the heat record for Europe.
Why was I in Rome?
Over the COVID-19 summer of 2020 in America, I’d been accepted into the Master of Arts in Food Studies: Policies for Sustainable Production and Consumption graduate program at The American University of Rome (AUR). While another university accepted me in America, AUR offered a 25% scholarship. And it was in Rome! Fearing potential Zoom classes and COVID lockdowns if I attended in the Fall of 2020, I deferred for one year and went to South Korea to teach English. Editor’s Note: Excellent decision!
Since the summer of 2018, I have been in the midst of a meandering, oftentimes unruly, multi-continental transition towards a career related to my passion for sustainable agriculture. This stemmed from my upbringing on a small family farm in rural Kansas and never left me in the decade I lived in Washington, D.C. Completion of this graduate degree will get me one step closer to that goal.
Worldwide, the global agri-food system is responsible for roughly 21-37% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contributing to global warming (IPCC, 2019, p. 10). This system must drastically change towards more sustainable, regenerative, agroecological production and consumption practices to ensure we can meet the needs of an ever-increasing human population and mitigate climate change. In my first month of this graduate program, I realized my life has a purpose. That purpose is to aid in halting and reversing climate change. To safeguard future generations’ ability to enjoy earth’s bounty.
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
Jane Goodall
In the first month, I met many intriguing, passionate, artistic, and driven individuals, both within my own program’s cohort, and also locally within Rome. Many will continue to be lifelong friends well after this program has been completed.
Often in those first few weeks of a waning summer, I spent the evenings meeting new friends down by the Tiber river, after the sun had vanished over Belvedere del Gianicolo. At night, the heat became manageable while lazily sipping chilled, Pecorino wine on Isola Tiberina.
Below is a random assortment of thoughts and observations over the course of the nine-and-a-half months I resided in Rome.
August 10: One of the first things I noticed about Rome is the graffiti. Mind you, I’ve only been to a few neighborhoods so far, but it’s everywhere and on everything. Buildings, trash cans, public transit/road signs. Even the Airbnb host apologized for it. Well, more likely he thought I would assume it was a bad neighborhood due to the graffiti.
August 11: I’m still getting over my cold, which may be affecting my mood. Also, the creakiness of the ceiling fan in this Airbnb is driving me nuts. It either doesn’t work in the low setting, or it sounds like Mussolini’s fascist army is marching through Rome to attack me in the middle of the night. It is loud and it can’t be pushed off as an ‘Italian thing.’ Thank God the good sir AirBnB host Dalesioooo has agreed to provide me with another fan. Editor’s Note: In Rome, most apartments do not have air conditioning. I quickly adapted to this as best as possible.
August 12: I’m slightly hungover after meeting some graduate colleagues. I had a few too many with Alex from Austria. He’s a cool dude, younger, and has a baby face. On the flip side, it’s been a rough day. Rome is full of trees. Majestic, grand trees. A walking city, which I love. In this August heat, it’s entirely possible to walk to many locations and stay within the shade of these magnificent trees the whole time.
August 22: Italians know how to drink outside. Everywhere you go. Perhaps it is due to COVID and some structures may be more short-term, but the idea that you sit outside in this beautiful summer weather, nighttime being key, and enjoy aperitivo is perfection. You can do nothing but be joyful. For that, today I am thankful. And for finding places with an excellent deal for pizza and drink.
September 9: Is there a soundtrack that you associate with living in a new place or experiencing a new experience? Whether that’s food, travel, sport, a woman, a man, or whatever it is, is there a soundtrack that you associate with that?
That’s a good question to ask someone whether on a date or just in general when you want to know more about someone in your life. For me, in the life I’m living, constantly traveling and moving to new places, experiencing new people, things, cultures, and foods. It is the soundtrack that has also been my alarm for over a decade now. It is the soundtrack from the song Why Not by Jonsi from the “We Bought a Zoo” soundtrack. To this day, I can still associate that song with going to the Art Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC while I was still living in Springfield, VA. I recall being slightly buzzed and really experiencing that art in a way that I hadn’t ever experienced before.
September 10: 30 days in. My Italian is horrible. When I do try to speak Italian, instead I want to speak in Kinyarwanda. The memories and the synapses associated with speaking another language are reopening and I’m remembering words that I otherwise thought I’d forgotten.
December 4: You know how kids play when they are younger and they don’t care what anyone else sees or if anyone is looking at them, they are just in their own world and in their own space, doing their own thing? But as they get older, they start to realize people may be watching them when they are in public and maybe they are too cognizant and self-aware that other people are present. Therefore, they can’t be fully present and enjoy the play that they once had because they are too focused on what other people may think of them. As you get older you start to lose that. You should never lose that. You should always be free to do what you want, feel how you feel, and play without worrying that someone else may judge you a certain way because of the way you are acting.
December 7: I’ve been burning through half a bottle of wine and roughly 8 cigarettes per day. Coping mechanisms I suppose. Albeit this has been coupled with healthier alternatives like biking, listening to happy, chill tunes, wandering around outdoors, eating a primarily plant-based, seafood diet, and high-intensity workouts. Perhaps it all balances out? Such is the life of a grad student during the last few weeks of deadlines and finals before a Fall semester ends.
Editor’s Note: From mid-December to the end of January 2022, I traveled around Europe during the Winter break. This included Germany with my brother in December and a solo trip to Ukraine, Poland, and Spain in January.
January 13: You can tell a lot about a country based on whether people lock up their bikes. In Munich, Germany, some locked their bikes and others didn’t. If they did, it was mostly locked to a wheel. In Berlin? Different story. Everybody is locking up their bikes. In Poland? People lock up their bikes but in places, it seems safe to not do so. In Rome? You don’t leave your bike out at night, period.
January 19: Madrid, Spain. I just saw a blind lady crossing the street. Think of someone who is blind and ventures out every day into a world they can’t see, yet still, they do it. And you’re afraid. Of what? To live. To do the thing that makes you happy, that you love, that you are passionate about because of what? Because of money, fear, the unknown, of change? It could be a variety of things. This lady, every day, she does this. She can do it and you sure as hell can too. Stop being afraid of the life you want to live, just do it. Do it now, don’t do it tomorrow, don’t do it in a few months, do it. Don’t regret that you didn’t do it.
April 6: Social science academic journal articles are 25% bullshit adjective filler words. Some uppity academics try to paraphrase the person before them and the person before that person. Kill me. Editor’s Note: Clear frustration is present as Spring finals approach….
April 10: I’ve lived here long enough to develop some observations in comparing Italy to South Korea. This has been tied to research for my thesis on rural development in Korea. In observing rural development in Italy regarding multifunctional agriculture, I have realized that Korea has many things in common with Italy. They just don’t have the myth or the worldwide attention that Italian food gets. I think there is a lack of knowledge about the history of Korean food and the fact that it is the original ‘slow food.’ I digress… the point is that I was on a field trip in the mountains of Abruzzo to a sheep farm. I realized that when you are looking at these old towns in Italy that go back hundreds of years, the reason you can still see them is that they are made of stone. Koreans have similar ideas and traditions in regard to agronomy, agriculture, and sustaining rural livelihoods, traditions, and cultures of a region. But quite a bit of that history was destroyed by Japan in the late 16th century and due to the early 20th-century occupation of Korea. Furthermore, Korean homes were primarily made of wood. In Korea, I noticed that the same types of things you would notice and admire in Italy that garner worldwide attention are the same things that I think Korea should be promoting themselves and be proud of. In many cases, for Korea that history goes back just as far as Italy. Korea obviously wasn’t Rome, but there are things they should be proud of. I suspect some of this has to do with Western people’s finding Eastern cultures and peoples unfamiliar, foreign, mysterious, and somehow uncomfortable, but I’m not about to unpack those thoughts.
Late April: Having a strong heart physically is helpful when your heart is weak emotionally.
May 4: Things that I’ve learned about my apartment and my living space… I can survive on 30 sq meters or less. My bedroom can be my kitchen, dining room, and office. I think I am ok with that. As long as the bathroom is separate and as long as I have a window that gets a fair amount of sun and looks out on a beautiful view of Janiculo. I can hear the sound of the sea in the form of seagulls. That makes me ok. Such realizations about living alone lead me to believe such a small space would be manageable were I to have these pleasantries.
May 5: Ways that I am maintaining sanity during finals week of the Spring semester. Once again, cigs. Also, exercise on a daily basis to relieve stress. Dancing around my apartment while listening to positive music and looking forward to next week when I am done with everything I can I go to the beach and soak up the fucking sun.
May 9: If you want a bike while living in Rome, buy a mountain bike. It is necessary for a variety of reasons, including cobbled streets, infrequent, disjointed bike lanes, numerous potholes, and edged sidewalks with no entry and exit ramps at street crossings.
May 11: When you leave a place you leave a little bit of yourself behind. The part of you that was who you were before you lived there. Before you were impacted by the people, the food, the culture, and the experiences of that place. When you leave you are a different person, changed by what you experienced and the physicality of the site you lived in. If nothing else, over the last nine months living in Rome, studying in graduate school and meeting beautiful individuals, all these experiences have left an imprint on me, and I am no longer the person I was when I arrived.
Editor’s Note: On May 17, 2022, yours truly embarked on a jet plane back to Korea to do fieldwork research for his graduate thesis. An unsettling, emotional roller coaster ride, to say the least. As he pens this post (July 27, 2022), he is about to return back to Rome.
If This Isn't Nice, I Don't Know What Is 