Today was quite the hike around the neighborhood. But before sore legs and aching feet I woke up, went to eat and started the day. We went to class in the morning and discussed a lot.

Today in class for international relations we talked about military and terrorism. Mainly terrorism. It was quite interesting as Mr. Hesting was explaining how terrorists feel. I think it’s important to say that we don’t honestly and perfectly know why terrorists do what they do, but I feel like we can get some sort of idea when looking into the events they caused. Mr. Hesting was explaining how terrorism isn’t necessarily meant to cause immediate damage but rather a long-term emotional scar.

For instance, September 11th in the U.S.. We all know what happened physically, but what about mentally? The fall of the twin towers increased our security, but took away some of our freedom, and this was the plan the terrorist had. We no longer trust each other, let alone other countries. We are constantly in a state of “what if?” that’s almost to the point of paranoia. We act on “what could” rather than “what had”. We have increased military, which is sucking up all our rainy day finds, which could’ve helped restore bridges and schools. Along with all this we have lost our title as “free” and in its place we have gained the phrase “at least we’re safe”. Connecting this to today’s Italy tour, I thought about how many soldiers you actually see on the sidewalk. Today just taking tours there was one building in particular which had soldiers armed with military weapons. Also I guess the police would be something to consider, because they protect the people from danger.

On another interesting topic, for world religions we talked about Buddhism. The founder was Siddhartha who was born from his mother’s side. HA! I bet you didn’t see that one coming! Well apparently she had a dream one night where a white elephant entered her side and the next morning when she woke up, she was pregnant. When Siddhartha was born he came out from his mother’s side, which meant he was born with compassion and wisdom because he was closer to the heart than any other baby. After birth he spoke immediately, but not too long after, his mother died and Siddhartha was left with his dad, who was ruler of a small area. His father shielded him from the outside world until one day Siddhartha asked to go outside. There he saw an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a monk. He had never seen any old people before because his dad constantly wore makeup and fired anybody over the age of 25. So all this was new and life-changing. When he saw the monk he knew he wanted to be like him, so he ran away from home to study. Traveling all over India for answers, he was left dissatisfied, till one day when he said, “You know what, I’m going to sit under this tree until I am enlightened.” And soon enough he became the Buddha.

So we talked about that and then reincarnation. Interesting trivial knowledge, some consider reincarnation to be the reason why some are vegetarians, because one could come back as a goat and you wouldn’t want to take the chance of eating your great aunt. Another thing from reincarnation, I learned that we are like candles. Since Buddhism doesn’t believe we have souls, we reincarnate with our minds, and how Ms. Stark just told it made a lot of sense as to how we reincarnate with our minds. So when reincarnated we are like candles. One is lit and another is waiting to be lit. We use the fire from the previous candle to light the new one, but we are not transferring the flame. We are simply igniting a new one. So the heat from the previous candle touches the new candles wick and this combusts into a flame, thus lighting a new candle. I don’t know if you got it, but to me it makes perfect sense. To relate to this Italy trip, we can compare Siddhartha to Jesus. Jesus was born by a virgin mother just like Siddhartha. In older text about Jesus, he too spoke to support Mary when others turned against her. And finally just like Jesus, Siddhartha became godlike.

After class we got about a 1 1/2 hour break and I mostly worked on my journal before the trip so I could at least go to bed at a recommend time tonight. As my journaling time ended the mighty walk was set in motion. Walking, there was discussion about the other group who are staying in the same hotel as us, and we were trying to guess where they’re from. Someone said the group included British people and then joked that they were the main root for the ruckus we heard the night before. As they were joking, a kind-looking gentleman who seemed to be from the region of India and his wife were just laughing and then said “Oh, so the British are the ones who create the trouble huh?” And immediately I start laughing hysterically…. in my head and just watched the whole thing play out. It was a fun social experience that could not have gone better.

After that we went on our first metro experience. It was very similar if not exactly like the subways in America. So not too exciting for me but maybe for others who haven’t had the pleasure of riding one in New York. You know? Since we live in Florida. After that we looked at so many fabulous statues and the most glorious water fountain known to man. The only sad thing was that everything was under construction or restoration, so we didn’t get to see the full view.

After admiring the art we went to the Pantheon which was amazing! There was going to be an opera concert or something but we were like “nah” let’s go get some gelato. I got pistachio and vanilla. It was good. Sorry mom – I indulged in myself a little. After gelato we went to another church with another magnificent water fountain with very symbolic people on it. We don’t go inside the church but just seeing the outside was enough. This area was very cool in particular because everywhere there were artists who were undiscovered so there were just bountiful amounts of people who had stands just full of gorgeous paintings.

Then after paintings and statues we got to enjoy the authenticity of watching a soccer game. It was incredibly fascinating because instead of yelling or complaining, people were just happy to be watching and gave their full attention to the game. The only noise they made was when Italy did something good and with all the fouls there was not one person yelling in defiance. Though it’s in my nature to want to yell at the ref about some call, I restrained myself in the name of Italy. Then after the game it was a final journey on the metro and finally dinner time. As you can safely assume after dinner it was back to bed.

So till next time, Daniella