A Black Guy in Europe

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robolife:

DōPE.

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A dose of my home.

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Three Months Later...

Welp, my attempt at blogging while here was a complete fail as everyone can tell. I've seen some of my companions keep up with it, but for me it just got too hectic. I had the urge to blog tonight for some reason though. Anyway, To try to sum three months  in one blog would be a futile attempt. So I guess I'll just try and shed some light on how I've grown as a man of God, and as a man in general.

The Dictionary.com definition of the word "growth" is:

"the act or process, or a manner of growing;  development; gradual increase."  

And these three months,like no others, have been nothing less than a constant spiritual and physical growth. I could never imagine before leaving the United States how much I would find out about myself. I would kind of compare it to moving a growing plant from a smaller pot to a larger one so that its roots weren't constricted. I've learned that I can't go weeks without a clean bathroom, which I had to thank my mother for after realizing this, I've learned that the world doesn't stop when you have a problem, and most of all how important God, family and friends are in my life.And most of all I've gotten a large dose of change(not coins, haha.)

Now change in this context is on a small to large scale basis. The vastness of the world doesn't come close to the amount of knowledge you can obtain by just observing it. Every second of sensing is a constant flow of experience, even if it is the same monotonous tasks, it subtly changes from day to day,The point I'm try to make is the amount of change may not be evident, but change is change. My life changed on a larger scale since January though. I've changed Culturally, Physically( I think), Mentally as in how my view and process of thought, and of course spiritually. Being immersed in another culture created both cultural and palpable difficulties.  Language barriers, Finding food, etc. are examples of cultural. Tangible differences being: "When do I use the Bidet?", "Why isn't there a Walmart in Italy?" etc. which I've adapted to, but were still kind of shocking, ha ha. Mentally  I mean, once you take part of the cultural activities as a regular resident you pick up the habits of them. For me it's hand motion, as I've said I've been learning the language for about nine months now. So I'm beginning to mimic Italian motions subconsciously, I admit some are incorrect, but it blows my mind that just being around a  different culture affects you on a subconscious level. 

Well after that huge spiel, what I really wanted to explain is two amazing experiences, one that just happened yesterday. Well as man of my family and people of my program now know, I was baptized a couple weeks ago. Something as a believer I've been putting of way too long, but I'm so happy it finally came time. That was a spiritual checkpoint for me here. It showed me it's time to stop following the regular flow of things and start doing my job as not only a son of God, but as a man. So with that I'm ready for the change. The other experience was actually early this morning while returning from singing with the pastor of  the Church of Christ founded in Pisa. While on the 1:12 AM bus, I met a man from West Africa who has made his way to Italy to play basketball. He suddenly talked to myself and my friend who was returning with me, about the NBA, about where we are from, and then he told me about the importance of respecting your mother and father. He went on to say that by laying that foundation of support and love of your family, God blesses you  for doing something expected. He told me of his city, and I could relate to him. He explained how the youth of his country only look up to men with money, and not men with knowledge. So every time they see an African-American, or a well dressed black man they wonder if they could ever achieve that. They set their sights on material possessions and at that moment I felt our worlds were completely the same. It's an epidemic of "material hypnotizing" in a way, and to be perpetuated in the youth of my city and a city on the other side of the globe shows me it's a universal struggle. Not as only a black race, but a human race. Aspirations of material wealth is a road to destruction. But that's what companies are selling us.

I know I left a lot of loose ends in this, but it's because I haven't really thought this all out. But In the spirit I feel like there is a lot to come, and I'll soon be back in Europe for one reason or another.Until my next jolt of inspiration, One God One love.

Two passages that have really spoken to me lately are:

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity

and

Romans 12:20

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Expressing the importance of love, and giving in the word charity. A mean is measured by his works and his faith in God's eyes, but as stated if you can't love your neighbor(or enemy) as you love yourself. How can you love God? In the end love overcomes the hatred you bear. Love 'em is what I learned I guess. Because being here  I must say I've had to love a lot. Haha. Pride is poison.

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La storia della mia vita...

    Well, here we are again three days later. Sorry. We started our classes on Monday( Martin Luther King Day in the States), and I've barely had time to think about anything other than networking. So, where to start? Sunday was more of a chill out, and eat eggs day. I've eaten so many eggs up to this point, that I think I may be related to Humpty Dumpty.

    We went Grocery shopping Monday, yet again, and found that it's so much easier after the first few times. Granted the store was cleaned out of everything by the time we arrived. I also, tried "Mukki: La panna" for the first time. My roommate had told me it was a very fresh, thick type of milk that he had eaten with his biscotti and enjoyed, so I tried for myself. Turns out, after pouring this into a huge bowl of Muesli, which is a German breakfast food that mixes grain and fruit, I quickly realized la panna is *drumroll please* italian for cream...So...I ate a bowel of grain and cream...sweet. Chalk it up to experience though, right? My experimenting wasn't all failure though. I actually bought a can of nutella, which is hazelnut and chocolate spread, and made a nutella and jam sandwich; or "nutella and jella sammich"...lame. You also get a sweet,new glass cup when you finish the jar...Way more than what peanut butter jars give you...

Still on the topic of food, my roommate and I have eaten at a restaurant around the corner from us about two times this week, because they have a two platter, one side dish special for about twelve euros. The service was excellent on Monday, but...today...not so good. They seated a table of about ten people right before we ordered dessert. Needless to say, we never got to order our dessert. Screw it though, I got gelato across the street, haha. We also made pasta(squisito).

But okay enough about food.

This week la mia famiglia abroad, chose to plan our future trips across Europe. Which kind of turned poopy for me. A large portion of the group had a set mind of where they wanted to travel, and activities that wanted to do, and most of them seemed to agree with each other. But me, being the oddball out, didnt't really agree with the group decisions.Spring break being the biggest dividing line. Hopefully I find others who want to do other traveling. I promised la mia mamma I would always travel with at least one person outside of Florence so she can stay sane; but what I've found is I'm not a group type of guy. I'm pretty "solo dolo" when I do my thing. I'm not a party person. I don't drink heavy. I don't smoke. So, when it comes to going to pubs or bars, it's not really my scene. I'm not the average twenty -one year old. By some standards I guess I'm lame, but screw them too. This kind of concerns me though. I came to Italy for the culture shock. I came to get out of my comfort zone, but if I can be comfortable at a pub; but not like being there. That's really not a new exposure, correct? I don't want to drink until I can't remember what I did last night. That would be a waste of this experience to me. So exploring and remembering everything I can is my mission. I love the group I'm with, but I'm learning our differences. We are supposed to be visiting Pisa and Sienna this weekend so I'm stoked to see what we will actually do.

Okay after the long dreadful complaining. This week has also brought a little bit of revelation. By networking with all of these professors I've actually started some research on a cultural comparison of African Americans and Italians. I hope both cultures won't take offense to this, but the commonalities of the stereotypes is amazing to me.So I want to investigate true commonalities. I'm just stuck on finding a point to the research. Since I only truly know one side of the comparison. I need more Italian friends... =(. Aside from that I've also found my italian is coming back to me. Well, actually better than before. I found myself walking around the apartment blurting out random phrases. Showering, and singing music videos I saw earlier on the TV while cooking. So, hopefully if I try really really really hard I can be borderline fluent leaving Florence. God willing. We shall see. Tomorrow I will return to the outlook over Florence for pictures on a clear day so I'll be posting them. Other than that. I love my classes, the teachers are amazing, aside from the language barrier I think I will get along just fine.

Sorry If I have you snoring by now. This is this is the only complaining I'll do. I mean. I'm in Italy. Haha. I'll try to write tomorrow, but until then...Have a beautiful week., and stay encouraged. Va bene? Bella.

"In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." Proverbs 14:23

Don't Just talk about it. Be about it. To me, dreams are the crops of a man. When untended, they rot, and the man himself never realizes his potential. But when tended to, and finally cultivated. You get a glimpse of your destiny, of what you were created for, and how you are supposed to help mankind tend to their crops. Ya know?...

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There are thousands of causes for stress, and one antidote to stress is self-expression. That's what happens to me every day. My thoughts get off my chest, down my sleeves and onto my pad.

Garson Kanin

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Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

Socrates

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A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

-George Moore

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Inside of San Miniato

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Espresso E I Cereali...

Ciao a tutti,

I'm writing this while eating a bowl of Frosties( The Italian equivalent to Frosted Flakes) quaint right? Well I've failed at trying to write on here at least every other day, but my body has still, sadly, not adapted to this six hour shift forward. But, beyond that, the past three days can not be summed up in a post. From getting lost with my roommate in a eerie quiet residential part of the city, trailed by a guy who looked like Jack the Ripper, to being told I look like Ice Cube in a hip-hop shop. I'd say my stay in Florence is really starting to feel like home. Now that our orientation week is over I feel as though my experience here is about to get a whole lot different. I've woken up late every day this past week, because of prior waking up at about four o'clock every morning. So, yeah...forget sleep right? However, so much to explain. I guess I'll start with the beginning of the week.

From Tuesday to Friday we explored different squares, from the train station, to a beautiful outlook over Florence, to the completely silent but beautiful San Miniato chiesa. Directly in front of San Miniato we're a collection of tombs, of who, I couldn't tell you but the detail of the sculptures seem to explain what kind of person buried under them were. One in particular that caught my attention was of a woman with a group of children surrounding her, and grasping onto her dress. What I drew from it is she loved the innocent, when no one else could, or would. Love and hate in this world, and the heart of a human being is yin and yang, strange right?

Before the chiesa we visited the overlook of the city which was breathtaking, but I feel like I'd visited there, not physically of course, but some way it felt familiar. This is how I feel a lot walking the valleys and hills of  this city. I feel in my spirit I've been here before. It feels very homey, comfortable, inviting and I'm constantly battling with this idea of if its right to feel this way when I'm trying to adapt myself into another way of life. Though it was really cloudy the day we visited the overlook, to see it on a clear day seemed to be a glimpse of a kingdom.

The train station seemed pretty basic, from arrivals to departures, a McDonald's (C'mon), complete with a blend of all races. The day we visited this, about Tuesday,l fell behind the group into a Combo shop that sold TokiDoki, which held me up for a good hour, afterward just going to get lunch, haha.

Besides the pure aesthetic view of this city, on the first day of our orientation, our program president explain how some cities of Greece were losing, what the Germans called the "zeitgeist" which was defined as the spirit of the time, or period. What I really understood it to be was the spirit of a specific place, city, site. Because in Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle,  believed inanimate objects to have spirits, sort of its characteristic. All of this to say, this city does have a feel, or a spirit to itself, and it's alive and thriving for the time.The culture is still alive as I would think it was in the past. Though the economy is about as bad as ours in America, I'm amazed that it has survived this flood of American, Russian, and Asian tourists.

So besides walking three times as much as I usually do in a year, I feel at peace here. Especially in the morning, not really a worry. I mean how could you worry when studying architecture that has been standing since the twelfth century? Even a total imbecile totally ignorant of what the heck every building or sculpture name is (guilty), could gain an appreciation.

So besides getting lost a couple times, eating a hot dog pizza (-_-) at Acasamia today, and finally finding a tasteful wine. I've grown accustomed to the finer life, haha. But I'm finding myself. I represent the have-nots, the underdog, the overlooked, the poor, the over-comer, the driven, the humble. Anyone who put their mind to achieving, and hasn't given up. Just know I'm still fighting for you.

Stay encouraged one love.

"And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it" Habakkuk 2:2

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"All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."

Paracelsus

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Three Days Later...

Well, after three days I finally worked up the energy to actually type on my laptop again. My internal clock is all fucked up. Our building finally got internet and I'm pretty excited I must say, but down to the nitty gritty. I believe my heart will remain in this city after I leave due to the following three reasons:

The food. It is as addicting as, hmm, well lets say nicotine and crack cocaine aren't in competition. The beef sandwich I engulfed about two hours ago was so seasoned, with flavors that have never grace my taste buds, that I spent a good fifteen minutes explaining to my roommate how good it was. While still eating it. About three days ago I also visited a restaurant named Osteria del Gatto e la Volpe. Utterly mind-blowing, from the gli gnocchi to the pizza I actually smiled, hummed, and twiddled my feet while eating. What I've found about the cuisine is, the attention to the sauce and seasoning brings out so much more in the food. In America, If I think somethings is good, I eat it to fill up. Here, I savor every chew. Don't even get me started on the gelato, it's so rich and sweet that it hurts my teeth to even eat the smallest cup, but I push through the pain; because the strawberry flavor just makes the sun shine...In my head. And the coffee...Not much to say about it but that I drank a cup of espresso at 1 o'clock...and I can't seem to stop moving around.

The architecture. Though I have no prior knowledge of a lot of the art, or of the buildings. I find myself staring at the detail of the statues in the Piazza Signoria for minutes at a time, baffled at how they could create such life-like models at such a scale. It seems like the entire city was meant to be photoed, because I can't walk five steps without wanting to capture something. I keep hearing beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with so much in one place; I'm starting to think it's totally autonomous. From the cobblestone roads, to the beautiful brick buildings; I can't help but smile as I walk. I know I must look goofy as hell, but it's something I think I can grow accustomed to, and I'm going to hate to leave it.

Last but not least is the people, the culture, and of course my favorite, the language. I've been trying to pound Italian into my head for about a half-year now, and I've found, without actually experiencing the culture; and immersing myself into it. I would never learn the emotion behind it. Firenze is not the city to be immersed. It is too Americanized to understand the underlying mentality of a pure Italian. So I must find friends out of this city to connect with this culture and this language...wish me luck

That concludes why I will be kicking and screaming while leaving.

But besides my dilemma, I've been into a lot of things the past three days. Besides the amazing meals, I visited the free markets where the fruit looked delicious, The beautiful and eccentric Duomo. I discovered that every carving directly parallel to the other is different. From slight, to major differences. I gave a beggar change at the Duomo, and later heard she bought a new bubble coat and a huge slice of pizza -_-. I've also drank Chianti wine in search of my favorite. So far it's way better than the disgusting grappa I tasted my first night. Stay away from grappa, trust me. I've watched Teen Titans...in Italian...How many people can say they've done that? And...Alot more...some explained in my pics, but I won't babble any longer. Please keep up with my blizzog. It will motivate me to write. But my last thought today was, as I walked passed storefronts  trying to find a nice pair of dress shoes. I noticed a lot of people with so many bags which brought me to the verse

Ecclesiastes 6:2:A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof...

Don't let material possessions corrupt you. Enjoy life, but don't become superficial by societies standard. That's all folks. One love.

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Bella Firenze...

Salve a tutti, sono Stephon, and my life just changed drastically upon entering the beautiful historical city of Florence two days ago. It's about eight o'clock in the morning  right now, and I find myself posting this very first blog (which I procrastinated to start of course). Regardless, at the start of this third day, which is a Sunday, I'm still amazed every time I walk the same streets, and especially see the same people. Though I was a bit skeptical of if this trip was actually worth the entire day travel, I didn't get excited until  exiting the airport in Florence. After loading my bags into the trunk of a taxi we passed loads of landmarks. Including the Duomo which I finally visited today, At that moment I smiled, while the taxi driver swiftly whipped and maneuvered through narrow roads that are about the size of two of me , and tightly enclosed by the very old, but beautiful, buildings. The reason I smiled was this was too surreal to imagine myself: a poor, average, black guy from Canton, Ohio; viewing something only few well off Americans, and lucky students experience.  After about thirty minutes of rapid slamming on the breaks and two wheel tire turns. We arrived at our apartment, in front of our door, which opens into a back-alley, I believe, a man helped us get our luggage unto the first floor which is where we will be residing for the next four months. After being guided through the entire apartment (and warned about the "monster" in the kitchen closet, which turned out to be a very small washing machine), I sloppily unpacked my clothes, and crashed on the little twin bed for about four hours. After waking up on separate occasions, and greeting roommates, I finally completely woke up at about five o'clock. I sort of panicked because my ipod hadn't changed times so it read about eleven. I jumped up out of the bed and immediately opened the window  finding glint of sunlight still shining through the clouds. After getting dressed, greeting my friend/roommate, we hit the streets in search of some yum-yums. We passed gelato shop, after restaurant after gelato shop, until finally settling for one about a half-mile away from where we live. The pizza made my mind shit itself, rewind time, and shit again how great it was. I didn't try the gelato until yesterday at a shop right around the corner from our apartment renowned by the locals; I guess, because It was a crowd, not a line, around the shop. After eating and simmering down I walked with the women of our program for a while to end the night off with a nice bottle of wine. We visited a bar, around the corner from a very famous square I haven't really identified yet. I walked with a large group of women in my group, and I figured out why it was a bad idea. After sitting down at one of the tables on the outside patio, the women came out and sat around the table I had chosen. Just as they all sat, a man with about three dozen roses comes around the corner. I was screwed when I made eye contact. I ended up shelling out twenty euro for all five girls, but it wasn't all bad. I saw the same guy walking the street today, and completely ignored him while walking to eat, but the end of my first and second night, was amazing. Though the grappa moscoto I bought tasted like liquid poo. I'm in love with this city and these people. A lot happened yesterday, but for  now I'll leave you with this.  I never had faith I could do things I couldn't imagine. Confusing? What I mean is, if I couldn't picture myself playing basketball in my own mind I automatically thought I'd never play basketball, but even though I'm only at the intro of this trip, I know great things will come to pass as I find myself in this large ancient city. So, my word of advice to use is to experience life. Go out on faith sometimes if you feel it to be right. Proving that: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for,  the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1 Talk to you soon!

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Ponte Vecchio, a little edit. Not very grand.