runnin around

I know it's been sometime since I've blogged- I've been busy running around Italy. Literally.
Gia and I finished today's jog around Bologna once again in the Piazza Maggiore for some stretching beneath the beaming Bologna sun. Yes, the sun was beaming down at me and Gia- and everyone else in the Piazza. Yet, Gia and I were the only one's in t-shirts and shorts. Everyone else was in jackets- an uncomprehensible thought. It's finally spring time, take off the winter jackets people!
I took off one shoe and one sock while sitting Indian style in the piazza. I wanted to see the color of my foot. It hasn't seen sun in months. It was a sweaty foot. Sweaty and paler than my palms. My hands have been out of the gloves for some while. But my arms and legs have still been hibernating in their winter wardrobe. But the sun is waking up!
Gia and I sat in the middle of the Piazza Maggiore for the second afternoon in a row. We sit and we talk and we watch. But it isn't just sitting and talking and watching. It's getting to know. People are all around us speaking a different language, one that is becoming not so different to me. I don't know any of the people around me- except for the odd occurence of seeing someone from camplus alma mater walking by or another Spring Hill bunch of students. I'm getting to know Bologna and it's people. And everyday I get to know something more.
Today Gia and I ran up the infamously graffieted and perfumed with dog urine Stalingrado bridge, down the arched streets, through the hustling market, up some marbled steps a street sign pointed to and said was a museum  (but ended up being apartment buildings).  We ran to the end to see fruit vendors and pieces of what used to be the walled city of Bologna. I get to know a lot. I get to know myself.  Here I am sitting in the middle of Piazza San Maggiore, in Italy and the sun is finally shining down on me. I am getting to know a lot- but most importantly, I am getting to know myself.
Honestly said: I'm feeling homesick. I hate to say it and I hate to admit it. But I am. I think it is absolutely crazy to think this is how I am feeling...here I am in the Piazza San Maggiore, the sun shining down on me, I'm sweating, I'm alive, I'm priveldged. I don't want to be homesick. I want to be happy to be here. And I think to myself- I'm the happiest I've ever been. Then why am I homesick? I just feel I've been home for so long and want to be with my family. I think of how much time is left and than tell myself why am I thinking about the time that is left until I go home- enjoy it Caro enjoy it! I think of the past months and how happy I have been. Why now. It's just been a long time. But will have all my time to be home. So I must live fully in this time. I keep telling myself. I keep telling myself. I keep getting to know myself.
Sometimes it's best to think like a child- time doesn't matter and your family loves you. Now time shouldn't matter except to enjoy it and I know my family loves me even if they cannot see me- and the communication is hard. (thanks to time changes, terrible Italian phone companies but really thanks to skype and calling cards).
John Marco was two and a half but he was one of the best Italian soccer players I have seen- running at his mickey mouse ball and kicking it full force at me. Gia and I played soccer with John Marco for a while in the Piazza. I felt like a child. I felt simply happy. Nothing mattered at that moment except kicking the ball back to John Marco and racing to get it when he kicked it at me.
Gia and I ran back through the Piazza San Maggiore, past the spitting mermaids sitting at the feet of Neptune, through crowds of Italian's eating their panin's and pizzas and bambinos licking their gelatos, passed the towers of Bologna and passed all the "negotzios" little shops I pass by almost every day. I ran and ran and ran and ran and ran... until the pedestrian sign was red- and I still ran through it, luckily there were no cars. I kept running. I felt free. I felt like today was today and I didn't have to worry about tomorrow.
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Gia and I went for our first run in Bologna right after Italian class- we had decided it was not a good idea to run in the city because there were no good running routes, the streets are bumpy and the stairs wet with freshly smelling dog urine. But today we decided was the day we test this out. Earlier in the morning Gia and I were out in the city- it was not just a day out in the city. Forget Saint Patrick day, today was March 17, 2011- the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy! Walking down one of the lavish streets of Bologna, Gia and I hit Piazza San Maggiore and hit an even more lavishing show. Men of the Italian army, a band blowing away beating musical booms, flags proudly waving in the air- and hundreds of Italians crowded around to watch. A ran past the show and jumped onto a column to watch this spectacle... PG and his girlfriend and some other camplus alma mater students walked by and Gia and I in excitement started yelling at them. PG's girlfriend Mery told us to shush very nicely- we were disrupting the spectacle. We had to run back for Italian class... but we put on our running shoes, shorts and shirts and ran back right after class! Sweating... we made it. The lavish spectacle was gone....but not for long. Gia and I stretched in the piazza- talking again about getting sun, it felt so good. An Italian graduate student (you can tell as he wore an arch of leaves around his head) sat besides us and imitated us stretching. About five other of his friends joined us in our circle and started singing in Italian.
"Doctore, Doctore, Doctore nel bocco del culo, Vaffancu, Vaffancu"
I understood...
"Due Torre, Due Torre, Due Torre nel bocco de lculo, Vaffancu, Vaffancu."
Slightly different in sound but extremely different in meaning. And yet the part I misunderstood really doesn't change the meaning. I just thought it was a song in celebration of the Unification of Italy and about the two towers of Bologna. Yet, when Gia and I returned to campus and shared the song we just learned from Italian students he told us othwerwise- it's a vulgar graduation song. But these students were dancing with us and Gia and I yelled it with them, singing and dancing. They gave us their huge orange plastic sunglasses and we just formed a show- with everyone in the Piazza watching us.  An entertainer who asks for money in a hat was nearby and playing music and played Micheal Jackson for us to dance too. Gia and I started a conga line- grabbing our new Italian friends and led the way around the Piazza! Us two Americans, who were previosuly singing the American National Anthem and "This land is my land, this land is your land" (which ofcourse of the ten times we sang it I never got the lryics right) were now singing Italian songs and sharing our excitement of an Italian's graduation (he can now climb the towers!) and the excitement of the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy! American or Italian, let's celebrate!