The reason I came here was to find out more about myself, like I did at VVR. So far, I have. I've discovered that I can really be myself 24/7 and no one will think of me differently. I've discovered that I can navigate through town on my own and no one will ask me where I'm going or when I'll be back. I've discovered that my life here, when you get down to it, doesn't carry as many differences from my other life in Utah as I'd imagined. Sure, the part where I'm living in a foreign country is completely new, and the fact that my classes are in Italian is definitely new. But, when I start looking down through the cracks at the details, I can see more similarities than I'd been originally looking for. First of all, I've discovered that people are people no matter where you go--two eyes, two ears, etc. complete with beliefs, accents, sense of style, a way of making other people laugh or understand them. It's the small, individual differences that makes a person different from the one sitting across the table from them, though--the way their eyes scrunch up when they laugh, the way they wiggle their foot when they're comfortable, the way they sigh when they begrudgingly go to and sit through class. We're all the same, more or less, piu' o meno, except for these special characterizations about us. That's what I'm talking about. But, what I'm beginning to understand more and more, is that, even though it is gorgeous and brimming over with culture and love and every good thing I can think of here, it has it's downs just like any other place. It just happens to be Italy, Europe, the Worldy. People, on the outside, are all the same for the most part. So are countries....except for the glorious details that make it "it."