It started off embarrassingly enough: my Italian professor had us write questions to ask. Next thing I know, we’re being lead down the streets of Rome, asking random Italians if they would answer our questions, and could they speak slowly for us students. It’s one thing to ask strangers questions in English; it’s another to do so in a language I’ve only been learning for a semester. My group decided to ask an unsuspecting young man his opinion on the US government. For the next few minutes, he went into a small rant about Bush (we had to ask him to repeat multiple times and to go slower). After he finished, we asked him what he thought about the current election campaign in the US. Without any hesitation, he replied: Obama.

I thought that was interesting that he had already had a candidate picked out, or that he knew so much about our upcoming election. Currently, Italy is going through its own elections, now that the prime minister has dissolved parliament. My professor, a full fledged Roman, explained it to me: because of the current system in Italy, the prime minister can dissolve parliament is he loses the majority or support. Thus, new elections are done, and parliament switches party hands, which happens almost every two years.

She went on to say that the upcoming election in the US is such a big deal, because of the US’s influence in foreign politics, but also because Bush is so unpopular. You know that very creative use of the stop sign to say “stop Bush”? Yup, they have it here too. I had another long conversation about US politics a few days later on Super Tuesday (what a more perfect day) with my Greek professor. She was telling me about how many of her expat friends were part of a group that was against the Iraq War, and how excited she was that there was a new election to change things.

However, what is interesting here is how the youth speaks out. When you first arrive in Rome, you will notice graffiti everywhere—much more than in major US cities. The director of my study abroad program explained that instead of violent riots, the youth express themselves through graffiti (this isn’t to say riots don’t happen, just that graffiti is a more popular method of expression). Once I get my camera to stop acting up, I’ll try to post some good examples of some.

~世界の革命