I 0 0 00 0 0 I W dnsda, ebrar 27 213 / he taemet B Almost always right by Hannah Poindexter Rome interrupted by Carly Fromm random student interview: away Welcome to the Random Yes! Mine is CherlHorowitz Student Interview, where Elle (main character in "Clueless"), Woods is a globetrotting litigator obviously. and you're stilllsifting through your mom's chain e-mails. So Hannah, we're talking about study abroad inthis issue. Have you ever studied abroad? I haven't studied abroad. No? Why? I don't want to either. I like it here and it seems really stressful to study abroad during school. I want to travel when I graduate instead. Well I guess hypothetically, if you could study abroad anywhere t - real or fictional - where would . itbe?E Hmmm ... I'm really not sure. I think maybe it would be umm.., It could be a place in a book or a movie or you know, Spain, which isn't really real. I have no idea. Maybe Italy? Or Spain. Let's do that. F! a; ;, we go by jennifergustafson It seems reallyharrowing though. You hear the occasional report of kids who get in trouble overseas. Oh my god. I don't know what I would do. Like I'm dying ofmalaria, and I don'tunderstand the language and can'tjust call my mom. I don't know how you could go without your cell phone. Exactly. I turnmy phone off a lot to avoid talking to people. I feellike that will really bite me in the ass when I'min realtrouble. What? I could never turn my phone off. I get so overwhelmed by the text messages and voicemails. It's so unfoundedbut panic attacks and cellphone usage have a real positive correlation for me. No offense but I hate when my friends do that. Well I guess Elle Woods. That is perfect. Where do you hink Elle would study abroad? Probably somewhere fabulous. But I could also see her in the Sudan. Great question. I see her ina European country, somewhere with lot of luxury. I don't want to be cliche, but probably Paris. Yes. SEVILLE, Spain - 'm usually, almost always right. The phrase, now a long-forgotten joke with friends, serves as my secret, overconfi- dent mantra. I also firmly believe that my way is the right way, and that's all there is to it. This may stem from 5 years as an only child, my streak of stereotypical American egocen- trism or an overwatered seed of self-confi- dence, but in my experience it's because in fact, I'm usually almost always right. I write this rambling piece sitting on my rooftop terrace in Seville, Spain. I'm basking in the sun, enjoying a view of orange trees and wondering how, like everyone promises, Seville can get even better in the spring. And here I'll pause for a moment and let you be jealous. Now, as I'm enjoying tapas, I hear a faint voice in the back of my head. It's getting stronger as our pitcher of sangria steadily disappears and it's whispering "What do you think of your way now?" This voice has a point. My way of life in the States has never had the time or the appropriate weather to include lounging on a rooftop terrace. My way has never includ- ed tapas. The reminders continue with the beautiful architecture that surrounds me and the romantic Spanish language I am slowly re-learning. The sangria voice is breaking down my precious "right way," as it describes the buzz in the city when the Sevilla Fdtbol Club is playing and the heav- enly 3-hour period of each day known as siesta when shops close and you're allowed, even expected, to relax and do absolutely nothing. As usual, I have a few rebuttal arguments. Being constantly surrounded by a cloud of secondhand cigarette smoke isn't exactly pleasant and my blue eyes drawing stares like a green shirt on Michigan game day isn't my favorite either. But I think the sangria voice has me beat in this argument. It may be odd to eat lunch at four and dinner at 1Obut that doesn't make the Sevillan way wrong. At home, I can reject any way I don'tagree with. And this, my friends, is the real reason I have been usually almost always right for the last 20 years. But here, for the first time, I have been forced to accept and learn a new way without retreating comfortably back to my own. Whether it fits in my old way or not, I now have to usea 24-hour clock. But, as it turns out, I happen to like it. I'll happily discard my Michigan-bred habit of carrying mittens, sunglasses and an umbrel- la with me at all times thanks to the ever- present southern Spanish sun. Of course, no one likes being wrong, and I'm definitely no exception, but in the short month I've spent abroad, I've rather enjoyed living this very not-my-way lifestyle. So I have to say, though this is hard for me, I've learned I'm not always right. And I'm prob- ably not usually almost always right either, even when it comes to the big stuff. e I never gave another way a chance. Keeping an open mind, I could have been napping every day for years, or discovering the 2,000 delicious uses for olive oil I know now. You just read 800 words hoping to con- vince you, yet again, that broadening your horizons and life views is an essential part of life. I'll probably always hold onto my secret mantra, but discovering the merit of another way might just demote me to: occasionally almost always right. Hannah is an LSA junior studying through International StudiesAbroad. ROME - t was 2:20 p.m., and my class started at 2 p.m. We were supposed to meet in St. Peter's Square in front of the Vatican, but amidst all of the other groups of 15 or so people I couldn't find anyone. that looked familiar. I panicked. I tried calling my professor - no answer. I tried calling two of my classmates - no answer. I tried calling my host institution - no help. So I continued running around St. Peter's Square trying to find my class. This episode of hysteria lasted until 2:45 p.m., when I finally gave up and came to terms with the fact that I had just completely missed my class. After a big sigh, I panned the square in front of me. How had I not noticed the countless news crews stationed through- out the area? I walked up to a nearby newswoman and asked her, in very broken Italian, what happened. She didn't speak English, but she probably said something along the lines of, "The Pope resigned. The Pope resigned for the first time in almost six centuries." My first thought was, why? I asked another reporter who spoke English. "The official reason is health." Health ... that's all? This answer left me with so many looming questions, but when I asked my professor and Italian classmates what they thought, they seemed satisfied with the simple explanation. Congress required President Bill Clinton to testify about his marital affair under oath. But the leader of the Vatican state can resign his position by citing health? This was not the first time that I was confused by the conservatism I experi- enced in Italy. Though the Vatican became an official and separate state from Italy through the Lateran Treaty of 1929, the church still exerts immense influence over the country, and Rome specifically. In the first three weeks I have spent here in Rome, I have become increasingly aware of this conservative influence. In my- Italian language course that day, we learned how to say the names of a number of different professions in Italian. Almost all professions can be used with both masculine and feminine articles, excepta few: doctor, architect, and lawyer, for example. I raised my hand and asked my teacher what would stop a woman from using the feminine article? Had Italian women never protested for this right? She explained that there had been a movement for exact- ly this, but it simply lost momentum due to the Italian language's inherent conserva- tism. She then continued on with the class, seemingly unaware of how confusing this was for her American students. What seems paradoxical to me is that every Italian I talk to lauds Americans for their election of President Barack Obama. They did not remark on the president's specific policies, but on what he symboliz- es: progressivism. From how I understand it, Obama represents the future that many Italians hope their country will end up with amid the nation's political turmoil. This weeks elections have yet to result in a stable coalition. Will the status quo change? I am here amidst not one, but two selections of new leaders: Italy and the Vatican state. Where will the course of history steer next? Carly Fromm is an LSA junior studying through the University's Arcadia in Rome program. Likethe high-school in"Clue- And Werner is somewhere in less." I would study abroad there. a ditch. (laughs) I love it. Not that that's possible. Isn't that in Beverly Hills, though? Not really abroad... It counts, it totally counts. What if instead of studying abroad somewhere you could choose to study abroad as some- one else.Who would it be? Are these real questions? Bruiser in a beret. But I think we can agree that phone calls arekind of dead. I hate when people call me. Hannah is an LSA junior.