Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Journal Past Blast: Youthful Memories



I’m cheating in this week’s Journal Past Blast. :p  You see, this entry isn’t from one of my journals, but from a letter I’d written my mom when I studied abroad in Padova, Italy, for the 1988-89 school year. I wrote this letter after taking a vacation before classes started up again.

It was so cool seeing this letter in particular, and it had the same emotional affect as reading over my journals. My year in Italy was like one of my last youthful years. Okay, that’s a lie, but it was a year of significant changes for me... I’ll just shut up. 

Here’s an excerpt from my letter to my mom. And it has a date! just a few days before my birthday. (which is the middle of the year and the middle of the month. Can you guess it?)

6-11-88
Ciao Mamma,
....Well, the next day, early, I went to Siena, which is about 45 minutes away. Siena is pretty also, but really small. I saw it in an afternoon. Then I returned to Pisa because I hadn’t yet seen the tower. When I returned, while opening my door, some guys, who were staying in a room across from mine asked me to eat dinner with them, at the mensa, which is the cafeteria of the university – they are students, quite nice and very weird, like all Italian guys.

There were three of them. So I ate dinner with them. Then they walked me to the tower. At night the tower is totally beautiful. It’s like dark around, but the tower is totally lit up, and the way it leans is so weird – it looks unreal. It’s beautiful. But I didn’t have my camera with me. So the next morning, one of the guys took me to see it again and I took pictures. The other two had class to go to. I climbed up to the top and Giovanni, the guy, took pictures of me up there....

That's enough, this was a long letter. What gets me is that I went to eat lunch with three Italian boys! Me! By myself!!! Shy LaRonda! (I go by my middle name) And I actually dated Giovanni for quite a while, when we were able to visit each other, even though he often spoke in a dialect and sometimes I, and many northern Italians, couldn’t understand him.

Well, thanks for coming by and reading my memories.


18 comments:

  1. Do you find that 'taking seconds' on an old enjoyment (by reading your journals/letters) makes them even stronger in retrospect? Or perhaps more poignant...

    Diana at About Myself By Myself

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    1. I think reading over these romanticizes then, because you don't remember your inner thoughts other than what you wrote down. But it's still great to remember the romantic part.

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  2. Too sweet, lovely memories! You make me want to pull out all my old letters and records and take a trip down memory lane! LaRonda, I will remember - I also go by my middle name - Renee!

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    1. That's alright, you can call me Nancy. I consider it my stage name. :) Be forewarned if you do go down memory lane... it can be an emotional and melancholic road.

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  3. I wanted to see the picture. How exciting to have broken bread in such a lovely location with exotic men! I love the letter.

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    1. I thought of digging around for some pics, but it was getting late and I needed to get some tv time in. Exotic maybe, but Italians remain "boys" or ragazzi until they're in their 30s or so, get married and move out of their parents house. Then they're "uomini" or men.

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  4. Hey Nancy,

    Yay n'stuff, I'm here to leave you one of my highly collectable comments. Yes, I'm rather delusional.

    June 15?

    Nancy, three Italian dudes, lunch, the Tower of Pisa. Do you know what happened to Giovanni?

    Thanks for sharing that memory. I can visualise the smile on your face as you recall those times.

    Gary :)

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    1. Yep! Keep it in your calendar. :) Giovanni? I'd guess the usual that happens to Italian boys... Grow up, get married then maybe have affairs.

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  5. You had some real fun in the eighties. Gio sounds like an awesome guy. It is clear that you enjoyed yourself.

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    1. It looks that way doesn't it?! Tell you about those 80s!

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  6. Cute letter. It's great to reminisce every now and then, isn't it?

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    1. Yes, it let's you see the things that were or weren't important to you way back then.

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  7. Studying in Italy in the 80's... I'm envious. that was a nice chatty letter to your mum.

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    1. I was so surprised to see it! My mom brought it out of a box of letters and cards she'd received from her six kids over the years. I had to use it for these journal posts!

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  8. I bet it was so fun for you to read this letter again. What an amazing time you must have had in Italy. I wonder too what happened to Giovanni. :D
    This took me back to 1988 as well and some fun memories. Really enjoy your trips down memory lane.

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    1. Definitely wasn't a relationship meant to last. I was destined to return to California.

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  9. Memories are precious, Nancy! And this excerpt was a nice reflection of you and your mother...I could see the closeness in your relationship. Would love to have seen pictures of the Tower at night. I bet that was awesome.

    I am trying to organize. Somehow you were on a wrong blog list! I corrected that quickly! Sorry it's been awhile.

    M.L. Swift, Writer

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    1. Seeing that letter surely surprised me! I'd had an off and on rocky relationship with my mom for years. It has gotten steadily good years ago now.

      It is good to hear from you again! :)

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