Happy cows come from...wait, do they actually exist?

While I was home this summer, my dad and I watched "Food, Inc.," a documentary about the food industry and how it has gone from being a primarily farm based culture to a factory industry. First, you should know that I love meat. A burrito is not a burrito without carne asada and Thanksgiving is not a feast without the turkey, but "Food, Inc." opened my eyes to the ugly truth of where our food really comes from.

Most chickens are raised in dark coops with very little room to walk around. They, along with cows and pigs, are fed diets consisting mostly of corn so as to fatten them quickly. I understand the economics of most of these practices, but placing animals in close corridors increases the likelihood of diseases and the diets which are not what the animals have evolved on leave them deficient in nutrients which we benefit from when we eat them. Did you know that grass fed beef has significantly more omega 3 fatty acids than corn fed beef. Omega 3 fatty acids have been found to lower the risk of certain chronic diseases, and they are crucial to brain function. Deficiencies in omega 3 fatty acids can cause depression. With the oil spill in the Gulf Coast limiting our seafood options, we need to find ways of getting omega 3 fatty acids in other ways - choosing grass fed beef over the regular stuff I know you're eating is a great start.

I also read Barbara Kingsolver's book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle." It is an account of her family's attempt to grow all of their own food for an entire year. What they could not grow themselves (ex. wheat), they purchased locally. I was particularly influenced by this book because Kingsolver's oldest daughter was close to my age and she knew so much more about where her food came from than I do. Most of our food travels farther than the average person does. This uses barrels of oil that pollutes our environment. I love mangoes, but why would I eat a fruit from Mexico when we have amazing peaches and apples growing right here in the Midwest? It's going to be hard for me to give up my guilty pleasures, but if it means saving the world, I'll do it in a second.

Since I decided to only eat "happy" meat (3 weeks ago) I have stuck mostly to vegetarian options. I did eat some beef and a little bit of chicken because they were things that my friends had made for me, and I may be opinionated, but I am certainly not rude. I am also making a point to buy most of my produce at the farmer's markets in Chicago - there are multiple markets Tuesday through Sunday.

I do miss beef. I really want a steak burrito, but where am I going to find an environmentally/health conscious taqueria? Chipotle of course. Apparently, Chipotle purchases 100% of its chicken and pork and 85% of its beef from "family farms." I'm still not exactly sure what that means because their website is not very clear, but it certainly sounds good. unfortunately, 85% family farm beef is not quite good enough for me, so I suppose I'm back to chicken...ugh.

Reverse Culture Shock!!!

I definitely didn't realize how long I had been outside the United States until I returned. I thought that I would end up with pockets full of coins while I was in Europe, but i found out after a few trips to the drug store in Chicago that Americans have way more change than Europeans. You see, Europeans charge one euro or two euro for things, but Americans like when things aren't quite a dollar. Now answer honestly - Would you buy the candy bar that was 79 cents or one dollar? EXACTLY! I hate American money. I have found myself converting Dollars to Euros here - bad. I do appreciate that Americans know how to form a line - a skill that Italians seem to lack. Skyscrapers sort of scared me the first few times I walked through the Loop, and the ivy covered brick buildings of Chicago were actually a little disappointing compared to the Roman ruins I was so used to seeing on a regular basis. Possibly their weirdest part was being able to listen in on peoples' conversations and understand them! I was excited to realize all the gossip I would learn from just sitting on the train, something I was sorry to have missed from my adventures in Italy.

Usually when I come back to the United States from a trip to Europe I feel slightly ashamed by the lack of infrastructure in our nation and by the common wasteful practices most of us don't give a second thought to, but this time was different. I did feel mildly let-down by my country, but I was also very proud of my country. I had learned about the Italian government and how corrupt it is. I was amazed when I finally understood just how many liberties we have that we take for granted. Though I do not like what many of our biggest news stations have to say, I find comfort in the fact that they are not all owned by our government or president. I think it is terrible that most Americans can only speak English while most Europeans can speak more than one language, sometimes having to speak 3 or 4 just to get by in their own countries. Also, why do we have to pay boat loads of money to go to college when Germans can go for free? But we have things that no one else does. We have the Grand Canyon and National Forests in nearly every state. We have a huge variety of cultures, each bringing something new and different to the table. I don't know if I would have seen our country this way if I hadn't spent five months away from it. I'm glad to be back, but I want nothing more than to explore the world even more!

There is no way that really happened...

I have spent one hundred and thirty days of this year outside of the United States. I have lived in Europe for four months. I have been to Asia, and I have been to Africa. I have enjoyed beers paid for by my school and I have yelled at an Indian man in Italian. I have watched my parents fall into the traps of countless salesmen while managing to leave a country and continent completely empty-handed. My semester abroad was an experience I will never have again, but you can be sure that I will try my hardest to relive every moment, good and bad, because it was an experience that I never want to forget. Of course, all the days I spent wandering Europe would not have been half as interesting, or fun if I didn't have the friends I met and my support system at home to talk to and tell all my stories. Thank you for listening (and reading), especially since I was terrible at keeping in touch. These entries are my attempts to make up for that.

I told you about out Turkish tours, but somehow I didn't get to Istanbul! Firstly, Istanbul is the only city that is broken into two continents. 60% of the city residents live on the Asian side, while the European side is primarily commercial. The European side is then broken up into two parts - one is more modern than the other. This means that Istanbul has an old side, a new side, and a homey side. Tourists tend to stay on the old side, which is great, but we are not tourists anymore - we are world travelers. We do not sight see - we explore, and explore we did! Sure, the old buildings are cool, but did you know that there are about 200 Christian churches in Istanbul? That doesn't sound like much for a large city, especially compared to Rome's 400 Catholic churches, but did you also know that 99% of Turks are Muslim? We found a charming church at the top of the massive hill that makes up the new side, as well as the largest and most crowded shopping street I have ever seen. We also explored the Asian side, only after asking five taxi drivers to help with our iPhone directions to a well-known restaurant they probably would have recognized if we had known any Turkish at all. Is it possible that I actually miss having men try and sell me everything and anything they can ALL the time? Our favorite line - "Are you from America? I'm married to an American and I'm a professor...(5 minutes later)...I actually sell rugs too. Let me show you." Those Turks are sly.



After two weeks of traveling, it was time to go home - so we flew back to Rome. I suppose that's not home for everyone. I made my parents see everything I thought was essential on their last day in the Eternal City (contradiction?). I dragged my mom through the rain to see the Key Hole, which is literally a key hole in a door with an amazing view of the Vatican. UNFORTUNATELY, someone was doing construction and blocking the view! I thought my mom might kill me because I'm nearly certain she was losing feeling in her toes. Oops. That night we had a delicious meal next to a very emotional pregnant woman and went to bed, happy that our trip went smoothly minus one hickup that was easily fixed...JINX! I was planning on spending one more day in Rome while my parents were leaving the next morning for Chicago and then San Francisco. Well, it turns out that when American Airlines has a small hickup, they just cancel your flight at four in the morning. My parents managed to get on my flight the next day, which meant that they had one more day to see everything they needed to!

I had been planning for weeks what I was going to do on my last day in Rome. I wanted it to be a special day with gelati, panini, and Roma T-shirts. I had my gelato and I bought my shirt. I was mistaken for an Italian, I ran into my parents (like a local would run into friends), and then I got lost. It was perfect. We ended the night with dinner and drinks at Bir and Fud and a few more drinks at Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fa (But what did you come here for?).

Leaving Rome felt like I was leaving a home behind because the John Felice Rome Center became our home, After a weekend away, getting lost on the trains, standing in lines for hours, yelling at Ryan Air, and paying too much for a taxi, it always felt good to see those big green gates and walking down that long road to campus. We always had such a sense of relief, as if we had been gone for weeks. Never mind the bad Mensa food that awaited us, we were home and there is no comfort like that of laying in your own bed (with borrowed sheets) and knowing that when you wake up in the morning you will be greeted by your family - friends, professors, Nella, Rinaldo, and all. Ordinary college life will feel like just that from now on - ordinary.