Lost in Translation

Its one thing to be lost back home. Although you think you're lost, you're never really more than a phone call away from someone who can help or really out of contact with a near by local who can point you in the right direction. Here in Rome, when you get lost, you are truly lost. It's a scary feeling being unable to even communicate that you are lost to people verbally. Sure, most of the time they can read it on your face but without a common language between two people, you must rely on fragments to get somewhere.

On our journey to Trestevare, this was just the case. We left with plenty of time to ensure we would get to the site as assigned. Just a short walk from the Colliseum to the Theatre of Marcellus and we would be golden. However, that short walk quickly turned in to one debacle after another becuase what happens is that everybody starts putting in their two sense, all directing you in the general direction but through different means of transportation and different routes altogether. One person says take this bus to one stop while another says walk to the third street and hook a left. It becomes constant skeptisim and luck to find your way anywhere when you are lost.

Not to mention that in Rome, you're hot. And not only are you already a little agitated from the heat, but being lost while being hot is instant anger issues within a group. On the way to Trestevare, we traveled in a group and people begin to turn against each other as the feeling of panic sets in. It's a wierd thing to see people become so frustrated with one another when their own reputation's and ego's are on the line. This feeling of frustration and panic was even heightened as we began to get calls wondering where we were; obviously late we became even more willing to listen to anyone around us to try to find the meeting sport on time. What started as a rare question or two to a stranger, questioning "Theatre of Marcellus?" and a point, became a wild goose chase to ask anyone who looked like they might be credible along the way: men passing by, a women out walking her dog, random people sitting down eating breakfast, a young kid listening to his iPod, etc.

I tried to stay as cool and calm along the road to being lost. I have a really short temper and very little patience so I truly tried my best to start removed from the central tension and frustration that was going on. That being said, I tried to navigate us the best I could - frantakly searching the map for some sense of security that we were headed not only in the right direction but on the right path to get there. I think I deffinitely maintained by calm along the way but towards the end I started to become a little agictated in the way some people seemed to lollygag aimlessly while we were already an hour late. On any other day this would have been totally fine but I just thoguht that under these circumstances we had to be as directed and focused as possible out of fairness to Hannah and ourselves. All in all, getting lost in Rome is really quite a remarkable expereince because it forces you to navigate through territory and develop a sense for the city itself. Becuase we got lost I got probably my best sense of the city in terms of geography and location - later that day I simply walked home trhough all these elaborate routes I discovered along the way which was really enlightening.