The University of Wisconsin - Madison, my alma mater, claims to be very diverse. Supposedly, campus is filled with students coming from all unique walks of life. We represent all 50 states and over 130 different countries... impressive!
So, why is everyone I know white, middle-class and either from Wisconsin or Minnesota?
Ok, that's not completely true. I have some friends from LA and one from St. Louis. Occasionally, I meet someone from another country and I get really excited.
In all honesty, Madison is just not the admirably diverse campus that they claim to be.
John Cabot is much more diverse. Not just in having students from Albania, Istanbul, and Italy, but also by having students from all across America. Unfortunately, as an only moderately attractive, American male, it has been difficult for me to meet a lot of international students. It has been fairly easy, however, to finally meet people coming from outside the corn-maze prison of the mid-west. This has led to some, surprisingly enlightening, cultural experiences.
For example, a couple weeks ago, I went out with my two roommates, Joe, from Chicago suburbia and Anthony, from the big-city Bronx, as well as our Wesetern-Pennsylvanian friend turned New Jersian, Mickey. The dinner boiled down to two sides of the table: Joe and I representing the naive, nice-hearted mid-westerners and Anthony and Mickey representing the hard-nosed, do it right the first time east-coasters.
Dinner was great... except for the wine. I guess the 3 meatballs for 4 euro each was a little disappointing for Anthony. (Moral: Don't go to restaurants north of the Tiber) Seriously, the wine was terrible. It tasted like day-old water. Joe and I decided not to say anything. We should be appreciative. Why say anything if you have nothing good to say? Be nice and polite. After all, we are guests at their establishment.
Mickey and Anthony weren't going to let them off the hook though. Sure enough:
Anthony, "Scusi!"
Waiter, "Sì?"
Anthony, "a.. Il vino..."
Waiter, "è buono?"
Anthony, "No, non buono... acqua."
Waiter, "acqua?"
Anthony, "Sì, tastes like acqua."
Waiter walks away. The look on my face was one of terrible discomfort. Oh man, I hate confrontation for no good reason. Why? Just drink the wine! Leave me out of it. Who cares? Great, now he hates us.
Then, we entered into a discussion. Ok, more like an argument, but a friendly one. Joe and I were set on not doing anything, not saying anything and just paying the bill and getting out of there. Too late now I guess. We talked about who had the better course of action. We talked about our reasonings behind our opinions. It all seemed to rest on the simple fact that Joe and I were raised in the mid-west and Anthony and Mickey were raised on the east coast.
Then, the waiter comes back with a bottle of wine, "on the house." All right, fine. They won this one. But, still.
Then, the waiter comes back again. He takes Mickey into the kitchen and when she comes back she says, "well, we all just got a free dessert!" Ok, I'll admit it. They got me on this one. My little naive, no confrontation, no complaints, if you've got nothing good to say don't say it attitude just got seriously smacked up.
To the victors, the glory. East coast attitude gets you free wine and free dessert. Mid west attitude gets you nowhere.
Then again, maybe its the Italian attitude. Italians are all about having a good time and showing other people a good time. If you show any signs of not having a good time they will do what they can to change that. Their first concern is enjoying life. Their argument might run: Hey, you are living the only life you've got so you had better be enjoying it. This theme has shown up time and time again here.
As awesome as it is, the Italian attitude can be very inefficient when it comes time to get things done.
Ultimately, it was a learning experience. I'm learning about different cultures in Italy, in the world, and even in my home country. I'm learning where these people come from and why they think what they think and do what they do. I'm learning that sometimes you have to be stern and rude to get what you want, sometimes, you should just simply enjoy life, and, sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty and do some work. I only hope that they (or you) are learning from me as well.
Hopefully, there is something to be learned from the mid-western mind-set.
The interesting thing is that it's pretty easy to recognize what you've learned from other people, but it is quite difficult to see what others have learned from you.
