A Quick Dinner

by Sherri Peterson
After arriving in town late Saturday night from Rome, a few students got together for dinner. It was around 930 and thought we would catch a quick dinner and hopefully getting to bed early. We went to a new (to us) restaurant and sat there an hour before we were able to order and then it took another hour before we got our food. All of us were exhausted from our weekend travels and were looking forward to getting to bed early since classes resumed the next morning.

However, most of us had slipped back into the American way of thinking (without really recognizing it). I was trying to be respectful of the cultural differences to the view of meals: In Italy a meal is an event; you take the time to enjoy your family/friends. However, from the perspective of my dining companions, the dinner took way too long to a point of being outrageous or unacceptable. (Some of the people at the table were considering asking for the meal to go, or to ask them to cancel the food and just pay for the wine.) Although I was exhausted from the day, I was willing to respect their traditions and norms.

I am sure that the staff viewed us as “bruta forma” (bad form/ugly American) because we were so impatient and wanting to leave so quickly. People were upset that we sat there for over an hour without having our order taken, and then waited another hour for the food to come. By the time we got the check (and believe me, we paid immediately) we didn’t get out of there until after 12:30am. It was a good reminder that just because we are tired or hungry, that you can’t expect others to conform to your approach to life. Personally, I really enjoy the Italian approach to meals, and using the time to nourish your soul as well as your hunger. So when I return to the states, I hope that I take a bit of their values back with me and remember to take my time and use the meal as a reason to gather and connect with each other instead of another thing to get through before I can move along to the next item on my “to do” list.