June 19

Today was much more relaxed than the other days, as we only had ONE planned excursion. We went to outlets about an hour outside Rome, by bus. The crazy part, however, is that we had to leave the hotel at 8:30 am to go to outlets. I don't even go to school that early at home. I took a really good picture of Lindsay on the bus pointing to her clock to highlight the ridiculousness. That is a whole other funny issue on its own. I brought a watch, but I forgot to bring it with me to Rome. I also forgot my sunglasses, ugh. Lindsay didn't bring a watch at all, BUT, she brought her tiny battery powered alarm clock, which she carries in her purse. We are constantly checking the "pocket watch".

Before shopping, we met with Ms. Petrucci, the retail manager of McArthurGlen designer outlets in Rome. She taught us a few things about outlets and how they offer brand protection for designers because they can regulate how their excess products and materials are being sold - the price, who sells them, and where. I feel like outlet malls are pretty generic looking, but McArthurGlen uses architecture that fits in with each particular area.

Last night I was working on my notebook and I was answering a question about the Italians' attitude about the environment. After Ms. Petrucci's talk, Lindsay asked her about recycling in Italy. She said they don't have anywhere to put the bins and the trucks find it difficult to get down the narrow streets. Also, she thinks that Italians would not want to take the time to sort out recycling. I had written in my notebook that Italians have small cars or motorcycles, which seems like they are trying to be environmentally conscious, but their streets are dirty because they litter everywhere, which makes it seem like they don't care about the environment. Ms. Petrucci also shed some light on this because she said that people have to pay a hefty tax on SUVs here. This is so opposite of my own attitudes, and probably most of America's. I try to recycle as much as I can, but I really don't care very much about my energy use. I turn out lights and only run a full washer and dryer, but as Ms. Petrucci pointed out, we all have air conditioning and refrigerators and all kinds of heavy energy-drawing appliances in the U.S. In Italy, they rarely have air conditioning and only use heat enough to be comfortable with sweaters on, whereas we can wear shorts and be barefoot inside in the winter. Other than costing money, the implications of using a lot of energy are not so salient to me. If I keep consuming and producing trash, however, I can see how that adds up and understand that over time, we will run out of space to put all the mess.