June 9th, 2007 by Rachel | Country: Italy | 3 Comments »
During the first few days of the trip, I passed by several posters hanging on the wall depicting images hating our president of the United States and mottos saying “No Bush No War” and “Push Bush Out”. I was under the impression that these signs were for American tourists letting us know that Italy is angry with the Americans for choosing the dumber than rocks president. This morning, when I stepped out of the hotel, the entire city was peaceful, but still lively with same usual high number of tourists touring the city, residents roaming through the city in mopeds, buses, smart cars, and other cars, and restaurants and stores were opened as usual. However, there was something different about this morning from other mornings. As I reached the end of the block from the hotel, I noticed about two to three police cars and about ten police officers standing there. I thought, “Well, maybe it’s just something happening in that one building where the police officers are standing by.” Then my group continued to walk down the bumpy black cobblestones to our destination. On the next block, there was a group of maybe another 10 police officers. I continue to walk, and only a few seconds later, I see more police officers and even a police bus! A police bus that can carry as many as 30 police officers! There were about 20 police officers standing by the bus. “Hmmm…I wonder what is going on,” I thought. In every spot that I saw a massive group of police offcers, they were just standing and looking as if they were prepared for a big war to happen. I asked one of my professors, “Why are there police officers everywhere today?”
“The president is coming here today,” my professor replied.
“What?” My face looked as if the professor was kidding. So then, I thought, “Well, the police officers are just there to protect the president as he pass through the streets in the big fancy black limo.” We, the group, went on to our excursion for the day. After our excursion, we were on our own. Three friends and I went on our own together to find a gelato place as we were soaking with sweats in the hot sunny weather. As were walking, we see nearly 50 police or perhaps as much as a hundred lining up one street. As we turn around our backs with astonishments, we notice protesters crowding up the streets like as if I have seen the images of typical protests in the newspapers. We turn our heads around, trying to find our way back to the hotel safely. We ran through a street that was free of people, and until we get to the end of the street, we see more protestors pouring into another section of the street along with million more police officers. We grab our hands with frights and turn around and found another street to try to take. As we crash into another end of the street, we were hit by a large crowd of people screaming furiously and running toward us like a bag of beans pouring into our hands. We turn around and headed toward the screaming crowd, and the next thing we realize, we were in a much more serious danger. We were smelling gas from behind us as gas was somehow blasting into the city. One of my friends grabbed my arm tightly and pulled me into a restaurant and people in the restaurant immediately shut the doors. We were in there for only a second until the street where the restaurant was located was slightly calmer. We stepped out of the restaurant and ran into another street and finally reached to a major square that leads us to the hotel. Screams roar away, and a huge crowd of people spread into the square from one street and all of the sudden, we see a huge truck roaring through with a large sign saying “PUSH BUSH OUT!” with a picture of Bush.
We come to a realization that these protesters were trying to give a message of hatred to Bush.
We grinned with excitements as Italy understands strongly how we, the democrats, feel about our president, but at the same time, we realized that we were in a dangerous situation as we saw as many as hundreds of police officers with helmets on their head lining up one street.
We somehow managed to reach to the street to take us back the hotel and ran as fast as we could. As we arrived to the hotel safely after going through a long maze of trying to head back, the professors were standing at the doors waiting for their students. When we came back, they were still missing four students. These four students didn’t come back until another few hours after us as they were locked up in a restaurant. However, at least, we are all safe in the hotel. Because this evening was absolutely crazy, we could not go out to dinner, so the professors ordered us pizza to be delivered to the hotel. Hopefully, the pizza delivery guy is okay too! I know that when my family and friends read this post, they will DIE with a heart attack seeing this girl went inside the images of the protests that we see in the newspapers frequently. But you know what, this is what international traveling is about – it’s about gaining experiences of being in the position that we would not think that these particular events like this large wild protest would actually happen and learning how to handle it safely. International traveling also sometimes teaches us how the other countries view other countries. Hopefully, the republican American tourists who heart Bush and were in Rome, understand better how the whole world really feel about the United States! Shame on you republicans who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004!!!!!! You ruined my one day of travel as we were stuck in the hotel for the evening!
3 Comments
Miss Travel Girl: Rachel's Travel Blog
July 13, 2008 at 3:50 am
[...] I have not only been judged by other people due to my deafness and my Judaism throughout my life, but also, I have been judged due to being American. Huh? Ya. That’s what many of you are probably thinking. How can I be living in US and be judged because I’m American? Well, of course, it’s not when I’m living in US. It’s when I’m living abroad. I’ve encountered anti-Americanism when I’m on foreign lands. “It’s 16 euros!” A cashier grumbles loudly with a lovely monstorous face. I asked the cashier how much a souvenir that I was looking at cost. My eyes popped out, and I dashed out of the store. One of my friends from my travel group was waiting outside of the store, and I told him what happened. “It’s because we’re Americans.” UGH! This event occurred five years ago in Paris on my first trip to France. Two years later, I was in Paris once again, and I was sitting with a group of friends at a cafe. I wasn’t hungry. The waiter asked me what I wanted, and I said, “Ca va bien. Je ne commande rien, mais merci de m’avoir demandé.” I told him that I’m good and that I didn’t want anything, but I thanked him for asking me. He screamed at me and told me to leave. What was his problem? Anti-Americanism? Last summer, I faced an unfortunate event in Florence. To make the long story short – a waiter gave my friend a HARD and DRIED chicken. Another friend got a RAW chicken. It was PINK as it could be! Both of them expressed their concerns to the waitor, and he refused to fix it. We asked for a bottle of water, and he never gave us one. We saw him lighting candles on other tables when people came in, but never lit the candles on our table. We all agreed not to give him tip. As soon as we left the restaurant, the waiter immediately followed us out and BEGGED us for tip. What the heck? Last December, a work camp leader in France disliked me. Hmm…why does Anti-Americanism exist? I think I know why… Take a look here: [...]
Miss Travel Girl: Rachel's Travel Blog
November 5, 2008 at 4:36 pm
[...] Last summer, when I was in Rome, I experienced a massive riot depicting hatred towards Bush who happened to be in Rome on that day to meet the pope. Almost all streets in Rome were blocked. Gas poured everywhere. There were screams. Read the whole story here. [...]
Candy
November 8, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Wow! That was a harrowing experience! Yeah! George Bush started this stupid war! I never liked the war to begin with. And to see that foreigners are holding all Americans responsible sucks. That is so very interesting. My in-laws travel to Europe two times a year and they go to England and France a lot. They never said anything….hmmm, I do wonder if they did not want to worry any of us. Just like now, your family and friends are probably like “OMG! Rachel!” LOL You go girl! for being so brave.
Nice to know the foreigners are nicer now…great time to travel now, I guess.
Anyway, thanks for posting this link in Jodi’s post, been a while since I was here! Great pictures too!