Kaʻapuni Honua Series: My Journey to Italia

Ciao, Aloha, and Hello everyone! This is my third post on Kepa Aloha: a blog that I, Kepa Barrett, started for the purpose of reflecting properly on the experiences, travels, and "mana moments" of my life. This is also the second post in my Kaʻapuni Honua (World Traveling) Series. If you'd like to see my first Kaʻapuni Honua post about my summer in Chicago, feel free to click here.

Now...ON TO ITALY!!

To start off my very FIRST post about Italia, I should explain how I chose to study abroad here in the first place. When I began college, it was never my intention to study abroad in Europe. In fact - last year when the opportunity arose to apply for programs abroad - I initially filled out an application to study abroad in Costa Rica! Can you believe that? So how did Italy come into the picture?

Here's what happened...I had a dream about a yellow building.

Yup! That's right! Just when I was about to turn in my application for Costa Rica I decided to take a nap one afternoon. I had a moe ʻuhane (dream) that I was standing in a large plaza, looking at a yellow building with a clock tower in the middle of it. In the dream, I looked down at myself and saw that I was wearing more layers of clothing than I'd EVER worn in my entire life. The plaza itself was filled with people speaking a language that I couldn't understand, when suddenly - without any sense of orientation - I heard a deep, resounding voice in the back of my head whisper into my subconscious, telling me these words:

"Kepa...Go.. To. Italy."

Then I woke up.
...

Seems pretty far-fetched doesn't it? Well, trust me, I freaked the f*K out! I ran downstairs to the Study Abroad office, walked right into my advisers room and told her about the dream. As soon as she heard me describe the building, she stopped me and said that the college, indeed, has a program in Italy in a town named Parma that contains a building JUST like the one I described in my dream.

You see that yellow building pictured below? It's located in Piazza Garibaldi, and it's the spitting image of the building I had in my dream. I took this picture myself yesterday afternoon.

Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi in Parma, Italy

Naturally, I was in a state of shock in response to this information. So many questions sprung into my mind... 

"Why did I have that dream? 
Where did that voice come from? 
What is the significance of that yellow building?
And if I were to go to Italy, what would happen to me?"

I let these questions sink in...and the only answer I could come up with that made sense was:

"I don't know where to find any of these answers, guess I'll have to go looking for them." 

So I threw away my Costa Rica application, filled out an entirely new application for Parma, Italy, and turned it into the Study Abroad office within 48 hours of having the dream.

Pretty dramatic, yeah? Welcome to my life.
Perhaps it was my curiosity that drove me to apply or it may have been an omniscient force that guided me down this path. Whatever it was...the fact that I am here now in Italy is truly based on a leap of faith.

So there you have it!

Weird Dream + Yellow Building + Optimus prime voice + A leap of faith == 
My Journey to Italia!

Please tune in next time for an update on my experience in Italy so far! I am going on my fourth day here and I am loving it so far! Mahalo, Thank you, and Grazie for reading! Until next time. Live with love!

Kepa \m/\m/

Nom nom nom nom!