Birthday Tugs!

          So, the fifth was my twentieth birthday. Usually, I get very excited for my birthday, and make a big deal of it, and, of course, celebrate it with my friends and family. This made this birthday hard for me. Not only do I not get my normal birthday cake, nor do I get to celebrate with my friends and family back home, nor do I get to see my twin cousin (we were born the same day of the same year, and I’ve always called her my “twin cousin”), but it was a travel day, so I couldn’t even celebrate on the day with my new Italian friends or European traveling friends. It was a very disappointing birthday for me. And a very lonely one. It was pretty much just a long day of traveling, just like any other.

          Until I met an Italian boy in his 20s that spoke English while waiting for a ferry. We never learned each other’s names, but we were both going to Rome last night, him to return home, and me as one leg on my journey to meet the Semester Abroad: Europe group in Levanto. He and I talked and joked and had a good time together while waiting for the ferry, on the ferry, and while waiting for the train to Rome. We found food and drinks at the Villa San Giovanni train station and we found our platform together, where we sat and talked for another hour or two.

          On the ferry, I told him it was my birthday, and he showed me an Italian birthday tradition. While we have birthday spankings, they have birthday tugs. They grab each ear lobe and tug them, every other ear, and count to your new age. So, he gave me my 20 birthday tugs! It’s nowhere near as good as a birthday cake with my mom and aunties and cousins (most importantly my twin cousin), but considering I’m an ocean away from them, it was the best I could have hoped for. So thanks to this kind young man, for making my birthday much brighter and less lonely, and for giving me my birthday tugs!