Week 5- Italian Leisure

My defintion of leisure is a way to relax and enjoy yourself, doing activties in which help to take stress away. I believe it is obvious that "leisure" is different for everyone. My father for example loves swimming in his free time. Swimming laps calms him down and helps him forget about the troubles and stress at work. Personally, I would hate swimming laps everyday. It would not help take stress away, and is just not an activity I enjoy. On the other hand, as crazy as it seems shopping is a leisure activity for me. I enjoy going to stores by myself and browsing. It gives me a chance to calm down and slowly browse through clothes and accessories that I love. Leisure is different for everyone, which is the beauty of being an individual. Everyone can have the right and opinion to love doing varities of leisure activity.
I believe that Italians and Americans may have different views of leisure but overall basically have the same time for leisure. In my opinion, Italians are less modern and addicted to television, phones and other electronics. Therefore, they spend more time walking in parks and doing other recreational acitivites than the average American. An Italian leisure activity that sticks out greatly in my head is eating at restaurants. In the United States, families rush to eat and rush to leave. Here in Italy, Italians spend a great deal of time at each meal. In fact, I have witnessed people sitting for coffee for about an hour. Italians are a lot more laid back than Americans when it comes to eating. They take pride in their meals and spending time with family or friends while doing so.
In the 21st century, the United States is booming with different video games, computer games, high tec cell phones and handheld devices. Using these devices seems to be more appealing to quite a few Americans. From what I have learned, Italians work 5 days  a week just like most Americans. However, they have leisure time in the middle of the day, siesta. Americans do not leave work or get a few hours off. Working a 8-5 day is more than common in the United States. On the other hand, from what I have been told here, Italian women get less time to relax because they always have to cook and clean for the family. For the most part, Italians and Americans have about the same amount of leisure time. However, each individual chooses to spend it differently in a way which they enjoy.
I believe being in Italy for eight weeks will definitly have an impact on what I consider leisure when I get home. Because we do not have a television here, I have learned to occupy myself with other activities. In fact, I now enjoy going for walks, and even reading a book. Before I came here, I would have never thought of picking up a book when needing to relax. Being here has really made me more independent and mature by trying new leisure activities. I believe when I get back home, I will learn to think outside of the box when debating on acitivites to do when bored or needing time to myself in order to relieve stress. I believe it is wonderful what not being around constant technology has done for me. I now feel more well rounded as a person because I can fill my time doing a variety of activites that make me a more well rounded person.