I waited in line for my morning brew as Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» students gossiped about the night before and the strong aroma of coffee beans flooded the room of Washington Street Café. The downtown coffee shops of New London are a staple for a Sunday morning.
Three men sipping espresso gestured their hands from left to right as their voices boomed over the sizzling espresso machine. A fragile woman, with her white hair tied back in a floral bonnet, approached the counter behind me.
“Scusami, posso prega di avere monete per questo cinque dollari?"
The purple-haired cashier stared at the woman in confusion: “I’m sorry, how can I help you?”
The old woman rubbed her fingers together but struggled to make out the words for “money” in English.
After a semester abroad in Milan, Italy, and my daily espressos in Italian cafés, I stepped forward and translated for the woman: “Can she please have change for this $5 bill?”
The woman, with her little leather loafers, held her hand out as if she were a gypsy in the Palazzo Duomo, Milan’s city center. “Grazie bella,” she said as she grabbed my shoulder. It was as if I was transported back to my experience abroad.
My experiences abroad are incomparable to my past three years at Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³». However, downtown New London is more than what it appears to be from the outside appearance of local shops. It is a culturally vibrant city.