18-year-old Bryan Hindle is going into his final year
of high school in Toronto. But he decides to go off
during summer, leaving behind his parents and a sister
who's jealous of his trip, and head for Italy to study
Philosophy. Hosting this episode of the Road Scholar
series, he takes advantage of his passion for photography
to show us the fun he gets to have in Italy.
He shows how he spends all his time in Rome, the Eternal
City, getting lost in the streets. He shows how, when
walking around inside the Coliseum, he is lost in thought
about the movie Gladiator. Then at an Italian restaurant,
he shows how he's at a loss as to where his food is
when the others are busy eating theirs.
He tells us that he's excited to join eight billion
other lucky people to see the Pope speak in the Vatican,
and then he tells us that he misses whatever the Pope
says because of the terrible sound system. In the canal
city of Venice, he decides to walk backwards in order
to tell us about him going to see a special sunset.
In the circle city of Siena, he shows how he spends
all his time in a shoe shop trying to decide whether
to go for the beige, the black or the blue. In Pisa,
he lets his passion for photography develop by taking
pictures of people trying to get the Leaning Tower of
Pisa into the background.
As a part of his ISU (Independent Study Unit) in Philosophy,
he works on the nature and morality of homosexuality.
He decides to go in depth in his presentation, which
means he spends probably something like two hours talking
rather than the original twenty minutes. He tells us
how he's been nervous, how he's in fact been peeing
his pants, and how he then gets to learn not to be shy
to go places, to do things, and to try whatever.
