Thanks, Eli! There are lots of things I like about that book. Elizabeth decided to travel to three places trying to do some spiritual work and find her inner peace, even though at that time it seemed that she had already got everything others desire. And she managed to balance her desire for worldly pleasure and her divine transcendence., which isn't an easy work. It's the process of our journey rather than the destination that matters. Even wandering aimlessly in another country can lead to many sparkles which inspire us. Being immersed in a different culture can be exciting and we should appreciate experiences like that. I'll cherish every journey because they are the treasure of my life.

Eat Pray Love is a great book, and I connected with Elizabeth Gilbert’s fascination with the Italian language and how you explain; “the feeling of Italian smoothly coming out of their mouth”. I speak Italian and found myself being touched with her story about the word “attraversiamo” and how much she enjoyed saying it. It became a thematic metaphor throughout the book as she described it to say “let’s cross over a road (or to another opportunity in life)”. I like how she found such joy in the simplest of phrases. I found a scene very cute and funny where she described being at the soccer stadium with all the fans yelling obscenities in Italian and how beautiful she interpreted it to be, rather than what it might have seemed like to others. Of course Italian is a very melodic language, and some languages are not as pretty as others. I found myself being surprised, however, at how beautiful the Chinese language can feel once you begin to master a few phrases. I’ve been learning Mandarin a few ways and one of them is by singing songs; To Youth sung by Faye Wong being one of them, but there are many different ways to learn a language, and yes; immersing oneself within the language and culture from which you desire learning is also a great way. I had this experience in Germany quite a few years ago. There is a part in a story I wrote which describes that experience. Here is the link to that story if you wish to read it. http://www.poetbay.com/viewText.php?textId=91546

Hi Lizy:) I agree with you. It's a lot of fun chatting with people from other countries and get to know different cultures.

Hi ohyeah. Welcome to italki! I chose to start learning Turkish because I visited the country and wanted to learn more about Turkish culture. I think is wonderful to be able to communicate to others in their mother tongue too. Instead of just talking in English. (my first language)