Bittersweet...

December 12, 2008

Hey everyone!

So im officially down to my last week in Florence. I have so many mixed feelings it's crazy, and I thought I'd write about them haha.

Basically, I love Italy, the people, architecture, coffee, language, gelato...the list could really go on and on, and I'm also soooo excited to go home!
The part that’s so hard for me to grasp is that I won’t be able to come back to Italy for several years, and there are so many things I’m going to miss. And I guess that’s all part of life, learning, and growing. It doesn't really feel like I only have a week left here in Florence. Honestly, if I learned the language I could really see myself living here for a longer period of time, there’s something so amazing about living in another culture and learning the lifestyle.

So to start, I’m going to miss my 5 amazing roommates so much! All of their personalities are so fun and every day is like a new adventure. I think if I was to write about all of the things that have happened to the 5 of us or that we’ve each individually experienced, the list would be 10 pages long! Some of these are: Katie and I have both been pooped on by pigeons, Hannah and I have both slipped on the cobblestone and fallen flat on our butts, Kristen has managed to brake 5 different umbrellas, whereas the rest of us have been able to use the same umbrella we bought in the beginning, those are the less fortunate but very funny stories…oh Hannah had her foot run over by a car, and I was backed into by a van...like I said Endless! I’ll try and write more as I remember them. I’m also going to miss our apartment, the Residence La Contessina, and the amazing family that owns the place. They’re so sweet to us. The mom is always bringing us up cakes that she’s baked. And when we were leaving the country to travel they would tell us “always remember you have family in Europe.” I’ll also miss the pizza boy, Danieli, down the street. He’s become one of the girl’s and my favorite people. He hardly speaks English and we speak very little Italian but he’s always there in his pizza window waving to us and blowing kisses everyday as we walk to and from classes haha. There’s also my amazing cooking teacher who is hilarious and says things like “put the cake in the hoven so it can bakery.” I’m going to miss that haha. It’s going to be weird not walking into a café and ordering a café latte for 1 euro (student discount haha) or walking down the street waving at the business owners I’ve gotten to know, like the scarf woman and her husband, or the gelato boy next to my flamenco class. And every time I go to Conad, the grocery store one of the grocery guys always comes straight up to kiss me on both cheeks and say “come stai?” The people are so sweet and it’s so neat being friends with some of the locals. Speaking of which, Francesco, the college kid that works the night shift at our hotel is giving us his own personal tour around Florence. We thought it’d be perfect for our last weekend and he asked to do it awhile ago, so we’re all pretty excited!

On the other hand there are things I will not miss. Like the pigeons. Honestly Pigeons are very disgusting birds and it will be nice not having to walk through them everyday. Oh that’s another thing I love being able to walk everywhere! I won’t miss the smoky air though, I don’t think very many people in Europe really realize that lung cancer is a real possibility! Oh I won’t have to pay for internet anymore woohoo! I’m also very ready to be back to the dollar. It’ll be nice looking at a price and really knowing exactly how much I’m paying for it. That’s another thing, Gypsy’s kind of freak me out, it’ll be nice not having to hold my hand over the top of my purse as I walk to school. Hmmm…what else?! Oh the men hollering in the streets. I think I can go a really long time without hearing “ciao bella.” I remember the first day at orientation our faculty said “just so you girls know that’s not a compliment, so don’t go up and talk to them.” It’ll be nice being able to walk down the street with my head up, rather than having to watch the cobblestones so I don’t trip (I’m serious this happens on a regular basis haha), and to avoid eye contact with the very forward Italian men.

On a different note, I hope that someday when I come back I can keep the mindset of a resident rather than a tourist. I want to be able to walk down the streets to the Ponte Vecchio just strolling and not feeling like I have to see a certain amount of sites in a limited amount of time. And I want to be able to take everything in and enjoy the little things more!

And lastly, there is the very strong pull to go home. I never really felt homesick while being abroad, and I don’t know if that was because Kristen and I came together or the U.S. atmosphere of our apartment. No matter what it was, it worked out so well! The girls and I just kind of went with the flow of things, had our ups and downs, but mainly ups. In the last week I’ve been getting so anxious to get home though, and I think that’s a mixture of me missing everyone like crazy since I’ve been gone for 4 months, and the fact that it’s the Christmas season. It doesn’t really feel like Christmas time unless I’m with my family! Trevor actually said something about this on skype earlier today. He said that he didn’t really feel like it was almost Christmas because I wasn’t home. I completely agree with him… and that only adds to my excitement that I will be home at this time next week! So I’m definitely ready to be back in the U.S….especially Idaho, and be with my family and friends enjoying the season and hopefully the snow!!!!

That’s everything for now. Hopefully I’ll get to write more later in the craziness of finals and farewells!

Ciao Ciao e molto baci!