Leaving on a jet plane...

I wrote the following entry on August 8th, 2009, while waiting for my flight to take off from Rome to New York:

It’s 1:44 pm, and I’m on the plane that will take me home. After five weeks here, being home now doesn’t seem real, but neither does living in Italy. Maybe one day it will hit me, but right now I’m still in travel mode, trying to get from point A to point B with the least amount of stress.

I’m having a difficult time making sense of my feelings, though I’m really excited to go home. I miss my family and friends more than ever before, despite longer periods of being apart before. I think it’s because I have been alone here, even though I’ve been surrounded by great people throughout my whole stay. I’ve been saying for weeks that I’m not homesick, that I simply wish my family and friends could be here with me to see and experience everything that I have, especially my parents.

Now I’m tearing up, and the 12 year old girl sitting next to me is staring. Awesome.

I’ve really loved meeting a lot of the people here, and learned more about interacting with new people with different backgrounds. Before this trip I had exactly one friend from the Midwest, now I have seven times that, and a strong desire to visit Wisconsin.

Not all of the people that I have met have been my favorite, but I’ve learned more about people with every intercepted eye roll, whine and rude comment.

There were nights when all I wanted was a group hug with my best friends, and days where I couldn’t imagine could be more perfect. I did my best to take whatever happened and make the most of it, I was very aware of my limited time in this country.

The end of this trip is the definition of bittersweet. I’ve loved Italy and would love to come back here one day, but I’d like to do it on my own terms. I’d travel with less people (or maybe alone) and give myself more time to breathe and take in everything around me. I’ll look back fondly on the trip, despite its imperfections, ad smile the first time I can say, “Oh yes, when I lived in Italy…”

In the airport, Khadijah (a fellow classmate at JCU and NU) and I got chatted up by woman from Long Island on her way back from a Mediterranean cruise. She was in awe of our experiences both in and out of the classroom in Italy. It was sort of nice to be envied, but also really made me appreciate this trip that much more.

I’m looking forward to hanging and have a working iPhone, and I’m psyched for the hummus and avocados I had my parents stock up on. I’ll head to Boston next week to see my friends and my cousin, and have a few days of birthday activities. I anticipate my birthday will be even more fun after being away for so long. I’m looking forward to a full month without responsibilities before heading back to classes. It will be my longest break from both school and work since I started working at Adventureland amusement park when I was 15. I’m ready to sit in my house, blast the A/C and watch reality TV marathons.

I know I’ll miss Italy, I already do (and I haven’t even left)! Eight of the girls had dinner in the piazza outside of the Pantheon last night. It’s so beautiful lit up at night, I got sentimental about leaving and teared up. I’ll miss all of the monuments, and the history I know because of my class. It will be foreign not to work so hard to have people understand me, and to have ugly US dollars back in my wallet instead of colorful euros. I’ll miss the Italians’ love of crappy 80s music, and seeing all of the colorful Vespas parked in long rows.

I should say I won’t miss the pushy Italian men and standoffish women, but their behavior can be endearing when you learn to attribute it to cultural differences instead of rudeness. The Italians are vicious, crazy drivers, but as long as they don’t hit you, it’s sort of amusing to watch the madness unfold.

I’ll miss the pasta, and the gelato and the best bread I’ve ever had. I’m sure I’ll always crave Italian food, though all I wanted while I was here was the variety of foods in America.

My plane just started taxiing, and I still haven’t mentally accepted that this is really it. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it I suppose.

Arrivederci Italia! Mi piace tu.

Lacking in the update department....

Sorry for not updating this week, I've been super busy with school work. I have a presentation tomorrow and a paper due Friday, in addition to two finals. Then I fly home on Saturday.

Check back for updates on what I've been up to early next week (or later this week if I start procrastinating). My sincere apologies for the delay, and I look forward to seeing you all soon. :-)