Lucky to Have Been Where I Have Been

Things I'll Miss About Italy
1. The Food! Not only is it absolutely delicious but I have my own personal cook here. It's back to college, meaning cereal and frozen vegetables. What will I do without my nightly bowl of pasta?
2. Jet setting on the weekends. Many of you may recall that I went out of town every other weekend last winter semester, I may need that to happen again to avoid withdrawals.
3. Public Transportation. We have calculated that at least 1/4 of our time here has been spent figuring out, waiting for, or taking public transportation. I hated it at first, but it's awesome and it helped me really get to know this place and the people.
4. Fake school. It's back to 8 hour days in the library and projects that take over my life.
5. The Campo/Dante Alighieri common room. What will I do without my hang outs? At any time I could go to either one of these places and find at least one friend to play with.
6. Parco. Paola and Marco just starting being too much to say so we switched to a combined name. As much as they are absolutely crazy 70% of the time(I got in trouble for brushing my teeth after midnight last night) they really are awesome and hilarious.
7. Carpe Diem. I feel like here I am constantly able to feel okay about doing anything because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Buy boots, they're made in Italy-this would actually go under the category of Scarpe Diem, Scarpe means shoe and that is the name of my favorite shoe store here. Eat excessive amounts of gelato, pastries, and pasta. Travel all over the place. Spend my life savings. It was worth it.
8. A small town I actually like. I feel that never again will I live in a small town that I love. For some reason small town Italy is just infinitely better than small town America. I love that I can easily walk the whole city in 30 minutes and I know shop owners etc....so cute.
9. Italian pride. These people are completely obsessed with their country, their city, their contrada, and their soccer team. Every time I come back from a trip Marco quizzes me on if I liked said place better than Siena. The correct answer to this is NO! They have so much pride it is ridiculous. See next posts for contrada and soccer team info.
10. The buildings and countryside. I'm sure I'll never live anywhere this beautiful again.


Lucky to be Coming Home Again
In an attempt to make myself feel better about coming home I also compiled this simple list of things I used to take for granted that will be oh so good to come home to.
1. Peanut Butter; the jar that Mom sent with me was gone about 6 weeks ago. Mexican food, Chinese food, In N Out, Seedless grapes
2. Pigeon free public areas.
3. Washer, dryer, and refrigerator-we have a washer and a refrigerator but they are not used the same.
4. English
5. My bed
6. Technology: Internet/T.V./Cell phone
7. Free and plentiful public restrooms complete with toilet paper.
8. Talking during dinner
9. Boys. I can hardly remember how to interact with American males.
10. My family and friends