Thursday, April 7, 2011

Spring Fever

I would love to break this up into a bunch of different smaller posts, but it is 11:15pm, and I need to be up at 5:30am tomorrow, so here we go. I apologize in advance for the jumbled topics. I'll break them up somehow.

Thoughts from il Giardino di Boboli
Somedays, I wake up and it hits me all over again. I'm in Italy?! How long do I have left? How much money do have left? Is this really everything I have been hoping, waiting, saving, working for? Yes. It is. Its all that and more. I know I will have horrible culture shock when I get back because I can't even imagine the life I used to live. I drive a car? There's a beach close to my house? I have a dog?

I like this lifestyle I live. I like walking to lunch, a fresh lunch made from the freshest ingredients. I like walking to the food store at 7pm for ingredients to make dinner within the hour. I love speaking the beautiful Italian language to locals. I love browsing through vintage jewelry. I love laying in the Boboli Gardens, or in any park that is, to read and write and hang out with friends. I love walking to class and being distracted by cappuccinos and clothes. I love rewarding myself with a gelato after class. I love getting dressed everyday (they really get dressed dressed here, which I try to do a few times a week). I love my daily life. I love being here. When I... I don't even want to say the words... come home (I say cringing) I need to ensure that I take aspects from this daily lifestyle and incorporate it into my life at home.

Other thoughts from the Garden
I love how this is an option. Between classes, picking up a delicious chicken dish with sun-dried tomatoes and potatoes in a citrus sauce to sit up against a tree in a garden with Florence's skyline before me. To my left, there's Italian kids chilling. To my right, there is an old American couple kissing. What more can I ask for. Such a beautiful moment.

When I experience moments like this, in places I love, I wish that I could share this with people I love. I could picture my grandparents and I relaxing in this park. I could picture my friends hitting a field hockey ball around. I could picture my dog and I playing in the grass or playing catch...

Thoughts from the streets
Wow. Just bumped into someone who plays field hockey. I actually played against her friends last season. "Go Field Hockey"
Lesson reminded of? This world really is small. I also bumped into someone I went to middle school with in a bookstore here. She's also studying abroad. Small, Small world.

Thoughts after dinner
Always go out of your way to make someone else smile, even a stranger a day. I vowed to help a tourist with directions each day. Today that came easy, because someone came up and asked. I was thinking of just approaching lost tourists.

Anyway, I was on my way home from dinner and saw a few guys running. Two small keys jumped out of one of the guys pockets. I chased them down the street (they couldn't hear my 'Scusa' because of their iPods). I have never seen such a big smile when I handed him the keys. It made me smile. It was also a good way to work of the bread I had with my dinner.

Thoughts from Piazza Repubblica
I know this is typical 20 something year old female lingo, but right now, that's where I'm at, and I have to say, I'm love it.

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