Ciao Firenze. Ciao Brown Summit.

The blog is dead. Now it is alive again. For the time being anyway.
I’M HOME! In sweet little Browns Summit, with the garden across the road, Huey barking, and where the wedding planning has reached a new level! It’s been awesome to be home. All the fun little things I have missed like grocery shopping with mom and talking in the yard with Sue, seem extra pleasant after being gone for four months. I would be lying to say that I haven’t missed Bella Rosa though. Bella Rosa, Chicken Man, the Arno runs, Hil’s dancing, family dinners, sorority 24: miss them all.

I was thinking about how I could sum up my time in Italy and I decided that I’m not quite ready. I’m still learning things through my four months abroad, and I think that it will be quite some time before I can process all I saw and learned in Italy. While there are so many things I learned and could write about, I think Hil and my list of things we love about our time abroad is most fitting for my last Italian post. This list was composed while sitting on an airplane returning to the US of A.

Here it goes…

ITALY LOVES:
<3. Snell Up soda- 30 cent well spent
<3. Coffee yogurt with cheap brand flakes
<3. The Dante walking tour: talking Dante
<3. My busted bed with a mind of its own
<3. Iceland Volcano (this is a love/hate relationship)
<3. My little black Italian cell phone
<3. Acting like I know what Italians are saying, when really I’m as lost as can be!
<3. Family dinners. Brie cheese.
<3. Arno Runs
<3. Hearing Venice and Melis through the wall
<3. Hang drying clothes/ the sketchy basement and live in man
<3. The code: no keys!
<3. Sorority 24
<3. Free hostel breakfast
<3. Tutto .99
<3. Florence Gospel Fellowship. Tula.
<3. The many Panini shops: Veggie at Antiquo and walnut sauce at Oil shoppe
<3. “This is why I’m hot”. “OMG”- market men
<3. Walking by the wedding shop on the way to Italian every morning
<3. The 1000 stairs up to Italian at 8am (love/hate)
<3. 30 cent cappuccino machine
<3. Beds pushed together/ nightly prayers
<3. Wearing dresses to the Ital. DR’s office…O’ the lessons I learned!
<3. Piazza della Signoria singing guitar man: U2, Coldplay, and Robbie Williams.
<3. Little writing spot at Piazzale Michelangelo
<3. The cage/ skyping
<3. Coffee packets in the morning
<3. Exploring
<3. Rach and Venice’s artwork
<3. Cooking class girls
<3. Piazza Santa Croce in the spring: all the people and the puppet shows!
<3. Chicken man: “ciao Rebecca”
<3. Andrea’s Cinquecentro (car)
<3. FB stalking/ status updates
<3. Trying to speak Italian
<3. Playing songs on repeat
<3. Bus2Alps trips: Interlaken, Austria, Almalfi Coast.
<3. Stationary stores
<3. The Arno at night
<3. The illegal love lock on Ponte Vecchio…one day
<3. The nightlife around Santa Croce/ REX of course!
<3. Getting chased by Panini man
<3. YouTube with Chiara and Andrea

The list could go on and on! Overall, these past four months have been incredible! I thank God for allowing me to have this experience in Italy and helping me meet Chiara and Andrea. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them”- Romans 8:28. Thanks for reading the blog and all the many prayers. Ciao Florence and study abroad. Ciao Brown Summit and summer ’10.

“When a traveler returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath traveled altogether behind him.” – Francis Bacon
I’ll never leave Italy behind. It will always hold a special place in my heart, and I WILL visit often! Promise ;)