Ciao Roma!

This is it. This is my last day of school, my final exam, the end of what's been an almost unexplainable 5 weeks in Rome. Tonight Francesca and I are meeting Travis and Jordan at the train station and leaving for Munich. We'll take the night train and stay in Munich for 3 days, then take another night train to Paris and stay there for 3 days, and then have one final night in Roma before flying back to the United States. There's a lot that's going to be going on in the next 9 days and I doubt I'll be able to write again. I mean it is Roma: The Blog, not Roma, Munich, and Paris: The Blog. That would just be too much. Still there are a lot of final thoughts I wanted to...type down before I left.

It's a weird feeling right now. On one hand I'm so sad to be leaving Rome. It's an amazing place and I still feel like I haven't done nearly as much as I wanted, but am happy with what I did. I am going to miss the people I've become so close with. I'm going to miss the lifestyle, the food, my apartment, ..........basically living in Rome. It's not an experience I'd ever thought I'd get and one that went way too fast. I think I've learned SO much in this extremely short amount of time. Not just about ancient rome, etruscans, and Italian (but I definitely have learned a lot there), but about culture, about people, about myself, and about life. It all sounds kind of silly if you've never done study abroad or something like it, but if you have it's easy to understand. To put yourself out of your comfort zone and into another world is, um, different for everyone I guess. For me it was scary, it was definitely not easy, and there were times when I wasn't exactly sure what I had gotten myself into. Those were the times I feel like I learned so much about myself, about who I was and how I want to be. At the same time, however, it was amazing, fun, gratifying, and unexplainably good. The adventures I went on, the people I met, the places and things I saw I would never trade for anything. I learned even more about people, I experienced and saw things first hand I'd only ever read about. I really like to think I lived here to the fullest and exactly how I wanted to. It's important to learn from everything whether good or bad, it's important to take it all in. This whole experience only makes me want to travel more, to see more, and to do more. I want to go beyond the tourist experience and really go out and experience other cultures. It opens your eyes to so many things and I hope everyone gets to travel in some way in their lifetime. It's so important, and I really realize that now. My mom and dad always used to tell my sister and I that we had to travel now while we were young and go out and do life. They were so right. It's amazing how wise your parents can be hahahahahaha. This was such a short amount of time and I can only imagine how much more you'd get out of it for longer. I guess it's hard for me to put down exactly how this trip was for me, or describe it in a way that justifies it. I just keep repeating vague statements that leave things more confusing than they originally were. If this leaves you feeling cheated out of a good blog I would always love to talk about it, and could probably do a better job in non virtual life.

As for leaving. It's odd. I still have 9 days of more of a vacation. No more studying just going out and enjoying everything!! I am too excited to do that to really take in that it's over. I'm sure that last day in Rome it will hit me, but as for now I'm so excited! I know it's going to go even faster than these 5 weeks did. Don't get me wrong about going home either! There are a million things that I miss from home. It's really made me appreciate what I do have at home. I miss not having to pay to go to the bathroom, I miss stores being open all night, I miss air conditioning (although I really can't talk because we don't have it at home, but just in the general sense), I miss all kinds of different foods, I miss dryers, and mostly I miss people. I miss my family and my friends so much. It's nice to know that that is what I'm going back to and makes leaving a lot easier. I'm pretty sure this whole blog is the definition of a bittersweet end hahaha. For everyone who read this, or just looked at the pictures, or maybe just clicked on it thank you for reading. For everyone who's supported me and helped me thank you so much. Hahaha I had to throw those in there even if it sounded too deep and weird for me. It needed to be done.

I guess that's it. I'm not sure how to end this. Hopefully soon there will be other blogs or continuations in other travels. For now.

Arrivederci Roma!