Being Reminded.

While I was still in Florence I journaled a few pages of things that I don't want to ever forget.

Mostly small things.

Rereading them, even now, after less than 3 weeks of being back, made my ears tear up, and filled my heart with joy. I am so thankful for the daily life I had in Italy.

Everyone keeps asking me how it's been to be back.

They ask if it's hard.

To be honest, it has not been hard.

And I see that as a complete blessing.

Adjusting to living in Italy was not difficult for me for many reasons.

First and foremost, I had an incredible community, from the very first days when I met Kate and Cara.

Community was what I knew I was going to miss the most if anything while being abroad, and God provided it for me, so I was never lonely.

It was also easier to adjust to living in Italy because I love exploring, 

and I had the opportunity to explore incredible places 

all over Europe every day with other people who shared that same passion.

Adjusting back to living in the States has not been hard because I came off of getting to travel with my family and spend quality time with them.

I'm back in Pullman where my second family is.

I kept up with relationships while I was abroad so I don't feel an overwhelming sense of needing to play catch up with people.

I'm sure in the next few weeks there will be things that make me miss Italy, and it won't be necessarily as easy as it is now.

The ring of a bike bell, seeing flowers on window sills, being passed by a Fiat.

But I think, and I'm hoping, that those things will just remind me of what an incredible time I had, and how blessed I am.

I'm hoping those things will help me to not forget.

I will see them as God reminding me.

And I'm thankful for that.

"Today I am back on American soil. I feel so unbelievably blessed with the people God has put in my life, and the places he has taken me these last 5 months in Europe. He gave me the fantastic ISA staff to take care of me, wonderful roommates, a home church in Florence, an English bible study, adventurous and hilarious friends, connections to an Italian family that felt like my own, a summer staff friend living down the street, the Wilbanks to take me in for a week when I was homeless, a taste of 9 different countries (literally), wonderful airbnb hosts during my time in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, time with the Laureanos in England, the experience of meeting distant relatives in England and Germany, and being able to travel the last few weeks with my best friends (mom, dad, and sis). God blew every expectation I had, and I am so very thankful."

Adjusting Being Back.

I stayed with family friends for a day before my family got back from Rome. It was funny what was throwing me off, and what I started getting excited about. 

I went to look for the flush on the toilet and couldn't figure it out right away.
Hidden on the side. What is that?

I went to plug in my phone (p.s. it's weird having a phone that people expect me to look at more than once a day) and was startled that for the first time in 5 months I didn't need an adapter.

Cathy asked me what I wanted for lunch,
I asked her if she had ice cubes. And if I could have water. 
I saw her open a drawer and saw the corner of a Fritos bag.
I asked if I could have those, and she let me finish the bag.
I asked if she had peanut butter, she said of course. 
She made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
These may seem like very standard items, but my face was filled with an excitement you would compare to a kid being told they're going to Disneyland.
Water with ice.
Fritos.
PBJ.
I've always been pretty easy to please, but now it's just ridiculous.

Back in Tri-Cities, the entertaining/confused Laurel continued.

We could start with my first trip out in public. At Best Buy I tried to pay the cashier with euros, asked her if she needed my zip code in front of my phone number (area code #notthesame), and said "Ciao" to the greeter as I left.

I can finally understand what people are saying around me. That was a strange realization.

I still find myself constantly making sure my bag is zipped up, putting a leg through the strap when it's on the floor, and never leaving it somewhere even if it's for 5 minutes. I never had a bad theft experience while I was abroad, but those habits have followed me back to the states and I feel like a paranoid freak.

I don't know how to write the date anymore. In Europe it's day/month/year, and over here it's month/day/year. Now I just write the whole thing out in frustration. July Seventeenth Two Thousand and Thirteen #justkidding #butseriously #ihaveissues

What has been nice: 

Not converting euros to dollars in my head, 

Not calculating a 9 hour time difference, 

Water is free at restaurants,

Public bathrooms are free,

Having a microwave (Boiling a pot of water and putting a skillet 

with leftovers on top never seemed to do the trick),

measuring utensils (I am the queen of estimation now, however),

coffee creamer (I do like my coffee stronger now though because of Europe),
and countless other things.
All small.

Poorly Anticipating.

It is crazy 5 months later thinking about what my concerns 

were before I came here to Italy.

I wasn't sure how I would survive without ice cube trays 

[which are readily available at the dollar store here]

I tried to get used to the carbonated water before I came because I heard natural water was hard to find 

[they offer it first thing at every restaurant]

I wasn't sure how I would possibly fit 5 months of stuff 

in one suitcase and a backpack 

[now I'm happily filling a backpack for 2 months 

of backpacking after school gets out]

I thought I would have a difficult time staying in touch with friends and family because internet was so here and there in Europe.

[I'm on facebook every day, and skype people weekly]

I thought our apartment being on the first floor meant literally right on the street, and wondered how I would dry clothes on the clothesline without them getting stolen.
[All the shops in Italy are on the street. 
First floor means one flight of stairs up]
I thought it would be difficult to have 3 people living in one room.
It wasn't. Thank goodness my roommates thought the sleeptalking was entertaining.
I thought I would get to hear awesome Italian music playing in stores.
They almost exclusively play American music. Particularly Macklemore. 
Woop woop!
I thought that every day would be a fashion show. I didn't bring any graphic tees because I heard you stand out too much wearing them.
There are so many tourists it doesn't matter. The Italians won't notice your bro tank because there will always be a worse dressed American dad somewhere in the vicinity. Superman t-shirt, socks and sandals, etc.
I thought everyone knew Washington was a state.
Unfortunately no.
I thought I would fall in love with an Italian man.
They're all mama's boys.

Failing.

Remember when I was yelling "tonto" at the waiter to get the check instead of "conto"? Tonto means stupid fool. I was literally yelling at the man waving my arm calling him a stupid fool.

Remember that one time I asked how old a banana was instead of how much it cost?

Remember that one time I bought hair conditioner thinking it was lotion and proceeded to condition my legs for 2 months?

Remember when I asked all the Italians in the afternoon if they loved having siesta the first two weeks of living in florence? [It's definitely a Spanish thing.]

Remember that one time I attempted to hail a bus from the side of a random side street because I heard that's what you do in Italy? [The hailing is to be done from a designated bus stop.]

Remember that one time I pulled the string next to the toilet to flush and set off an alarm in the entire restaurant?

Skype.

Bad hair day....

Flash Mob dance/song all of the sudden on my computer screen.

Well done Ellensburg.

No words to describe this. Hahaha.

High Fives. Skype Style :)

Thank you Tristan...

Twin Backgrounds :)

Itty Bitty Caroline :)

Remember that one time the camera awkwardly zoomed in on different people?

Me too. 

haha :)

#surprise

Every angle from the boy who can't sit still....haha

That escalated quickly

Thank you everyone who kept in touch!

I love you!!! :)

TTFN.

It's funny how, in this journey of life, even though we may begin at different times and places, our paths cross with others so that we may share our love, compassion, observations, and hope. If someone comes into your life and becomes a part of you, but for some reason they couldn't stay, don't cry too much...just be glad that your paths crossed and somehow they made you happy even for a while. This is a design of God that I appreciate and cherish. 

-Steve Maraboli

We dressed up nice,
went out to dinner,
reminisced of the good times,
wept in front of Santa Croce,
gathered ourselves together
and went to the secret bakery.
We laughed.
We cried.
We danced.
And had a really really really good time.

I cherish all of the people I met this semester and am so glad I have excuses to travel America to go visit them now. Cheers to that :)

Family Club.

I want to talk about my time with Rosanna and Silvia.
I feel so blessed to have them in my life.
They are the Italian family I was paired with this semester.
We could not have been a better match.
Every time my friends ask me how dinner was with them,
I tell them I got a fantastic ab workout from laughing, as always.
We have the same sense of humor, 
so that helps balance any frustration from the language barrier.
This is a post to summarize some of our time together this semester.

Welcome Dinner:  Meeting Rosanna and hearing her passion for art was incredible. She is studying to become a tour guide of the city. I immediately knew she was layed back, and and just overall a very unique and cool person who appreciates life. The language barrier was larger than I expected. I learned quickly to not use phrases such as "double check" because it would only lead to ten minutes of playing charades trying to define it. She drew me a detailed map of how to get to her house the next week. That's going in the scrapbook :)

Tortellini Soup: When I described to Rosanna what to bring for making tortellini soup she was perplexed. I had all the spices and the chicken broth, so I told her to buy zucchini and tortellini. "That's all? What a strange soup." From then on she referred to my soup as "Laurel's strange soup" haha. Luckily they loved the "strange soup". We had the typical fruit after our meal. No wonder I rarely see overweight Italians. They eat bananas for desert haha. Meeting Silvia this time was exciting. She reminds me of my sister so much. She is 15. She is an Italian version of my sister, so it is refreshing to be around her when I get slightly homesick. I love watching the mother/daughter relationship with these two. They love each other very much. Rosanna told me about good bakeries and places to eat near my apartment. I helped them with their english, and they were so patient in reminding me a thousand times how to say the words "fast" and "near" in Italian. For some reason I kept finding myself needing to use those words and could not remember what they were. They taught me how to properly do the kissing on the cheek greeting/farewell. I straight up asked because I am an awkward human and don't know what to do with my hands during these greetings. Rosanna drove me home and made sound effects as we turned corners. Yes. In that moment I knew we were the perfect match :)

Women's Day: I already made a blog post about his day. Check it out here: http://laurelinflorence.blogspot.it/2013/03/treating-her-like-lady.html

Practicing Numbers: Rosanna took me out to a local pizzeria that was phenomenal. I had the Fiorentina pizza and it was delicious. Afterwards we sat on her couch for an hour or so. Just relaxing and kicking back. We watched my spring break video and she loved the song "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers. I told her that I had just learned numbers in Italian class that day so we went through all of our family members saying the years when they were born to practice. She got a kick out of how young I am compared to her. She told me when she was born and erupted into laughter. This woman's sense of humor. I can't get enough of it. 

How to Hold a Fork: Tonight Rosanna cooked some beef and pasta for us for dinner. Her meals are very simple, but so delicious. While I was cutting my meat, Rosanna asked if how I was holding my fork was how people hold their forks in America. I looked down at my hand and realized I was holding my fork like a 2 year old holds a crayon. All my fingers wrapped around it like a fist. I thought for a second, and said "Actually, I don't think so. I think only I do this haha." We got a huge laugh out of that, and from now on I have held my fork in a more proper and civilized manner to cut my meat. Never thought that would be something I would learn from my Italian family :) I left the apartment  with a pie and a guitar in hand. Silvia doesn't use the guitar so she has let me borrow it for a few weeks. I couldn't be happier!

Ten Terrible Minutes: Tonight was one of my favorite nights. We always laugh a lot when we are all together, but tonight was taken to an entire different level. We cannot remember what was said to set off this erruption of laughter, but it resulted in Rosanna spewing orange fanta across the table. We laughed for a solid ten minutes. Rosanna apologized, but I kept telling her that this was normal at the dinner table with my family. I felt at home. Come le pazzi. That is what we kept saying all night. We are crazy :)

Studying English: Tonight I helped Silvia study her english. It was interesting to see how a book taught english. I've never actually seen one before. Trying to help her was actually a bit difficult. Only because english is a slightly ridiculous language with so many exceptions and phrases that don't really make all that much sense. She kept looking at me saying,"What?!" Then I would think about it and she was right. The phrases really made no sense. I'm so glad english is my first language haha. Tonight Rosanna prepared a simple Sicilian pasta dish for us. Silvia says it's her favorite, but her mom never makes it. Rosanna winked at me and said, "Only when Laurel comes" jokingly. We reminisced about the fun times we've had over the semester. We laughed, as always. We were laughing really hard about how one time while Silvia was saying how much she loved Coca Cola and Rosanna was distracted and only poured her 1/8th of a glass as she was declaring her love for the soda. The phone rang and Rosanna answered it but had to take a few minutes to get herself together haha. I brought them flowers as a goodbye present, and they gave me a bag with a darling purple bow and said it is a gift for Spain. It is a beautiful blue floral scarf. They said every time I wear it I can think of them. I love them so much. Hopefully this isn't the final goodbye. Whether I get to see them when I come back with my family, or whether I come back to Italy in the future, I know I will see them again. They are a huge blessing in my life. They brought me so much joy, brought me into Italian culture, and have become my dear friends. 
I am so thankful for family club, and that FUA provides this for students. It has been an incredible way to be connected to italians and really experience what italian life is like. It also was a great way to improve my italian language and learn things that are specific to Florence verses other cities in Italy.