long over due...

I'm sitting in an internet cafe right now, Drew's here with me, and I was thinking about how soon I will be home. July 16th is the official date and it's approaching faster than seems possible. The last two months have been jam-packed with events (some good, some not-so-great) and so I haven't had that much time for the realization to hit home that I won't be living in Bologna any longer. What have these past two months been so filled with that I didn't have time to update my blog? Mostly studying...weeks and weeks of little excitement. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to be happy to get back into the US university system. I had exams that lasted 3 and 1/2 weeks here. Some of the more dramatic weeks here...I experienced the full spectrum as far as oral exams and professors go. I looked forward to being done with exams only to realize that the friends I'd made here were taking off, one-by-one, and heading back to the states. That didn't stop us from celebrating though:) And then Drew and Scott arrived. We spent an awesome weekend reuniting and catching up with the help of good wine and food. Now, it's Drew and I (and Rory) left in Bologna trying to survive 100degree heat/humidity and no airconditioning. Life is so hard:) We're forced to go to the beach as often as possible. We even resigned ourselves to taking a trip up to Switzerland. It was beautiful, as always, and Agneta was more than wonderful to us. There were great hiking adventures involved, raclette, and, surprisingly enough, a couple of American bands to watch. And the weather was SO much...nicer, more comfortable, and pleasant than Bologna's:) The last couple of days were rather hard in that they were the last couple of days that Rory and I got to spend together. I saw him off on July 4th and it was a bit harder than I expected. A lot harder. But we're already making plans for his first trip to the midwest so hopefully, in this sense, time will go by quickly. Drew's been awesome: putting up with my sad moods, buying chocolate, and giving hugs...she's actually pretty fun some of the time, who would've thought?!?! We grabbed a train the day after Rory left so that we could spend a few more days not worrying about heatstroke:) We found a gorgeous beach in Finale Ligure (on the Italian Riviera) and a really cute hostel that's in a castle. Fun! It's a smaller place and not quite as tourist-y so Drew and I have some nice quiet days of reading on the beach ahead of us. Then it's back to Bologna to pack (I've accumulated SO much!!) and say some last goodbyes.

Have I done what I came to do and learned what I wanted to learn? I think so. Have I done things learned more than I ever expected? Definitely. I wouldn't trade this year for anything; it's been the hardest year of my life (so far, of course) but the most rewarding as well. It's going to be hard to leave this city and country. It's become my home this year and, to tell the truth, I never thought it would feel like that. The italians drive me crazy some of the time but other times their way of doing things, their attitude towards life seems a little more wise. I'm looking forward to coming home, but hoping at the same time that I can find some sort of medium between life in the US and this new life that I've adjusted to. It's an exciting and scary thought.

Thanks to everyone who read this (again, I'm SO sorry I wasn't better at updating it!) and thanks for all the thoughts and love.

I'M COMING HOME!!!! See you all soon!

Love,
Jess

P.S. It's been crazy and cool to be in Italy during the World Cup...they are SO passionate and SO intense. Roads are blocked off to celebrate in and the cheering goes on all night. Drew and I are going to try and catch the final match here in Finale L. We heard last game there were fireworks so it should be fun!