My father wrote me a lovely little email today. I was reading it with a warm fuzzy feeling, giggling at his spelling errors (just kidding! sort of) when I came upon the phrase "..and Mom made homemade macaroni and cheese with ham for dinner..."
Oh dang. Macaroni and cheese. One of my favorites, especially during cold weather like this. It's so warm and filling and savory.. And my pain-in-the-neck father had to go and remind me of it. Just like the time I was feeling content to be in Italy for Christmas, and Andrew mentioned buckeye balls.
Then, I realized I wasn't fighting back tears. Two months ago, even two weeks ago, reading about my family, my favorite foods, the fire in the fireplace, and the homey atmosphere in general would have sent me in search of tissues. In fact, it was just the opposite. I was laughing, happy to be reminded of the wonderful things I'll be coming home to in 6 short months.
The past four months here have been really tough. I've had some of the best times of my life, but also some of the worst. There have been times when I was surrounded by people, but at the same time felt like a complete outsider. I could go from feeling estatic to melancholy to goofy to desperate in thirty seconds flat. All of these things are normal for exchange students, or so I'm told.
But these past two weeks, I've been really content with my life here. I've stopped crossing days off the calendar, stopped wishing I could call my mom and talk for hours, and have woken up, looking foreward to the day. Well,that one's not exactly true. When I wake up, I yell at my alarm clock for waking me up, then go back to sleep for another 15 minutes.
It seems like such a drastic change. In the beginning, not a day went by that I didn't second-guess myself, and wish that the days would fly by. Finally, I'm happy to be here. I like living in Italy, I like my school (for the most part) and I know that my family, my friends, cheddar cheese, and brownies will all still be there when I come back. It's so nice to feel at home here, but I'm afraid it's just another one of the exchange student phases.. I hope it's not!
Oh, and Dad? The first thing I want to do when I get home is go out for Mexican. My flight will probably land sometime in the afternoon, so by the time we get back to Woodbridge, it'll be just about dinner time.. and I won't have had good Mexican for a whole 9 months!
2 comments:
As someone who has studied abroad (I spent a summer in Salamanca, Spain) I understand perfectly what you are going through. As wonderful as it is to experience a different country, it is also incredibly difficult. But you seem to have a fantastic attitude and one day you'll look back on these 9 months as some of the best of your life. Hang in there, and God bless.
Well done, chick :-)
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