Firenze! La bellissima città: The last 3 months all summed up...

As we already know, I am the worst person to be keeping a blog -- which is why I'm summing up the past three months in one post.

So...I last left off mentioning that I had begun classes and was enjoying all of my free time to explore the city. It sure was a relaxing semester. All of my classes were very interesting though and I feel like I learned a lot about subjects that I never would've been interested in, such as Renaissance art, philosophy, Italian history and government, etc. And to top it all off, I'm very satisfied with my level of Italian at this point; my goal in studying abroad was to come back fluent in Italian. I've really enjoyed my time in Florence, especially thanks to all of the great friends that I've made. Today, I left Florence for good and said goodbye to a lot of people who have done a lot for me, including my host mom, Anna, and her daughter, Claudia. It was very sad saying goodbye to Anna since we've gotten very close over the past few months, almost as if she were my grandmother. She even told me that I felt like a son to her -- that meant a lot to me. But fortunately, next time I return to Florence I'll have someone to visit and a place to stay.

In the past three months I've also traveled a lot, around Europe and around Italy. The weekend after Paris (which was amazing and beautiful, but ridiculously expensive) we went to Venice for the opening of Carnival. The costumes were so creative and original and Venice is just awesome. We also spent a few days in Holland (with my uncle, aunt, and cousin) where we road bikes through the countryside. Then, we made our way over to London for three days. London wasn't my favorite place...it kind of felt like another version of America. But then we hopped on over to Dublin, where everything's extra green and little old men that look like Leprechauns roam the streets. While in Dublin, we also visit the surrounding countryside...some of the most beautiful nature that I've seen since Alaska! I loved it! And the Irish are very friendly (which was a nice break from the rude Florentines). The next weekend, we went on a school-organized trip to Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet) and the Garda Lake, and then spent a day hiking the Alps. For our next "vacation" we went to Naples, Capri, and Pompeii where we saw a whole different side of Italy. And the pizza in Napoli was soooo good! For Easter weekend I went to visit my cousin Nadine who was studying abroad in Nice, France. Nice is a classy beach city along the Mediterranean where the water is the clear turquoise...we had a really good time there. Our second to last destination was Barcelona, where I fell in love with just about everything! Finally, we took a day trip to the Cinque Terre where we kayaked, hiked, and road trains between the five finger towns. That was my last trip of the semester, but not my last trip in Europe. I spent the last two weeks (after finishing school on May 13th) in Granada, Spain and Faro and Lagos, Portugal. I'm just in love with Spain right now...hopefully I'll live there some day. Portugal, on the other hand, is a little secret getaway in Europe with not much to it but some beautiful beaches. We spent a week in Lagos (on the Atlantic Ocean) where the water is translucent green -- definitely the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. It felt like a paradise. Anyways, now I'm done vacationing. I'm "stationed" in Malta doing research right now until I hop over to Sardinia on June 10th.

It's sad to think that my semester abroad is already over...it seems like a just got to Florence yesterday. I'm gonna miss that city (a little, haha) even though several things about it thoroughly annoyed me on a day to day basis. Ciao, Firenze!