T Minus 10 Days Til Take Off

I am currently sitting sweating in a heat wave at Stanford, the weather proving that despite Labor Day having come and gone, summer isn't over yet. In the background my tv is set to raitalia (by the way, my spell check wants to make that "genitalia"), the biggest channel on Italian TV, as I take the lazy approach to reviewing my somewhat rusty Italian skills. With ten days left till I board a plane to cross the Atlantic, I'm only barely coming to terms with the idea that for the next three months I won't speak any English, unless I'm speaking with a non-Italian speaker such as my mom. Or you guys. Kind of intimidating, but also pretty exciting. Fingers crossed, I'll come home mostly fluent. Or at least better than my spanish abilities ever turned out. I'm also coming to terms with the idea that I won't see any of my friends or family for three to four months. And that in two weeks I'll have homework again. Definitely not ready for that one yet.

But very much excited. My plans are to take off from San Diego early on the morning of the 15th. Well actually, first I have to fly home again after this week long visit to see all the Stanfordians I will be missing during this jaunt away from the Farm. Anyways, I fly for quite a few hours on the 15th and 16th to arrive in Genoa and visit Alii and her friends and family for a few days, get used to the time change, and maybe figure out the whole cell phone situation before boarding a train on the 18th and heading over to Florence, where at sometime between 5 and 6 pm I will meet the family that I will live with for the next three months. Very Important. Here's hoping they'll be awesome. And strangely enough, I'm kind of hoping that I live far away from the Stanford Center - I love seeing cities by walking, and the idea of walking through Florence everday on my way to class seems appealing. We'll see if its still appealing after a month of that walk, but who knows - it definitely could be.

Not too much left to do to prepare for Florence besides that whole packing thing. I have an international student ID card, I've signed up for some classes, but we'll see which ones I end up keeping. I have some idea of weekend trips I'd like to do while there - visit Chris studying in Berlin and Dana studying in Paris, take up Harriet's offer to let me stay at her house in London, visit the festival of chocolate in Umbria (central Italy), and an amazing Thanksgiving trip planned with Andrew to go to Tunisia and Morocco which I can hardly wait for. And then there's also the trip that the program all goes on together - no idea where or when, but they're supposed to be pretty good. So all in all, a packed quarter already. Looking forward to it!!