Homestretch

I will be home in a month. This is a thought that occurs to me often. I have mixed emotions about this. Mostly, I am excited to return to real life. I know it sounds a little weird, but I have been living in a dream world where I have no worries, little work, and a lot of fun. I learned more about myself in the last 4 months then I did in years. Obviously, I had the free time to do so.

This weekend I was supposed to go to Ireland. We got all the way to the airport, I was excited to go to a country where they actually speak my native tongue, ENGLISH. I was walking into the check in line, pulling out my passport when Ryan turned around and broke the news, “Our flight was canceled”, I immediately put my passport back into my bag and zipped it up. He said our faces were priceless, and probably the most depressing thing he had ever seen. We waited in line with many other angry passengers to hear our fate. We wondered if we could just hop onto the next flight to anywhere, I was pushing for London. Unfortunately, things don’t work that way. We also wouldn’t be able to get on another flight until Tuesday when we all have school, and I leave for Venice Thursday. DISAPPOINTMENT. At least we get a refund.

We got back on the bus and headed back to the Termini station. I was bummed about the fact that I just spent 20- euro roundtrip to have my heart broken. We debated going to Florence on an overnight train, but I was kind over everything at that point and just decided to head back to Viterbo with half of the group.

I realized something this weekend though, I HAVE CHANGED.

I used to be so afraid of disappointment that I would expect the worst from every situation, just to avoid the awful feeling of nothing working out the exact way that I want it to. This weekend, I knew there was snow in Ireland. I knew that all of Northern Europe was covered with a white blanket, yet I didn’t even think that my flight would be canceled or that I wouldn’t actually ever get there in the year 2010. I was just caught up in thinking of how much fun I was going to have and how much language I was going to understand. And, when I did hear the disappointing news, yes, it did devastate me, but I handled it way better than I expected. I guess you can say that I am no longer a Negative Nancy. (Ignore the ending of my previous blog, it was all in good, positive humor).

So, I spent this weekend not hanging out with McConnelys and O’briens, but cleaning my apartment and working on homework. Yet I am in a good mood. I still thought of all the positives to my misadventure.

LA VITA É BELLA.

See you all in 3 weeks.