Catch Up!

 

Hey Blog People,

Soooooo it's been a minute :) (well more like a month). But I am here to give a recap and start the weekly routine up again. There are three big things that I need to cover, and though there won't be as much detail, you will get the general information about each time. These times are finals, Christmas Break, and coming back. 

Finals

    My finals were crazy. I was so stressed because had three tests all in one day. This was good because then all my finals were done. This was bad because all my language finals were in one day. I think I was very stressed because our grade was mostly made up of the result of our final. I had to prepare for a long paper test for grammar, covering basics that we learned at the beginning of the year to past tense verb conjugations. For Phonetics, we had a two-part test. The first part was a big spelling test, along with some sentences we had to write down. The second part was part of our oral exam, combined with conversation, where our Phonetics teacher would listen to the way we pronounced our words while talking to our conversation teacher. Our Conversation final was just an oral test. We had to talk about three categories: a monologue, dialogue, and description. We came prepared in one of the categories with our partner for the test, and were were given topics for each of the categories. Then we had to respond to the random questions our teacher asked. This final gave us the most stress, I'm not going to lie. My partner Emily and I were the second group to go (by my choice), so we didn't have a lot of people to ask how it was going to go. 

    On the day of finals, I was a nervous wreck. I took a picture before taking my grammar final and I look petrified. See? But as soon as that was done, and by the end of the day, I was feeling much better. Then I could spend the whole next day packing to go home. I got my grades back over break, and I am very pleased with how I did. I think the grammar final showed an accurate representation of what I know. Obviously not perfect, but I tried and I am happy with how I did. I only know my final letter grade for my other classes, but I'm happy with that too. 

I packed up on Tuesday, the day after finals, and just took a chill day to prepare for a busy travel day. I had to say goodbye to some people who weren't coming back the following quarter, and that was very sad. I already miss them. 

Christmas Break

    I got the same flight as two of my friends here, Anna and Sarah. We left around 5 in the morning and took a taxi to the airport. I felt more at peace traveling with people than traveling on my own. I am normally an anxious traveler, but I was not as anxious this time. We took a flight from Florence to Amsterdam, and then we split. I had about 4 hours to spend in the airport, so I got to see the girls off as they flew to Atlanta. Then I flew the 9 hours back to Chicago, where I was met by my best friend Emma and my mom. I gave them such big hugs when I saw them. 

    It was really weird to be back in the US after being in Italy for 3 months. Italy felt like a fever dream, and then being home felt like a fever dream. It was like I never left, but I know I did. And everything was the same, yet I was so glad to be back. And I had a new appreciation for the little things, like driving and gas stations and a fridge with lots of food to eat that wasn't too far. 

    As soon as I got home, it was off to the races. I directly went to my sibling's Christmas play. The next day I went to a Christmas concert and the day after I went to an event my friend was organizing. And I barely stopped the whole break. It felt so good to see people, and a few of them even cried. It was good to share a little bit of my experience and see that people at home do care about me and my well-being while I am across the world. I met with tons of friends for coffee to catch up about life. I went to my grandma's house and spent time with my cousins. I love that time so much. We just hang out and eat good food and sleep and dance around and it's so so FUN! One of my friends from college came for a day and slept over so that she could see me. That was even more fun! I felt so special and it was so good to see her after 3 months! (Love you Mal <3) I spent new years with some friends. I watched movies with my family. I ran errands. I didn't rest a lot, but it was a very good break. The 3 weeks went by really fast. And then it was time for me to leave. 

    Here are some pictures from Christmas Break!

The siblings reunited on day 1

Making gnocchi for my fam and friends

Ice cream run with fun headbands! ft. Mal

Got to get Mal her cheese ;)

The Britain Fam

Cousins

COFFEE

me and mini me :)

my precious baby, forever and ever, the love of my life 

Music with mom and dad for church

My ornament from my great aunt

The Flanagan fam from a fun angle

My NYE pals

Don't ask. I tried, they just ruined it. 

FI! 

View from home

Last meal! (Don't judge. I asked for it.)

Coming Back

    Coming back has been kinda difficult, especially knowing I won't be back in the U.S. for about 5 months. I don't like saying goodbye to people (I mean, who does), but saying goodbye to my cousins, grandparents, and siblings is so hard. I flew out of Chicago in the afternoon and was seen off by my parents. I cried a lot. I'm not even gonna lie about it. The security guy at the airport asked me if I was ok.

View from O'hare

    My flight went from Chicago to Paris. I have not had any actual BAD flight up until now, but this flight was not good. You know how there are like bathrooms and that wall in the middle of big planes. I was window side of the plane, with my back up against the wall (there was a little space to lean back), with NO window. Plus a big French man was sleeping next to me, snoring sometimes, taking up the armrest. It was not enjoyable, and I didn't sleep at all. I watched two movies, listened to music, and read a bit. I really wanted to sleep, it just wasn't happening. Anyway, I landed in Paris and quickly got through the airport to make it to my layover. Turns out I had a little time, but not a lot. I met Anna and Sarah again because we were also on the same flight back to Florence. Great minds think alike. We flew back to Florence, and it was THERE where I nodded in and out of sleep (UGH!). We landed in Florence around noon and got back to Villa around 1 pm.

    Jet lag this time around has been HORRIBLE. I don't know why, but I have had the hardest time readjusting to the time and schedule here. I slept for 15 hours one night, and that time doesn't include my 2 naps. One night I fell asleep without getting ready for bed at all! I just knocked out for a long time. I've never done that and I don't know if I want to do it again. It felt very weird. Then the days of this week were just really hard. I don't want to blame my very rough week on this, but it may be a major player. I also got sick (again) so trying to recover and get back into the rhythm of it all has been hard. I've heard that it takes a day of recovery for every hour of the time difference, so hopefully by this weekend I will be doing ok. This week just seems to be very long.

    Anyway, we are getting back into the swing of things. Classes have started, homework has been assigned, responsibilities are picking up right where they left off, and trips are starting to be talked about. We had a welcome-back party this past Wednesday where we played some interactive games and danced and ate some snacks. I had a great time and I think a lot of other people did too. We have some new students who are adjusting to the time and the way things are done here. They are nice, at least the ones I have talked to so far. I'm glad to have them, and I'm very happy that I am not in the transition process again. I miss the people that haven't come back this quarter. The school has a different vibe, which is to be expected with a new group of people, and that will just take some time to adjust to. But it will all be ok and I'm looking forward to whatever will happen this semester. We will do some traveling hopefully, with and without the school. 

So thanks for waiting patiently for this little update. I can't wait to write about all that I am experiencing here in the months to come. 

Ciao,

                Ellie