Hello hello! : A brief update

Pictures are up on flickr from skiing in the Alps (Dolomite region - Cortina d'Ampezzo) with my family! Spending a week and a half with my family over Christmas break was the happiest period of time for me here in Italy, and the day we went skiing was hands down one one of the best experiences here (besides getting to be with my family in general), point blank period. The only drawback of the day was that my mom, who doesn't ski, wasn't with us for much of the day, as we were on the mountain and she was back in Sacile, albeit quite enjoying herself there. What a beautiful day in the beautifully snowy, surreal world of the Alps.

Sorry for being so out of touch for a long while now, I've been trying to actually be productive and do my reading and prepare applications for internships for next summer. Not productive enough, but I'm trying. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...!"

As you can likely infer from the first paragraph, I had an absolutely fantastic and relaxing week and a half with my family, as they visited me here in Italy from the 22nd to the 31st. I love my family; they are awesome and make me happy. We spent some time here in Ferrara, visited Ravenna, Venice and Florence, and went north to Sacile to visit Gina and go skiing in the Alps (so, so, so gorgeous!). I already miss them, but their presence was a great comfort and a lot of fun, and gave me a boost to try and make it through this last month with a bit of new-found calm and resolve. Hopefully it will last long enough. Did I mention that I had a great time with my family? Because I did and I'm so grateful they came.*

Next week, I'll be heading south to Sicily for a very short visit to Palermo - given time and money restrictions, I decided to cut out all the other pieces of my intended visit to Sicily in favor of practicality and research, and in the hopes that I'll get to come back to Italy sometime in the next few years and climb the volcano, visit relatives, see ruins, etc. then. After that comes 2 exams, my brother Alex's return from Germany to here for a few days before heading home to the States, then another two exams, then a possible long weekend trip to visit Hannah R. in Ireland (since otherwise I wouldn't get to see her for about a year and a half in total and that would be sad), then my last exam, then a bit under a week left in Italy before going home! *takes a deep breath after such a run-on sentence...* I'll be going home February 1st, and will have a week of anticipated relaxing vacation at home before heading north to Middlebury again! In other words, I don't have much time left here, but what I do have is extremely busy between (grr 5) exams, applications and visits. I'm going to try to just focus on one step at a time, because otherwise this all would get overwhelming. There have of course been good things about this abroad experience, but I will be relieved to be home again. Multiplied by a very large number.

Well, back to work with me! Or maybe sleep. PS: Happiness and health to all for the New Year! Cheers!

* reminds me of the finale to a Yeasayer song, "Red Cave":
im so bless'ed to
have spent the time
with my family and the friends
i love in my short life i have met
so many people i deeply care for