I was a bit egotistical today. I started reading some of my blog entries from random months last year and they brought back a lot of thoughts and memories that I had hastily abandoned upon leaving Vancouver. I guess that's one of the good things about having an imperfect memory--reading things you took painstaking hours to write is kind of like seeing it all for the first time, especially after you have distanced yourself geographically and temporally. Now I know what I'll do when I'm bored and feeling nostalgic!
I am one week away from my last day in Florence and I must admit that I am ready to leave and have been for a couple of weeks now. Four months is a long time to spend in one place when you have no intention of permanence. Perhaps if I had found a part-time job here during my stay and met more locals things would have been different; but attending a school where you have to say goodbye to your friends almost as quickly as you've found them takes a toll on you and weakens the bond you share with a city--especially this city, which I find embraces you more fully when you're exploring it with someone else.
I love Florence for its beauty and charm and I'm happy I made the decision to learn Italian here. I wander the streets without needing a map and I have been speaking only Italian (or at least 99%) throughout my last month here. But at the end of the day, Florence, like Venice, is a town for tourists, and if you did not have your heart set on learning Italian and the stubbornness to see it through, you would easily breeze through your stay here speaking only English; such is the case of so many other students I have met, who have instead of improving their Italian, perfected their English.
I have my favourite haunts and neighbourhoods here and I have acclimatized myself to the culture and local habits (for the most part). I will always be happy to return. But right now, I am ready to start something new.
Today's word of the day is cambiare, "to change".
No comments:
Post a Comment