A Melancholic Sigh

*sigh*

Like sand slipping through your fingers. Like the imminent chill at the tail of a waning sunset. Or like trying to engineer ways to keep a snowball from melting before your sister gets home from the mall so vengeance is had for when she wiped mayonnaise in your ear while you were sleeping. I fly home this Tuesday, and its a surreal emotion approaching the end of this year. I've been told that adjusting to life back home is much more difficult than adjusting to life abroad - like George Bailey coming home to Pottersville or Frodo to the Shire. The question I've asked myself repeatedly is how do I take this experience home with me? And I have no answer, but I know that this experience has changed me dramatically.

These last few weeks have been filled by balancing studies and goodbyes. My school gives no homework, tests or papers until the final oral exam, which is worth 100% of the grade, so the finals require an incredible amount of preparation. I finished my last final today though! In History of Medieval Philosophy. It went well, and its a good feeling to be done with school. It's just another natural end that marks my coming home though. Most of those with whom I studied and hung out with for the year have already left for home, wherever home is, which softens the blow. But every month I spend here, I get more and more acclamated with the culture. Only in the past few weeks have I become actually comfortable with the language. I think I can finally consider myself fluent. And now I leave! Italian culture is just so different from American too. We'll see how I can assimilate back into the lifestyle.

Anyways, I'm spending my last weekend in Sicily in a city called Catania. It's a gorgeous beach town on the coast of the Mediterranean. I plan on chilling and walking the shoreline, soaking up the final rays of European lifestyle. Life gets slower and more relaxed the further south you go. Sicily is also the home of the Italian mafia, so we'll see how that goes.

It's amazing how it's all wrapping up, but I can't wait to see everyone. I'd also ask everyone to keep my grandma in your prayers - she suffered a major stroke yesterday. The prognosis was optomistic, but we are still waiting for official news. I hope all is well with everyone, and I'm home on Tuesday, so holla back yo!