home sweet home?
I've been home for a couple days so far...yes, home as in Italy! I have to admit it was never my first choice to spend my time off here, and I'd have much rather gone to Africa with an NGO (through UF), but since that didn't work out and the other option (teaching in Avignon, France with UF) didn't either, I was pretty excited about coming back here, seeing all my friends and family members, enjoying the food and the scenery, and so on.
Now that I've been here for some days I already want to go somewhere else, explore someplace new that I am not familiar with. If that wasn't already enough, I was contacted a week before my flight home that there was a chance for me in Burkina Faso with Handicap International...damnit! I couldn't do much besides banging my head against the wall!
I did have a lot of fun dancing at UC with my colleagues right before leaving Gainesville, and it felt right: it felt like I had finally sort of adjusted to that different life and place...right when it was time to take a break from it and come home! Dang!
The flight home was over 30 hours long all in all, it included switching airports twice and a lot of waiting before embarking! But it was worth the money I saved, so what can I say? London already looked and felt like home compared to the US...and then when we landed in Bergamo it really hit me: I'm back in Italy! The customs checks there did the rest, if I still needed to be reminded of where I was: there was only one stupid guy to check all the passports, and it took forever..."welcome back to myself!" I thought.
Well, what is new with my country? That was the most urgent question I had...the answers I came up with so far: new cell phones, new cars, new roundabouts,...that's about it! What?! Is that it??? Yes, I think so...well, I also noticed people seem to have chilled at driving, thanks to the many points you can lose for every single infraction...oh, the other good thing: many restaurants are now smoke-free! Now, that is good news!
But really, other than that, everything is exactly, ridiculously, sadly, the same...same people, same places, same lives, same everything,..."kind of boring!" I thought.
It's hard to sum up a whole year in Gainesville, and I for sure will not try to...nor will I mention the war, actions speak louder than voices in this case...what am I left with?