I'll Be Home for Christmas

I am utterly mind-blown.  Yet another week has gone by!!  Seriously, where does the time go?  SERIOUSLY!!  But this week has been much more than awesome!  It has been bittersweet to say the least, but also full of wonderful new discoveries and adventures (that are not all Italian might I add!).  So, people, hang tight!  Here is Kelsey's official second to last blog entry (and the last one that I will write abroad too!). 

So.  When we left off, I was jumping in my pants, remember?  Well, I met Mom and Grandma with many happy tears in the airport before I led them (jetlagged - evil me!) for a two hour walk around Florence before we went to our little gallery opening of a sort for our drawings in our art class.  They got to meet many of my friends and my instructors before we lugged my suitcases (yes, plural) across the city.  By the time we got to the hotel, they were so tuckered out that they went to sleep really fast.  The next morning I had two exams that I felt went really well.  Mom and Gma went on a bus tour of the city which they really enjoyed.  I had last minute errands to run and I had to go see my host mom one more time before I left so I went ahead and did that.  That night we went to see the opera, Tosca which was fantastic.  Afterward, I went out one last time with everyone.  It was so sad!!  We met up for lunch the next day and there were many tears.  Hopefully, if we all put our minds to it, we will be able to meet up for a reunion in the near future.  I think we like each other too much to not!  I made so many wonderful new friends on this trip, I was heartbroken to see them go.  Most of them are back in the States already!

Anyways, that night after I walked Mom and Grandma around some more and took them shopping, we hopped on this horrible horrible horrible HORRIBLE night train to Paris.  The room was literally 5 feet by 6 feet with three beds stacked on top of one another.  It was a bit of a nightmare.  But it ended happily in the fact that we arrived the next morning in Paris, France!  We spent three days there seeing things like, the LOUVRE (my fav), Notre Dame, Arc du Triomph, Eiffel Tower, the D'Orsay, Napoleon's tomb, Champs Elysees, and much more!!  Food and shopping were wonderful there!!  I absolutely loved looking at art that was NOT Renaissance!  I have to admit that I am a little Renaissanced out right now.  Last night we took that horrid night train again to Venice, which is where I am now writing to you from.  I can't tell you how excited I was to see this place again.  I so loved Venice when I came before.  We had a lovely day on this little island and had a terrific dinner at Trattoria alla Rivetta.  If you ever go to Venice, you MUST look this place up.  Fresh seafood caught that day and homemade tiramisu :]  Life can't get much better than that ;) 

Tomorrow we head off for Naples and Pompeii which I am very excited about since I have never been there before.  Then we go back to ROME, which was my favorite trip that we went on in the program.  Then I come home!!  I am so excited to go home.  Only 5 more days and I will be on a flight home - it's so hard to believe!!  Anyways, next time I write to you, I will be summing up my entire trip from good old Traverse City in the 90 billion feet of snow we just got :]  Cannot WAIT to see you all very soon!

Oh, yeah, and the song explains itself :]

Christmas Lights

HELLO AGAIN!!!!!  Can you believe it?!?!  Yet another week has flown right by!  And I am currently jumping in my pants because Mom and Grandma are starting their journey to see me TOMORROW!!!  I'm sorry to be writing yet another boring blog post, but I have to keep up the tradition until I get back home.  This is probably going to be a short one though...

This week has been fairly full with finishing up papers (a HUGE research paper that is finally finished - whew!) and assignments and preparing for finals.  And I have been having quite a hard time getting to sleep at night because I am so excited to see Mom and Grandma and then go home two weeks from today!  I've been busy planning how to see all of the siblings for Christmas this year, and it looks like it's going to work out!  We are all going to get to be together at once, which should be a huge blessing.  I'm feeling pretty on top of it too, because I have all of my gifts out of the way!  I could not be more excited or thankful that we all get to be together just a few days after I get home :]  This past weekend was pretty boring except for the fact that I finally got to see a soccer match!  A group of us went to a Fiorentina game which they ended up winning - it was such a fun last weekend together.  After this Thursday, we are all parting ways, and it's really quite sad!  My roommate also taught me how to make a darn-good apple pie!  Which was really fun for me - and boy was it TASTY!  I can't wait to return home and eat lots of BAD AMERICAN FOOD and no more Italian for a good long while!

Oh, yes!  The song of the week!  Christmas Lights by Coldplay - brand-spankin' new!  All of you know that I am madly in love with Coldplay which is a huge part of why this is the song of the week.  It's a pretty sad song, but I'm particularly caught up with the chorus : "Those Christmas lights light up the street, down where the sea and city meet.  May all your troubles soon be gone, Oh Christmas lights keep shining on."  Can't wait to go home and sit by the Christmas tree with the lights, let all my troubles fade away, and be HOME.  

I will probably do one more post after I go to PARIS with Mom and Grandma, and probably one last one after I finally return home, just to keep things well rounded.  So it's not goodbye yet!  Cannot wait to see you family and friends.  Want to know what I'm most looking forward to the moment I get home?  Let me list them off because I could hardly choose!  Getting jumped in the airport by my little brother.  A huge hug from Mischa and my daddy.  Snuggling with my kitty and my puppy.  Sitting by the fire and getting a back massage from Eric (AHEM - ERIC!  THAT'S YOUR CUE - YOU STILL OWE ME FROM THIS SUMMER WHEN I GAVE YOU A THOUSAND TINY BRAIDS!).  Seeing everyone at the lovely Brigitte Grove's house on a lovely Tuesday evening.  SNOW.  Fegan Sibling Festivus.  Seeing Eric get his ass-print made in the snow during sibling shenanigans.  Christmas morning.  I could go on forever.  Right now, I'm just going to enjoy the time I have left and sit twiddling my thumbs until Mom and Grandma get here!  ;)