Home

I'm home. :)

And it is blissful.

I am officially patriotic. The list of things I missed and of which I am now indescribably appreciative keeps getting longer and longer. I'll give you that list after I describe my getting-home process.

The day before my flight, it snowed. In Florence. For the first time in 3 years, 10 years, 18 years, depending on who you ask. In any case we were told it would not snow. Or get colder than the low 40s. FALSE. That morning I went to the Uffizi Library with two other Smith girls to begin research for my art history paper. Despite a hilariously awkward and drawn-out signing-up procedure with this old man who was trying to speak English to me because he thought my Italian sucked (not untrue), the library was unbelievable. And I found books that were ENTIRELY devoted to my painting. Ideal, yo. And the coolest part was that you had to turn one of those heavy old-fashioned keys to pull back this elaborate towering wooden gate to access the books. Soo Harry Potter right now. We researched until 1, then stopped for lunch in a restaurant where I accidentally ordered SQUID. Don't get me wrong, I like calamari as much as the next guy, but this was not little breaded rings of deliciousness--it was slimy tentacles and the sauce was very very mediocre so it was totally not worth forcing down. After that we went to a different library (that's two more libraries than I had been to all year) where we stopped in a cafe and lamented about the inhumane amount of work we have to do over break (don't even get me started. The professors are trying to make us take them so seriously it's almost comical. And it's not like they don't know the other work we have because THEY ALL INTIMATELY KNOW ONE ANOTHER. And everything's in Italian so it takes twice as long. Oops I got started...). Then Camilla came and we left to do some Christmas shopping. After we left the store where I got my sister's present there were big fat flakes falling from the sky (aka snow) and I would have been all enchanted and stuff if I didn't have my flight to worry about.

Then we got ingredients for the tiramisu we had been planning to make the entire year since we first learned how to make it during Orientation. And we ACTUALLY FINALLY MADE IT. By hand. Literally we whipped the egg whites and egg yolks by hand and grated the chocolate with a thimble-sized grater (the lack of kitchen appliances here indicative of our host mom's lack of cooking skills). Was it worth it? ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY. It was the second best tiramisu I'd ever had in my life (first being the one our cooking teacher made during Orientation) if I do say so myself. And the family loved it too. That was our Christmas present to them.

That night I tried (er, I had Camilla try) to call a taxi to take me to the airport the next day. What a SILLY idea. All three lines gave us a few disconcerting beeps and then disconnected. Every single one of the 800 times we tried. Mildly infuriating. So we decided to try in the morning. Same thing. FINALLY Camilla got put on hold (HOPE!!) and just as she was about to hang up because it was probably costing a ton of money, someone ANSWERED! And informed her that they could either send a taxi "now or never." Ah, the customer service caliber in this country is unparalleled. We waited and the taxi obviously never showed up. (I'm not even gonna drag out the story because it's just so TYPICAL). So we transferred to a street where taxis sometimes go by. Or else the bus that goes to the station. 5 minutes and we dropped that idea and decided to go try by the railway station instead. No taxis, but the bus came, praise Allah, so we ran to get on that. It took us to the station where there turned out to be a taxi queue. A lengthy one but at least there was a fairly steady stream of taxis. So Camilla waited with me until I finally got a taxi of my own. And then, I was on my own. I had never flown by myself before so I was pretty nervous. Luckily I had the entire Fairfield University returning from their semester abroad in Florence to accompany me. After waiting in uncertainty, my flight ended up being delayed by only one hour, which is a MIRACLE when you consider all the other flights that were canceled or the people that had to be bussed to different airports in Italy or gahhh I was so lucky. This gave me time to purchase a 7.50 euro piece of pizza, soda, and acid bath aka "fruit cup." Throughout the journey there were returning college students DAPPERTUTTO (everywhere). I made sure to keep the ones going to Boston in sight to reassure myself that I was going to the right places. Because our flight to Zurich was delayed we had to SPRINT to make our connecting flight. I was surprisingly not stressed because I had that group of 20 or so girls from other schools with me and, as it turned out, about 50 passengers were missing so they had no choice but to hold our flight (um THANK YOU). The flight was smooth. I watched Julie & Julia and ate a meal that was better than most of the meals I had had with my host family in Italy. And I was sitting next to one of the college students and she turned out to be very nice. The only bad part was that we were in literally the last row of seats in the plane. I was about 5 inches from the toilets. And had absolutely no access to a view out any window. Oh and then there was that terrifying part where someone asked if there was a doctor on board over the speakers and about 2 minutes later flight attendants were carrying an unconscious girl down the aisle. Ahhh! But other than that, my luggage came, my dad picked me up, and everything has been perfect since.

Here's that list:

1) Ok well obviously I have to put my family, and friends, first. And my dog who I missed so so much and seemed especially big to me after having been around a cat all the time.
2) Effective indoor heating
3) My cozy room. The rug on the floor. When I got into bed the first night I felt like a queen.
4) Soft toilet paper
5) Normal-sized washcloths and big fluffy towels
6) Premium water pressure
7) A shower in which there is space for movement and in which you do not have to do a squat-thrust if you drop the soap and in which you do not have to worry about flooding the bathroom or getting cold when the curtain brushes aside. Related to this, my hair feels fantastic. Something about the water.
8) Being able to eat breakfast in my pajamas and being able to walk around the house in socks/bare feet without having to worry about getting frostbite
9) Real orange juice with pulp (not some HI-C imitation brand)
10) PANCAKES WITH SYRUP (my dad made blueberry pancakes the first morning!)
11) My nice pink phone (ok if you could SEE my hilarious dinosaur/cell phone prototype that I use in Italy you would understand) and being able to text my friends here
12) Christmas decorations inside and outside houses, Christmas tree
13) Hot apple cider. Also root beer
14) Food. Real, filling food.
15) Speedy internet
16) High-definition, high-quality TV (this one I realize makes me seem a little spoiled but really there's something about the Italian TV that makes every movement the characters in movies or shows make seem fake, animated, distorted somehow. Also their shows, even commercials, are just not as good on any level. Here, this is a snippet from the game show that's on every single night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S7EoZUERdE)
17) Being able to drive a car again is kind of nice
18) And on that note: wide open winding roads, drivers that obey the rules of the road
19) Cheerful customer service employees. The woman working the tollbooth we passed through leaving the airport was friendlier than the vast majority of the customer service employees I had to interact with in Italy
20) PANDORA RADIO
21) Washing machine that actually leaves your clothes smelling nice. And a DRIER.
22) Here, the mosquitoes are dead like they should be. They are not immortal and infinite, they do not buzz in your ear the second before you're about to fall asleep in the dead of winter. They do not bite you, they do not irritate you beyond human comprehension, they are good and DEAD.
23) No cigarette smoke--whether faint or overpowering--to breathe in.
24) Beautiful piano
25) Home. Just the feeling of being home.