In vacanze

Ah, lovely Florida in the summertime. Well, besides the cloud cover and humidity, at least. I'm enjoying my little family vacation and my time with my brother before he goes off to California and with my family after being gone for about nine months. I'm also going to try to see some other friends in the area and some of my extended family in the area, too.

I got in a conversation with my brother's roommate and his girlfriend (who happens to be my roommate from high school and a very good friend) last night about anime, and now I've got an anime-watching project to last me for the rest of the summer, hooray! Well, I just wanted to write something since it's been a little while since I last wrote, even if it's not anything important or groundbreaking.

The family in Florida, taking a walk on Park Avenue

Library Work

The library is an enormous mess right now. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is being torn apart! Quite literally, actually. They're renovating the ground floor this summer, which is where I do most of my work. The carpets have been pulled up, the walls have been torn down, dust is everywhere--it's not a very nice place to spend a lot of time! Unfortunately, I spend the majority of most days here! However, I think the final product will be worth the trouble.

That's all that's going on with me right now. I'm afraid my blog entries won't be very interesting this summer if this one is anything to go by!

Here I am

Home again. Back in the United States. I guess I'll have to stop calling this a travel blog now, sadly. I'll still try to write, though, maybe as much as I wrote while I was in Italy! Pretty sad record, I know, but maybe I'll even write more now that I have so much more uninteresting stuff to write. That's usually when I write the most; when I have absolutely nothing to say!

I was very excited, though, that one of my teachers from the school in Italy was here in Tennessee for a bit. She's still here, actually, but she leaves tomorrow. That made it a little easier to come back since I knew I'd have at least one connection to Italy at least for a little bit. We love you, Milena! Now, I just need to watch Italian movies and listen to Italian music and try not to lose what I've learned.

Italia lost!

I don't know if anyone out there is a fan of soccer, but I just watched the game between Italy and the Netherlands for the European Cup. Man, what a brutal defeat for Italy! Netherlands won 3-0. We were all together in the TV room watching the game on the projector, groaning and yelling and cheering for the poor Italian team.

I have to say, though, the olandese (Netherland-ish...how do you say that, anyway?) goalkeeper was pretty incredible! Even Simona, the Italian girl sitting next to me, said that. What made me laugh, though, was that every time the camera would pan to him, he'd have this huge frown on his face or he'd be yelling at his team members or something. Why so angry? You're apparently unbeatable! Well, at least by the Italian team. Silly goalkeeper.

Back in Florence

And a bit relieved to be here. I hadn't thought about how stressful it would be to fly back from Malta only to have to be ready to fly again within a few hours. I'm glad I decided to come back earlier because now I have this week to figure out how I'm going to get to the airport and whether I'm going to try to pack that extra kilogram or not risk it.

It's kind of funny how much we worry about packing. In fact, if I were afraid of flying, at this point I'd probably be more afraid of getting through the weighing of the suitcases than that. I'm not afraid of flying, but I'm definitely worried about my suitcases! I wish it was easier than it is! I'm even considering just paying the extra money for my suitcases, but since I'm so close that would be pretty pointless. Right now I've already packed my suitcases and they're at a friend's house, but I've still got a few things I need to fit in somewhere, and they're not fitting in my carry-on! Anyway, that was a pointless little discourse about the petty worries of packing.

So, in more global news, Hilary Clinton has apparently finally given up her bid for president. I'm curious to see how the elections will pan out. I suppose I'd better get back to getting my stuff ready. I'll worry about the elections in November!

No sand, too much sun and broken bikes!

Yep, so I'm in Malta. Quite a gorgeous place, actually, though the title might fool you. The beaches are mostly rocky and I think I got too much sun today when I had to walk back from a bay with Erin and our bikes. Her gears kept slipping on her bike, so we couldn't ride back to the hostel. It wasn't too bad, just a bit hot and sweaty. Now we're back, though, and tomorrow we'll meet some friends from Villa Aurora at the Adventist church here. So...that's my impression of Malta so far. No, just give me a couple of minutes of coolness and I'll give a much more positive report! :) Ciao everyone!

L'esame è fatto!

As the title says, the exam is done! The conversation exam was this morning, the last part of the PLIDA test for international certification in Italian. I think I did well, but I'm just relieved to have it finished! Now I have to wait until October or November to find out how I did on the tests and whether or not I passed. I won't be anticipating it because waiting that long with anticipation would probably kill me! So, I'm going to put it out of my mind. Now I have a few days left here in Florence before I'm off to my island vacation in Malta, which sounds a lot more glamorous than it probably will be.

Tonight is our closing ceremony where we will receive our diplomas and have one last meeting together. Tomorrow is the closing ceremony of the theology students, and I'm going to try to go to that, too. This afternoon I'll spend some time shopping for souvenirs! Anyway, these are my last few days in Italy, and I hope I can enjoy them as I have enjoyed this year!

Ho finito! Ho finito! Ho finito!

Title = I have finished! I've finished! I'm done! :D

Yes, I have just finished my last final exam (how's that for an interesting phrase?) for this school year! Of course I still have the PLIDA test, the international certification exam, which is nothing to sneeze at, but that's not for school! And boy, am I excited about that! Well, about the fact that it's not for school, at least.

Anyway, I'm off to eat lunch since I just had a few minutes here to mess around, but that was enough time to say what I came to say. I'm done!

Malta, here I come!

I've been trying to figure out where to go after the school year ends, well, at least for a few days. I think I already wrote about that, but now I've found my solution! I'm heading to Malta!

In case you don't know, Malta is an island in the Mediterranean, though don't ask me anything beyond that!

Well, just an update, and now I'm off to eat some lunch.

After School Ends

Well, I've got plans for the end of the school year, whether I want to or not! Oh, and I am finally updating after another long period of time with no updates.

Okay, about my most interesting travel plans for the end of this school year. I had thought about going to the northern part of Italy again and seeing some of the towns around Venice such as Padova (Padua), Vicenza and Verona. Sadly, I'm not going to be doing that. Of course, I'm still pretty excited about my plans, but I really did want to see some of these places. Maybe I can just take a few day trips to the cities, though the train tickets are a bit pricey. I'll figure it out, I suppose.

So, after all of that suspense, I will tell you all what I'm doing! I'm going to Malta for ten days! I hope I don't get bored there, which I don't think I will. Uh oh, I just had a bad thought. I'm traveling with Ryanair and can only take a carry-on bag. Which means that I can only take liquids and gels in tiny amounts. Which means that I can't take my sunscreen. I'm going to be in trouble! Let's hope that I can buy some sunscreen there for a lot less than 16 euro! So, those are my plans for the end of this school year! The end for now, I suppose. It's way past my bedtime!