A presto, Siena

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

– Jawaharial Nehru

I’ve just finished packing for my month in the states. I can’t get over how quickly this semester passed or how amazing it was. I’m starting to get that feeling you get when you realize something perfect is coming to an end and there is no way to grasp onto it and keep it forever. I’m so grateful it’s only halfway over. It’s strange though because the Italy I know, with these people, won’t exist next semester. It will be a new Italy for me, in a new house, with new friends, and a new perspective on this city.

The people who have come into my life this semester have been incredible. I’m sad because since most of them were only here for a semester, they all are going to leave and scatter back across the states to their homes. I can’t even believe how lucky I am to have met these people. They are all such beautiful, intelligent, creative, kind, and enthusiastic people. I feel like surrounding myself by these people only brought positive things into my life. Obviously, I think very highly of them all and I am going to miss them. I think it’s funny that next semester I will enter Siena knowing only a bunch of Italians. My connection to the city will then be the Italians. It will be a completely different semester.

The second week I was here I remember having a conversation with my roommate after our trip to Elba. I remember saying, “I just don’t know if I am meant to be a traveler. I think that maybe I’m meant to be a homebody and just have a cozy little home where I read by the fireplace.” But this semester has proven to me that that was completely wrong. I’m meant to be a traveler. I’m meant to see the world and new cultures and people. It has proven to me that you can have both. There is such a thing as having that feeling of home inside of you wherever you go and carrying it with you into these new places. It’s really beautiful. The world is really beautiful.

One of my professors required that we (all two of us in the class) write a weekly journal. At first we wrote our journals the way you would write a journal. “This week I … I saw … I felt like … I am thinking …” And he told us, “Yeah, you are doing the assignment just fine but I want your journals to be more inspired.” At first this was just an obnoxious response. But then I started to do whatever came into my mind creatively without worrying about whether or not others would understand it. I wrote poems, made diagrams, made objects out of paper. I compared a dream I had to an experience I had. I just did whatever I felt. My professor loved it. He always told us to just go out there and “let the culture contaminate [us]” and to see what happens. The world without the creative process is nothing. So this is my final assignment for that class: (actually that isn't loading fast enough and I need to catch a train, so I will post that when I get back)

Speaking of letting the culture “contaminate” me, I feel like although I’m sad to see so many friends leave and a little era of my life coming to an end, I’m happy that I’m going to take something away from every moment and every person I met this semester. I’m happy that I let these beautiful, inspiring people contaminate me. And I’m happy that in some way or another I’m going to be forever changed by all of this and parts of all of this are going to be forever changed by me. And even though it has to change it’s exciting to know that so many more incredible life characters are going to come in and out of my life over the next semester, year, and all of my life. I’m excited to see who I encounter next.

And also, I just really need to stop acting like I am not returning to Siena, because I am returning in only one month. It's really more like a little vacation to the U.S. I think being surrounded by people who are actually leaving leaving has made me somehow a little confused that I am too.

My cousin came to visit for most of this past week which has made me ready to go home and see family again. It was a really, really fun week, which I could post an entire blog about alone. I am also so, so excited to see my family. I’ll probably post photos later, after I am home. Everything is packed away right now so it’s not so easy to do that.