La mia vita a Firenze: December 9, 2011

December 9, 2011

This morning I woke up around 7:30 to get into school and take my last final at 9:00. We were all a little nervous for the Medici final because we really needed to focus and, being our last day of the program, we didn’t have a whole lot of motivation. However it went very well and it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. By 10:30, I had completed the final and the ACM Florence program—pretty crazy, huh? After class I returned my Italian cell phone and got 10 Euros back (woo!) and then came back to school to say a couple goodbyes. I said goodbye to Jodie and Kate whom I won’t see again plus Tyler and Erin who are not going out at all tonight. I am very excited because a big group of ACM students are meeting at 9:30 tonight to walk around Florence and see this weekend’s Florence Light Festival. It is sure to be beautiful (even if it’s raining) and it will be so nice to be able to see a lot of people one more time before most people leave tomorrow.

After that I came home and started packing. It actually took quite a while to go through all of my papers, take down cards, photos, and decorations, and then do the packing itself. Each of my bags is going to be right around the weight limit but hopefully it will all be fine. I certainly do have a lot of stuff to bring home, however. Now I am pretty much done packing with the exception of things I will have to put in last minute on Sunday morning before I leave. But hopefully I have packed well enough to allow just enough room for everything I have left. After packing Franzi and I watched some Glee and just kind of hung out.

Tonight was our last family dinner, which I simply cannot believe. We, of course, had an absolutely incredible meal. We started off with spaghetti noodles with fresh pesto, which I had so much of and it was so delicious. For our main dish we had garbanzo beans and eggplant parmesan, which was what we had our first night here. It is still one of my favorite dishes and am so glad Daniela made it for us on our last night :) We finished off with panatone and clementines. Oh and we had red wine with our meal and dessert wine with dessert :) The conversation was wonderful, as usual, and none of us really wanted to stop talking because we knew it was kind of our last chance. We had a wonderful time all together as a family :) We gave Daniela and Andrea a Christmas card we had written in Italian and both of them started crying—it was certainly difficult not to do the same. I have been blessed with such an incredible host family and I will definitely miss them most of all. It will be very difficult for me to say goodbye to them.

After dinner, Franzi and I walked to the train station to meet some friends to check out the Florence Light Festival. We met Willi, Nikki, Becca, and Alex at 9:30 and explored the city. We didn’t really know what the light festival entailed so we just wandered until we found lights. One of my favorite parts of the light festival was Ponte Vecchio all lit up in purple and red! My other favorite part we came upon kind of by accident because, when we walked into Piazza della Signoria, we noticed a projection on a building that translated to “last show at 10:30.” As it was 10:25 when we saw this, we decided to wait and see what happened. First there was a projection/light show on the Gucci museum and then across the way on another building. In addition to the incredible lights and projection, there was also music and sound that went along with the images; it was very cool. As it ended and the music continued, we agreed that we felt like we were in a movie—what a perfect last (or, in my case, second to last) night in Florence :)

After that we split off because we were all pretty exhausted from the week of finals. I also think I might be getting sick so I was hoping to sleep it off as much as possible. Franzi and I headed home, arriving back around 11:15 so not too late. Now I am uploading photos, posting my blog, and going right to bed. However, tomorrow I can sleep in as long as I want, which is just wonderful. I hope you all have a lovely start to your weekend!

All my love,

Kari