It’s all over now. I’ve been in America for 24 hours. I’ve been reintroduced to paved roads, delivery sushi, and 3G data. It’s too strange to remember leaving in the middle of beautiful September and being back now with less than a week until Christmas and mushy snow slush everywhere. It’s gross and if nothing else I already miss Rome for the weather.
My flight to London was just like any other. Landing was the best part and the fact that there was a Pret in the airport put me on cloud nine. I ordered “un caffè americano” by mistake, and when the guy at the counter laughed at me I remembered how nice it was that everyone spoke English again. The second flight was long. Far too long.
So here’s the thing: I don’t do airplane food. I like to know when food expires, what the ingredients are, and how long it has been sitting in one place. Airplane food tells you none of that. It’s scary food wrapped in the same scary plastic they use to wrap the pillows and blankets on the plane, and it’s usually something that DOES NOT look like it could be served on a plane. Food that is logical for a plane to serve: bagels, for example. Serving weird rice with vegetables that look a diseased color should not be a thing. So I don’t ever let them give me the airplane food on flights. But in addition to my disgust for it on the way back to America, they served “vegetable pasta and mushroom pizza”.
1) Are you trying to mock the fact that I just left Italy?
2) I eat genuine Italian food only now. And this is the lowest it can get.
3) WHY. What an awful food to store on a plane for 8 and a half hours. No.
4) Who even likes mushrooms enough to want mushroom pizza?
But I made it to Chicago. I was starving, but I made it to Chicago. My wonderful parents greeted me with open arms and bags of peanut butter M&M’s (all a girl can really ask for) and had the sushi menu in the car waiting for me. Parents of the year.
It’s sad thinking I won’t be back to Rome after the holidays. I do appreciate all the time I did get to spend there and in the places I visited though. I’ve learned how to manage time, how to prioritize, how to budget, how to be logical, and how to beat the system. I’ve been trapped in stations, on the wrong metro, in scary parts of cities, and illegally on trains with illegitimate tickets. I’ve been eating macrons in front of the Eiffel Tower, expanding my stomach to new capacities in Thessaloniki, lying down sardine style in row boats in Capri, and on gondola rides in Venice. There have been ultimate highs and ultimate lows, but from each experience I’ve gained knowledge I don’t know I would have ever gained in South Bend.
It’s been a semester of funny falls and laughing until we puke, misguidance and wrong directions, white wine and dark beer. I’m going to miss every part of every day. Traveling has become such a dominate part of my life that I can’t see myself giving up, and it’s exciting to feel like my adventures won’t stop just because the semester did.
Thank you Rome. Thank you Florence, Venice, Pompeii, Naples, Capri, Amalfi, Paestum, Monte Cassino, Verona, and Bologna. Thank you Thessaloniki, Greece, thank you Paris, France, thank you Barcelona, Spain. Thank you Budapest, Hungary and thank you Munich, Germany. These have been the best months of my life. I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.
I'm still I'm still Haley from the Bend 