Feeling Happy
Hearing The birds churping, a dog barking a few blocks away and a leaf blower down the street....
My Cari has been studying in Florence, Italy since March 3rd. I missed her terribly the first 3 weeks but I've adjusted by keeping busy and because she has been so great about keeping in touch by phone and e-mail. She calls from an Internet Cafe close to her apartment and we are able to talk for 20 minutes for a few Euros. We've heard about excursions to Barcelona, Venice, Switzerland, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Vincenza, Padova, Milan and this morning, she talked about going to Berlin.
She loved Berlin and the German people, who she found to be friendly, interesting, helpful, and curious about Americans. Her dad's family is 75% German so she was excited about exploring Berlin to get a feel for her roots. "German children are so beautiful! Sweet round faces..... expressive eyes.... so cute!!!"
"It was nice to fit right in." She laughed. "I stand out in Italy... I look like a tourist. In Berlin, people would just come up to me and start speaking to me in German assuming I was a citizen."
She will be home on May 7th, a changed woman. She left feeling so fearful and insecure about whether or not she could deal with living in Italy for 2 months and survive the language and cultural differences. Her worst fear came true when her luggage didn't arrive until 6 days after she did and she handled that 'crisis' just fine. Circumstances arose and she faced them with maturity and grace. My gosh, she got engaged to be married while she was there! I can hear a new confidence in her voice that lets me know that this experience is something that will benefit her for the rest of her life. It was worth every dime for giving her that confidence in herself. It's something I think she would have developed in time by succeeding in college (which is is doing) and then succeeding in her career. I am thrilled for her that she has it now.. she's so much better off knowing how capable she is at this point so she can fully embrace her future.
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