With my departure drawing ever closer (sunrise this coming Sunday morning to be precise), I know that it's probably time to get stuck into a bit of packing. Having been away from home so much over the past two years especially, packing is one of those things which should be much more boring than it actually turns out to be. I think this is due to my healthy obsession with making lists; if there is a need for one, one shall be created!
As I sat down at my table today with my cuppa and my breakfast and tried to get stuck in on some serious planning this morning, I realised how little I knew about Florence itself, and in fact the language course I had enrolled on. It then occurred to me that I had next to no idea about how, once I'd flown in to Pisa airport, I would be able to make the hour long journey to the centre of Florence, where I would then be looking for my accommodation (which thankfully I had at least acquired and have now googlemapped)... on a sunday morning. I also realised I had no idea how I would be spending my time whilst studying at the language school, apart from the learning Italian bit of it of course...
It struck me as odd how little I was concerned by all of this - knowing how under-prepared I was despite setting off in less than a week's time. As I took a deep breath I thought to myself - 'well at least I have a valid passport, a supportive family, caring friends and a pen and some paper' - and I began to write my lists.
The first list on my 'to list' list (told you I liked lists) was everything I needed to pack, which in itself induced another deep breath when I combined my needing to pack for unknown activities and the extremely important and extremely challenging you are only allowed to take 20kg of luggage.
The second on the list was my 'to do' list, which made my stomach turn as its points started to outnumber those of things I'd need to pack... though if there's anything better than drawing up a list, it's checking things off, so I gave myself some easy 'to do' ones too.
I saved the best til last. Next up tonight is opening my extremely touristy tourist guidebook, flicking through the hundreds of pages and making lists of everything I want to do and everything I want to see.
It seems that life is all about balance, and though at the moment the chores are far outweighing the fun stuff, I know that this means the next coming month will be amazing. I also know that actually being there will make the reality of it all sink in. So I'm not scared, not yet!
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