Saturday 29 June 2013

Saying Goodbye

I have two suitcases packed to bursting with stuff upstairs. Aside from running away, this could only suggest one thing - that I am home for good from my year abroad.

And what an unbelievable year it's been. I can't leave this year behind me saying I've learnt nothing from it. It has been shaping and educational and all the things all your predecessors tell you it'll be. It has been amazingly fun, different and filled with amazing new people.

It has also been tough.

The location doesn't particularly matter - any year in the life in any place will never flow by effortlessly, and sure enough mine didn't. I hit language barrier troubles, had difficulties adapting to the culture (even though on the grand scheme of things it really wasn't so different), making friends, keeping friends, fitting in and sometimes even buying cereal.

But nonetheless the mix of family, friends from home and friends I'd been making throughout the year and my boyfriend far away in Sweden kept me afloat and I made it out the other side, content and already nostalgic.

From the day you leave school, saying goodbye seems to crop up on your agenda more often than you'd care for, but you start to get used to it. 

I left Parma behind knowing that the English friends I'd made I'd see all too soon on our own turf and that it's not really a final farewell to those from further afield.

I left Italy behind knowing that I'd come back (at least to Rome as there's a coin in the Trevi fountain with my name on it), that I'd seen a lot and travelled happily around soaking in the sights for the best part of a year.


Goodbye to Parma, the Conservatorio and the streets I walked every day







Goodbye to travelling




Goodbye to amazing friends





Goodbye to my room and its dusty floor



Goodbye to Italy, 'a dopo'!










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