Home sweet home

Hello all!

Thanks for reading this! I have to admit: I'm not feeling well at all, and really not in the mood to write about my travels. I hope I get around to it though because it will be a good way to remember what I did and saw. Anyways, I'll list some of the cities I visited during my 12 days of adventure:

Nice
Toulon
Rome
Sorrento
Capri
AnnaCapri
Tuscany region
Florence
Cinqua Terra
La Spezia
Milan
Sirmione
Verona
Venice
Arezzo

! a lot! also, I will just spend a moment complaining about how difficult it is to get one country away (I mean, a much shorter distances than SF to Austin! but what trouble!)
I took a bus to the train station, the train to Nice, a bus from the Nice station to the airport, a shuttle from terminal 1 to terminal 2, a shuttle from terminal 2a to terminal 2b, security blah blah, a shuttle once at my gate to my plane out in the middle of a field (small plane- a little creepy but Alitalia, good airline) then switched planes in Milan (running frantically to gate), finally arriving in Rome, waiting 45 minutes for my bag, begging to have them stamp my passport, but no one would do it, and finally a train into town and a taxi to the hostel! So I left at 9ish and arrived around 11! Then I had to reverse it all to return. Aiya!

But it was a good experience to do it all- and I'm glad I did it alone in the end. It's scary to be a female traveling alone, but I think I did the best I could do at taking precautions and I'm grateful it all worked out.

Italy was not France. It did not feel like home to me- but of course, I was only in cities for short periods of time, on the bus a lot, and I don't speak Italian (although, yes, I can practically read it because of its ressemblence to French). But all in all, it was so so nice to come back on Wednesday to my "home" in France. Francoise was out, so I fixed myself a bowl of cereal and got in my pajamas and was very grateful to be able to relax after all the traveling.

I do hope to write more about the cities I visited and the things I saw.

I'm missing normaly a lot right now. I guess because I don't feel good, it's starting to feel like a long time since I've been with friends and family from home. Thank god for the people at IAU- I'd be lost if I was just going to the U of Avignon! I've known a lot of people who have picked up and moved to foreign countries permanently or indefinately, and I give them so so much credit. How daunting!

Okay, I'm off.
Love you all!