You'll find me BACK in Florence! A life update

I'm back in Florence... and it feels like home.

I'll admit that the moments leading up to my departure were full of nerves and sadness. I couldn't believe how fast my month in New York flew by and that I was already heading back to Florence for another four months. I didn't know if I could leave my family and friends again, and the feelings I was having were very similar to the ones I felt before my big move in January.

But after lugging my broken suitcase to the check-in counter for my flight to Rome, my fears subsided and I suddenly felt excitement. I realized that I was about to embark on yet another journey, and these next four months would be a fresh, new start. New study abroad students would be arriving to Florence soon, which meant new friends to make, and I had new job opportunities waiting for my own arrival. In addition, I had a clear mind and a new perspective....

I knew it was going to be a good semester.

And after being back for a week, I still agree. Friends welcomed me back with open arms and it reminded me just how much of a family we all are here in Florence.

And that will make it just that much harder to ever leave this place.

Ok, enough reflection.

Here's what's gone down since I've been back....

The job situation couldn't be better. I'll be doing a few smaller jobs, including still running a bar crawl, selling fun activities to tourists (like pizza making classes!), helping out Bus2Alps (a student travel company-- use my discount code DANTE for 5% off all trips!), and I'm back to doing some promoting for the first company that I worked for here. It's all fun and exciting, can't complain at all!

This week and the next is when over 6,000 American study abroad students will be arriving in Florence. The beginning of a semester is always really exciting, both work-wise and for social reasons too. My jobs require me to work with students, but I also have made some great friends with some of them over the past couple of semesters.

The first few days of being back were excruciatingly hot. I'm talking 100+ degrees, and in case you don't know, air conditioning in apartments is practically non-existent here in Italy. My fan has been my best friend for a while now. But we had a thunderstorm yesterday, the first since I've been in Italy and only about the 8th time it's rained at all, and it brought some cooler temps for yesterday and today. And by cooler, I mean that it's only about 92 degrees... but I'll take it.

I think that's all for now... let the new adventure begin!

Irish and I!