It’s amazing to me how accustomed I’ve become to hearing only Italian spoken around me at all times. I can hardly understand anything, but it doesn’t even phase me anymore. After about my first week here I was in such shock I thought I was going to lose it. I was walking around stalking tourists to try to find some English speakers because I craved communication. However, now it’s become almost a normal part of life. I’ve also noticed that children have no understanding of language barriers. Kids talk to me all the time and are never fazed when I tell them I don’t speak Italian. They just keep talking for 10 or 20 minutes, and they don’t even notice that I’m not understanding a word or that I’m talking back to them in English. It’s quite humorous!

Anyway, tomorrow starts my first vacation and I’m very excited to get away for a bit and do some traveling. It was a nice surprise to get so much time off, but because of that I didn’t have much prep time for planning my trip. Both weekends were already scheduled, and I just filled in the blanks. So, I’ll be with Clay for the first half of the week and my old friend from London, Casey, for the second. Rough plan…Cinque Terre, Pisa, Milan, Prague, (layover in Rome), Nice, Antibes/Cannes/Monte Carlo. Could be a little tiring, but I can’t wait to catch up with my friends and hear some native English speakers!

I won’t have my computer with me and who knows if my phone will work while I’m traveling. So I’ll be a little out of touch. But I’ll let you guys know how the trip goes! By the way… I have a Blackberry and I’ve heard that you can do free instant messaging to and from any Blackberry worldwide. Is that correct? If so, any of you that have one should keep in touch with me that way!  Ok, here we go! I’m off to see how I’m going to fit 9 days worth of stuff into a carry on sized backpack. J