Rimini, Some Thoughts Before Leaving

Rimini- another great class trip in the books, and a great way to go out. Rimini is a pretty big city for a beach town. It was about 2 hours away. Our professors pretty much knew what was up- this trip was going to be way more about fun than anything educational. The first thing we did on Friday (after leaving at 8:20 in the morning) was go to a huge lagoon/watershed near a place called Commachio. We took a 2 hour boat ride around the area, and saw a TON of flamingos. It was pretty cool actually. The area reminded me so much of the Chesapeake- in fact for the entire trip I had this weird feeling that I was back in America because we were doing familiar things, especially at the beach. I forgot a couple of times that we weren't in America. In the bay/lagoon/whatever it was we saw a couple of old fishing shacks where they used to cook and can the eels that they caught, since eels are a big thing in that area. They were actually a delicacy in Roman times, and I think those of you that know me well can tell where this post is about to go. After the boat ride ended we went into the town, which had canals all throughout and was basically a poor man's Venice. We had a great lunch sitting outside with all the guys- and we tried eel. It was really greasy and fatty, and it was pretty good. Compared to the octopus eating eel was a piece of cake for me. The green skin threw me off, along with the tail and head, but I was glad to try something new and it wasn't that bad. After a long lunch, we hopped on the bus again and headed to this really old Abbey about a half hour away. We stayed inside for probably 10 minutes. I'm so sick of medieval churches, but it was still kind of cool. I just wouldn't go out of my way to see any more churches at this point. We finally got to Rimini at around 6:30 (wow I didn't realize how long of a day that was). We went down to check out the water for a bit, which was a bit cold but warm enough to swim in, and sat on the beach for about 45 minutes before going to dinner. Rimini might as well have been in America- it would fit right in with any Southern beach town. One street was identical to New Orleans. Rimini isn't very Medeival, and it's a bit more Americanized than most places that I've seen, but it was nice. Apparently it's possible to see Croatia across the Adriatic from Rimini, but I never did. We at dinner at a freaking Holiday Inn, but it turned out to actually be pretty good- it was ravioli and some meat. Dickinson continues to pay for our wine at dinner- so if you're wondering back in Carlisle where all your tuition money keeps going while they keep making cuts, it's overseas with the kids who were smart enough to study abroad. We all gathered up in one of our rooms at the Hotel Polo, where we were staying. It was a pretty nice hotel, although I still had to sleep in a bunk bed. Everyone was freaking out because I told them about that nutjob in the US who was calling for judgment day. We left the hotel and just started walking, listening for loud music for a place to go to. This band was at a big bar putting on a small outdoor concert...and they were absolutely rocking. The best Zeppelin cover I've ever heard- Whole Lotta Love, and they absolutely killed it. Afterward, we went to a club for a while. Overall, a really good night. The next day, they took us to an old church and then an old Roman arch, but our "tour" only lasted about an hour. For the rest of the day, we went down to the beach. The water was really flat, but we played volleyball for a while, I kicked the soccer ball around with Brenna, and we were basically all acting like little kids in the water. It was a great day. I took a walk up to a big jetty, and another one like miles down the beach without realizing how far I'd gone. I'm still pasty white though, so you can't win 'em all. I finished the day up trying to teach Mo how to swim since he's from NYC and never has to. He was like a little kid in the water- it was pretty funny. We hopped on the train at around 7 after about 6 hours of beach time and got back from the weird American time-warp of Rimini. We didn't do much sightseeing, so there's not a lot to write about, but it was one of my favorite trips because it gave me the chance to be around the whole group together for one last time.

Well...I have 5 days left here in Bologna. I can't believe it's gone by so fast, but at the same time it feels like forever ago that I was last in Dtown. I have so much stuff to get done before I go back, and a ridiculous amount of schoolwork. It's been unreal living here. A big part of me feels like the reason I couldn't play football anymore was so I could study here this semester. I definitely wouldn't have taken the plunge otherwise. It's hard for me to describe how amazing everything's been...I'm always surprised at how genuinely kind people tend to be and the beauty of everything that I've seen. I'm ready to get back to the States, but I think if I had to live in Europe in the future I could definitely do it. I really can't tell if it's just Europe, or my attitude going into it, or just me growing as a person, but every single day here has been a great day. In the movie Office Space the main character hates his job so much that he says each day gets worse than the one before it, so every day you see him you're seeing him on the worst day of his life. For me, it's pretty much been the opposite of that. I've never really been a very positive person, but I've learned to just look forward to each day here and not take anything for granted. It's been a wild ride, and I could probably use at least some normalcy at home, if not for a few days, but this is an experience I would never trade for anything. I've met so many people and seen so many different things that I honestly never thought I would. Everything here is still so new to me that pretty much every day has become an adventure. The kid writing this right now is very different from the one that left in January, for sure. When I get back home I'm sure everything will be pretty normal pretty fast, but I've definitely grown up a lot. It's funny, I didn't even want to leave to come here at the beginning, but now I'm going to find it very difficult to leave. I'm satisfied with what I've done here, and I feel like I've reached out enough to take advantage of the great opportunity that my parents gave me by letting me come. I'll never be scared of being in a situation where I don't know anyone again. I came here not knowing a soul, but I'll be leaving with a ton of great friends. Maybe we'll keep in touch, maybe not, but for a snapshot in time the people here are really what's made my time in Italy and Europe so great. You can learn a lot about yourself if you open yourself up to new experiences, and I feel like I've really come to terms with who I am as a person- I've accepted a lot of good and even a lot of bad aspects of my personality. I'm a huge nerd- I figured out that in absolutely no way at all am I cool. The fact that I'm even writing this blog in the first place should be your first clue. Anyone who remembers me as a kid knows I've always been a little different. I'm fine with that though. Being a hyper little bastard at such a young age separated me from the pack a bit by default, so I've been able to kind of view the world from a different angle than most for my whole life. When you can accept something like that and be willing to march to the beat of your own drum it's a beautiful thing- you become accountable to nobody else but yourself, you have nobody controlling your actions and I think that's the only way you can ever be truly happy. Being in Europe has really given me the chance to do that- when I get back to America I'll get settled in and everything won't be so carefree anymore because I'll have actual responsibilities again. It'll be normal. But, like I was saying before about my friends in Europe, for a snapshot in time this has been my state of mind. I must have been doing something right though because at home I would have just like a really dark day every once in a while, just very pessimistic about everything. It's been the complete opposite here- every time something goes wrong I say "Hey I'm still having the time of my life." Hopefully at least part of that optimism, will stay with me. It's been pretty hard to be negative about anything this semester. This year, even including the semester at Dickinson has been the best year of my life. There's been a lot of ups and downs, a ton of anxiety, and of course having to let go of Hols, but that's the beauty of life. It's the ebb and flow of it all, like waves washing up on the sand, that makes it worth anything. I try not to make too many plans because I know that 99% of the time it doesn't work out the way you thought it would. I've been dealt a pretty good hand, though, so I'm just going to keep handing over the wheel and seeing what comes next. It's been absolutely great here, and I'm sad to go, but at the same time I'm looking to the future to see what's in store for me. This post has really been for me more than anything else; it's good to look back and see the changes. The mentality that I've adopted here probably won't last to be perfectly honest, but it's been one hell of a ride and if I could do it all over again I would do it the exact same way.