Though I was only in Italy for two weeks, it feels like my entire life has been altered by my experience. Now that I’m back in the United States, I am finding myself missing my time abroad and having some trouble adjusting back to American life. The first few days were especially difficult, but I’ve gotten better and only have a few short moments when I feel like I’m still abroad. I struggled with getting back on the right time zone and with the jet lag, and even now two weeks later my sleep schedule is slightly off from when I first left. I caught myself mumbling “ciao” and “Buongiorno” to my family a lot during my first week back, and I am still extra protective of my purse and phone because of how much we had to be on the lookout for pickpockets. I miss Italy very much, and already can’t wait to go back one day. I occasionally get all the postcards I collected on the trip and flip threw them, reminiscing about my time there and wondering about how it feels like an entirely different lifetime. I notice things with Italian influence a lot more now. Despite eating bucket loads of pizza and pasta while I was away, I find myself craving it pretty frequently. I walked through target and stopped at just about every other aisle when I saw things that I saw in Italy that I hadn’t previously noticed here before. It’s incredibly fulfilling to see how such a short time away impacts the little things in my life already, and I can’t wait to see how my experience will impact me furthermore.
