The Final Days...

The BIGGEST Gelato Ever, the same place we ate at our first night in Florence.

A few of the girls from Chocolate Class with our famous Chocolate Teacher!

Caleb & Emily! :)

So, when I last updated you on my Italian life, I had told you that I had dislocated my shoulder again and that I was in the middle of finals week. Well let me update you on my final days in Florence, mind you it rained almost every day in the final two weeks..

I completed all of my finals, I am not positive how I did yet though because they won't give me my grades until I fill out this survey but I keep putting it off but I promise to fill it out today and I'll update you all on how well I did once I receive the grades. I feel like I did pretty well on the finals but we will have to wait and see.

Emily was kind enough to pack up my suitcases for me and hand rolled every piece of clothing I owned in order for it to all fit in the suitcase. I honestly do not know what I would have done without her.

We spent some of our final days wondering around the city taking pictures of some of our favorite places in Florence. I will put that in a future blog. We re-visited a few of our favorite places to enjoy them just one last time. We also enjoyed our last bit of freedom as being "21" year old because we're now back in the states and can't drink again for another 7 months. I definitely will miss the Tuscan wine, nothing will ever compare.

We dined out a lot because we were too lazy to go to the store and cook, so I definitely ate well in my final days in Florence and I tried to eat every last bit of gelato that I could.

We were a few of the last people in Florence so we had to say goodbye to everyone and watch them leave. We were kicked out of our apartment on the last night (because new people were moving in the next day) so we had to stay our last night in the hostel (primarily backpackers) so when we showed up with our 6 pieces of luggage, they thought we were crazy. We explained that we had been in the city for 4 months and the guy who helped us with our luggage at the hostel, laughed at us because he told us he had been there for 4 years and he didn't even have that much luggage. Future advice to travelers: PACK LIGHT! It is such a pain to carry around very heavy bags even if only for a short distance.

Ultimately, in our final days... we tried to soak in every last bit of Florence that we could. It's unbelievable how fast time flies. I can still remember laying in my bed under 4 blankets and writing my very first blog. It is seriously scary how fast time flies by, it makes you realize that you have to do as much as you can because life literally flashes before your eyes. I'm sitting here at work now at the gym and I still cannot believe that I lived in Italy for almost 4 months. It's so crazy but I'm so glad I did it and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is even considering it a little bit. I'll tell you that studying abroad is definitely not for everyone and it is an adjustment and like anything, it has it's ups and downs but in the end, it's so worth it and memories have been made that will last a lifetime. I can't wait to start traveling again. I thought about going to Australia next spring but at this time in my life, I don't know if I could be away from my family for that long again so for right now, I'm going to stay put and start saving my money again for my next adventure.