Well, a week (almost) being home, and I'm about halfway done with the pictures. This is taking a while...mostly because I have things to do this week and don't have as much time as I thought to go through them. But it's getting done, bit by bit.

World Cup has been incredibly interesting to me, now that I can finally watch it. I think the winner of Germany/Argentina has the tournament, but that's just my 2 cents. I can't wait to see that match! Should be amazing, if nothing else than to see Diego Maradona on the sidelines. I still can't get used to seeing him in a suit.

So now that I'm home, what have I taken away from the trip? What has changed, and what is still the same? Well, for one, I can't wait to get out of this apartment and into the new one; definitely my allergies (as well as my cat's) are reactivated, and the daily minutiae that goes on here are getting on my nerves. I'm so ready to move onto the next phase of my life, and yet there has been a minor setback, a month delay. Ugh. I was so ready to start packing and moving, but patience, grasshopper.

But despite that, there was so much good that came from the trip, and while I needed to get back home for economic reasons, I really could have stayed in Italy for a long, long time. It's the only place that I've been to outside of the Bay Area where I felt at home, amongst people who felt familiar to me. And not only with the cousins I met, but also with the locals that I met, the people that were at the piazze and other places. Very helpful, friendly, and accepting. Or to my eye, at least. In some ways it was like Spain, with the Mediterranean culture, but so very different in vibe. Spain can be cold if you don't seem like you can fit in; Italy didn't give off that feeling at all. Let's put it this way: with my dad's dark complexion and dark eyes, he wouldn't be readily accepted in Spain, but in Italy he was just fine. Weird how long-embedded feelings just don't seem to go away.

Hopefully soon I'll have the Rome pictures finished, and then I'll post the link. Pictures to capture a lifetime of emotions. More to come