It's bout friggin time

So.. it's been a while. I haven't posted in many moons, mostly cause I was in the 9th circle of hell, trying to write a thesis on the illustrations of Satan in the Divine Comedy. It's nice to be done, although I feel like every time I get up to the other side to "look at the stars" something beckons me back down to fix a thing here, or adjust another thing there, it's like my paintings...they never really are done...they are just temporarily suspended, until I go back after a while and start reworking things.... I have a feeling this will end up being my PhD dissertation as well....
Anyhoo... I'm leaving Florence in a little over a week, and sad and scared out of mind, excited, apprehensive, a myriad of feelings all bunched up into one skinny little body of mine. I don't know what to think. I've learned and grown so much living abroad, almost like I've served another mission... Accept this time I don't have to go back to "real life", I just have to go back to "American life", which is still a bit of a culture shock.