Encore encore!

I got my attestato di frequenza today - quite amazing - considering I was expecting it 3 months later. But these italians surprised me at times. I do miss them, the country, my life back there as a carefree studentessa. When people asked me how it was, I just smiled and they knew it was incredible. During the last 2 weeks, I've gotten emails from Elena, Iris, Michele, Gang, Dali, Kumar, Moe and the 3 Yukos. Some are back in their own countries (save for Mic who's in 'paradiso' in Seychelles), while the others are pursuing C1 at Perugia. I even got a hilarious reply from the wonderful madcap Professoressa Daniela who wrote:

"Ciao bellissima chiacchiera mia, tante grazie. Mi viene da piangere al ricordo. Buona e bella vita a te e ai tuoi, te la meriti. Qualche volta, poco poco ricordati di me grazie con tutto il cuore, Daniela M (cell no.) Non ho computer a casa. Carissima, unica, insostituibile chiacchiera mia."

(Translated: Hi my very beautiful chatty one, many thanks. The memories make me cry. Have a good and beautiful life, you deserve it. Sometimes do think of me a bit, with all my heart, Daniela M. I dont have computer at home. My dearest, unique, unsubstitutable chatty one.)

She's one of the most unique characters I've ever met - why be normale when you can be brilliante, passionate and funny? The current world needs more citizens like her - people with a real consciousness and deep faith in their ways. Faith is one ingredient that'll also keep L and I going; we miss each other a lot, especially after being together 24/7 for 3 glorious months.

After some deliberation (ok I didn't take much time to decide), I've booked an air ticket back for Xmas and will fly off on 23 Dicembre on Emirates (oh no, Dubai again)! Funnily I've never spent Xmas in Italia before, so I'm really forward to the frost, festivity and food. We're also planning to head for the Dolomiti for some skiing and snow. Now how cool is that?

P.S: Oh, my organic farming story came out in Simply Her Settembre issue while I was away -- I love the layout and my bellissime foto! I emailed it to Iris at Casa Lanzarotti and she said 'sei una vera artista!' They're the real heroes in my eyes :)

Auguri mio caro

Today's the birthday of L and peccato that we couldn't celebrate it together. We'll just have to take a raincheck then. Ottobre is a busy month for birthdays indeed. Just 2 days ago, his sorella celebrated her b'day(auguri!) and in a couple of days, their mamma Mel as well as my papa will be celebrating theirs on the same day. Si, what coincidence! Mel said L was a gorgeous baby; blonde, blue-eyed, snowy skin and chubby. No one could resist pinching those cheeks and he'd respond by kicking them. Bad, bad boy.

Touch Down

I'm back as some of you might know. After an exhausting 18 hours of travelling including the Eurostar from Napoli to Roma (2hrs), then Fiumicino Espresso (30mins), then waiting (2hrs) at the aeroporto. Then to Dubai on Emirates (6hrs, great service, food and inflight entertainment by the way), plus another 4 hours of transit (so many deadbeat passengers sleeping on the floor everywhere). Then there was the extra stopover at Colombo, Sri Lanka, argh! (1hr), before being comatosed in the air for 4 hours back to Singapore. Hallulueh. Grazie Dio.

To be honest, I didn't feel homesick at all. As heartless as I might sound, I didn't miss my famiglia, cats, work too much because I had L and Italia. L was my family and Italia was home. But I know I have to be back; greater things await us. And hopefully we can embrace a new chapter in our lives. During Daniela's last classe the previous week, we had to give a farewell speech, and I had written:

'La Fine... ma non e' la fine, invece e' l'inizio di un altro capitolo nella nostra vita. Aparte di migliorare il mio italiano (spero!), penso che abbia trovato molti amici nuovi, e questa esperienza mi ha aiutato di capire meglio la natura d'umano; italians, giapponesi, georgiane, tedeschi, pervertiti! In particolare, questa lezione era una piccola confessione per noi... Per ogni viaggio, io cerco un messaggio - in questi 3 mesi, ho imparato di apprezzare il presente, che e' il piu importante perche il tempo vola. In somma, prima ero infatuata d'italia, adesso posso dire che questa infatuazione e' diventata un amore maturo e piu bilanciato. Grazie lei, grazie tutti!'

(Ok translation: 'The End.. but it's not the end, instead it's the start of another chapter in our lives. Apart from improving my italian (I hope!), i think that I've found many new friends and this experience has helped me to understand better the nature of humans; italians, japanese, germans, perverts! In particular, this lesson was a small confession for us. For every journey, I search for a message - in these 3 months, I've learnt to appreciate the present, which is the most important becos time flies. To sum it up, before I was infatuated with Italy, now I can say that this infatuation has become a mature and more balanced love. Thank you, thanks everyone!')