Random thoughts

So I am currently sitting in the hotel room in Florence, Alyson and I just got done with shopping at the Market for a few hours this morning and are now waiting to leave for a church to visit with the whole group in a half hour, so I thought I'd write a short post to catch you all up on Europe!

As I just said, this weekend the whole group is in Florence, and so far, I LOVE it here.  It's a lot different than Rome, it seems a lot cleaner and organized than Rome and the buildings are absolutely beautiful.  The streets aren't as crazy with drivers, and the best part is, everything is super close so I haven't had to get on any public transportation yet!! All walking, thank goodness.  After the church visit Alyson and I are going to rent some bikes and ride to the Boboli Gardens and go on a run in that park, should be beautiful :)  then later today we are going to ride our bikes to the oldest chocolate factory in the world (yum!) and probably go to a local bar tonight to hang out for a bit.

Tomorrow we leave around 3pm, so not too much more time here unfortunately.  We are definitely getting a lot of Christmas shopping done, and just to let my family know...you are SPOILED this year by us!!! But a good way to ease the home sickness and us missing you guys back home is by buying presents for you all :)  We are definitely going to need to look into FedEx prices to ship a box of stuff back home because we are not going to have enough space/weight room in our suitcases (Michelle we might need your assistance on looking that info up!)

The homework load here is a bit stressful, we have tons of reading and writing to do and it gets to be kind of annoying when we want to go into Rome but need to get back to study or do homework, etc etc. But, Alyson and I are both trying to stay stress-free and enjoy every minute here because in less than a month we will be coming back home!

Like I said in one of my earlier posts, this traveling is absolutely amazing, but has been pretty hard for me.  I get homesick a lot and wish my whole family could be over here with us experiencing these adventures with me and Alyson.  Whenever I hear about things you all are doing at home (sushi night, Jasmine, dinners, game night, and so on) I get pretty sad and wish I were there for all of that--BUT I keep reminding myself to enjoy each moment I have here...because who knows when I'll be back!

I miss my nieces SOOO much.  Oh my gosh...seeing them on skype and facebook pictures makes me sad lol they are growing up so fast! But we got them the cutest present ever...so that will be fun giving that to them.  The hardest thing that's going to happen for me is Thanksgiving...I know it won't be the same here, I already miss the food back home a ton (I know you all love Italian food...but I prefer mom and nana's cooking a TON) and especially for Thanksgiving because I absolutely love our family traditions.  But there is every other year to have Thanksgiving at home...only once to have it in Italy I guess.

Christmas things are beginning to go up around here and so Alyson and I have been jamming out to Christmas music quite a bit...can't wait :)  The weather here has been mostly in the 60's still, I'm sure on our plane ride home we'll have to start layering up because we might be walking out to a white Ohio from the sounds of it!

Well I miss you all very much...I better get ready for this group outing...I'll update again after we get back from Florence.  Love you!