Lights Out

"The airline will lose your luggage. A 30 year old man is going to follow you home at midnight. Gypsies will steal your wallet on the Roman metro, but Ireland will steal your heart. You are going to white water raft in Croatia. You'll model for a photography company near the London Eye. You won't straighten your hair for four months. You'll find out that you like truffle sauce. An earthquake will startle you in the middle of the night. You'll ward off countless creepy guys at the bar. Germany will leave bruises on your skin. You'll drink more red wine than white. Snail will be the strangest thing you've ever eaten, but churros in Spain will be the best. The Australians in Paris will have you laughing 'til 2 AM. You will only text when you can find wifi, which is never. You'll have nights in and nights out. You'll take trains, planes, buses, and cabs. You will meet people you love, people you hate, people who you'll never see again. You will meet people who you'll definitely see again, people who held your hair back, allowed you to cry, laughed alongside you until your stomach cramped. You are going to fall in love with sunsets and villages and rivers and accents. You'll forget who you are, and remember again. And you will survive it all. The next four months are not easy. But sweetie, they are so worth it." - May 15th 2015 Brittany to January 25th 2015 Brittany, if she could say anything

I wanted to organize this blog post as a set of thank yous, because I feel like I owe it to everyone and every place that helped me get through this semester. I could go on and on about the past four months. There is so much to say about this wild journey, so much that I'm taking away with me forever. I'll always remember the wondrous aura when the Eiffel Tower lights up at night, or how the wind can capture your soul along the streets of Ireland, or the way speaking Italian feels like liquid gold on my tongue. Europe is a dream and I hate the thought of waking up. Chances are I'll be sleepwalking until the day I come back. So thank you, for the parts of Europe that I saw, for allowing me to discover you. And to all the parts of Europe I didn't see – don't consider me long gone.

Thank you to my family, for supporting my decision to take this trip and helping me when something went wrong 4000 miles away. To my best friends back home, who kept in touch and liked my pictures even though I missed your birthdays. To my roommates, who kept me in line when all I wanted to do was quit. To my school and abroad program, for allowing me this opportunity at all. And anyone else who crossed my path, who made my life that much different simply for being there, thank you.

Thank you to London, for your fish and chips and teaching me the true meaning of class. I may never be a royal, but it was fun to pretend.

Thank you to Paris, for your sparkling lights and language I wish I could understand. You had me all giddy like a 4th grade crush.

Thank you to Barcelona, for your late nights and drinks I could barely pronounce. I wish I could have stayed on that beach forever.

Thank you to Croatia, for white water rafting and sunsets like I've never seen before. You are so underrated and I'm sorry for that.

Thank you to Munich, for the best beer I've ever tasted and introducing me to that classic German attire. Also for a possible Halloween costume this year.

Thank you to Dublin, for your friendly locals and connecting me to my other culture. You are beautiful, even through the rainy skies.

Thank you to all of Italy, for its impeccable beauty, delicious food, and history around every corner. I couldn't imagine having chosen a different country to study in.

And finally.

Thank you, Florence. Thank you for holding me in your cultured palm for four months, for welcoming me with the arms of a mother. My hourglass for this trip has finished filtering to the bottom and I'm craving to flip it back over. I only wish I could stay a little bit longer, talk with you for a few extra wine nights, get lost in your narrow streets just one more time. I will always be grateful for your poignant moments that swallowed me whole, for the lessons you taught me when I thought I knew everything. In just four months, you have given me more than I ever imagined possible. My wanderlust urge is far more fulfilled than when I first arrived here. And for that, Florence, I thank you. You are my beautiful city, mia bella città, and I am taking pieces of you back to America. I will be an ocean away, but part of my heart will here be with you; I'll always be that 20 year old girl exploring your hidden trinkets and drinking your foreign air. Io prometto.

I promise.

Lights out,

Britt

“We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again- to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” ― Pico Iyer