This morning I completed my last day of school. This means I survived 60 hours of humiliation, also known as, three weeks of brain hurtiness easily numbed by vino.
Mass confusion, daily stuttering, and verb conjugation nightmares aside, I was sad to bid farewell to my Scuola Leonardo da Vinci slice of life. The bizarreness of my classmates became endearing, and I was becoming accustomed to the simultaneous action of my eyes popping out of my head and my heart racing every time the teacher called on me with any spontaneity.
I learned an enormous amount of information. The experience was humbling, enlightening, challenging, and most of all, incredibly satisfying and enjoyable. I probably only wanted to bang my head against the wall for 30 out of the 60 total classroom hours.
Today also marked the successful completion of my father & Kim's first week of school. When I'd meet them outside of their classroom during our morning caffe breaks, my dad's eyes were glazed over and he'd express an urgent need for vodka over brioche. I think his per hour head banging ratio was nearing 100%.
Allora.
Strange, sad, and exciting that it is my last day in Firenze. It's been a perfect 3-week package. A veritable pu-pu platter of life. Ups, downs, the unexpected, and the routine. An opportunity to carve out an everyday role amidst exquisite beauty and sheer indulgence. Most importantly, a new take on the same 24 hours that make up all of our days.
Tonight is a full moon, and the reflection in the Arno has created a true illusion. All of the buildings that parallel the Arno are reflected in the water so clearly that you can not tell that they don't actually exist in double. None of it seems real. Alas. I took a series of photos. Then came home and dropped my camera on a very hard concrete floor. The camera erased all of its memory, and wa-la, the photos are gone. And so, I leave it to your imagination.
I have attached a few other pictures instead. Some that I took from climbing to the top of the Duomo tower (400 steps, but I still need to look into buying maternity clothes) and a few additional attempts at capturing the vast beauty that is Firenze.
I could share stories galore, but I think we should do that over vino instead. Tomorrow I am headed to Montalcino, then to the farm on Sunday. Hopefully I will have picked my first batch of olives by Monday.
More to come...
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