Arrivederci!

All good things must come to an end, and so today I had to say goodbye to some of my dearest friends here in Italy. It was bittersweet: on one hand I felt incredibly fortunate to have had them in my life, but on the other hand it seemed unfair to have to leave them all so soon after we'd met. Still, we made the most of our last night together, sharing dinner, drinks, an evening out, and a very late night of YouTube videos to compare national senses of humor. By the time I found myself in lab at 8:30am, I felt incredibly exhausted but had a smile across my face and my heart. We always say at MIT that you can only pick two of the following: school (or in my case, lab), sleep, and friends. I felt as though I were back in my MIT environment and had obviously made my selection last night and this morning. After so many months away from the sensation, it felt good in that masochistic MIT way. This afternoon I dragged my suitcase with me to the cafeteria and had the good fortune to eat lunch together with my friends one last time. Afterward, my closest friend even accompanied me all the way to the bus stop and gave me a couple wonderfully appreciated hugs. It touched me that as I closed out my six-month stay here in Pisa I didn't have to take the final steps out of town alone.

I can't deny I'll miss them loads, but leaving them puts me that much closer to the seeing my old MIT friends for one last term and it also brings me that much closer to my return to Europe. I'm certain some of us will meet again. As it turns out, I already have an invitation for Thanksgiving 2009 and several guests who've promised to visit me next September in Paris. Pisa's been wonderful, but I suppose it's time to close this chapter of adventures and open the next. After all, I'm not flying home until January 18. As they say in Italian, arrivederci, which means to the next time we see each other!