It is the last day of May, and I am beginning the final countdown to my departure from Canada. Twenty-eight days from this moment I will likely be getting off of a plane in Florence, grabbing my luggage, cabbing to the train station, and traveling to Sienna where I will meet the eight other interns who I will be living and learning with for the next three months. From what I know so far, there is a good group. We've got one man from England, one girl from Hungary, five girls and one guy from America. I am the lone Canadian of the group!
To say that I am nervous is an understatement. The past few weeks have been a jumble of elation and fear. This will be my first time traveling outside of North America, my first time on a plane, and the longest I have ever been away from some of my closest friends. Of course, I am so grateful to have been picked for this internship...it is the chance of a lifetime! However, I know that I will miss my loved ones so much. This nagging little voice in the back of my head tells me that everyone and everything will move on when I am gone and that I will be confronted with a strange new world when I return. (Or maybe I will be that one that is strange and new. Logic and experience tell me that things in Fredericton rarely change.) I don't think that the reality of being in another country for three months has sunken in yet. For the moment those are just words on a page; I don't think that I will appreciate their full implications until I have arrived in Europe.
Don't get me wrong. Through all of this anxiety, I am happy and excited to experience a new culture and to meet new people. I am, perhaps, more excited than I can express in words. I suppose people often focus on the negatives, even when they are far outweighed by the positives...
My plane leaves on May 26th from Fredericton. From there I have stops in Montreal and Frankfurt, and I arrive in Florence at 10:10am on May 27th. By 5pm I will be in Sienna to meet with my group and travel to Spannocchia. My last day will be August 27th, and I will be taking the same route home, touching down in Fredericton on August 28th. Please keep me in your thoughts while I travel, if you feel so inclined.
I will not have a lot of access to computers while I am on my internship, but I will try to keep this blog updated so my friends and family know what I am up to over the three months that I am gone. I have a digital camera, so I will try to post some of the photographic highlights on here if I am able to.
That's all for now. I will keep posting here as I count down my final weeks in Fredericton and prepare for my internship.
Love,
Bridget
