If I say the last week has been crazy, is that cliché? Actually, no. I know it is cliché, but that also does not make it any less true.
I got a call last Thursday from my team who was to be here with me. She let me know that for personal reasons she would not be joining me. As opposed to my tendency to react something like, "Say WHAT?!" and then begin hysterically freaking out, crying, etc. I was all, "Wow. Ok. Whatever you need to do." and then hung up and thought, "this will be interesting," which I am super proud of myself for because it ended up the best possible of all situations. I waited to hear from my point of contact with RIT to hear his response and it was basically "Shit. Help. Ideas?"
I took that as my green light to start reaching out to people (Thankfully, Chris had deferred to me about who would be my team from the beginning, which is a huge honor and relief, especially since we would be not only working but also living together.) Anyway, I immediately thought of my friend Becca from home. We went through our sign language interpreter training together, have confided in one another as we made the transition from students to working interpreters, and she loves travel as much as me. I called and texted and then waited to hear from her, and when she called a bit mystified saying basically "I'm in" I passed that info along and she was hired in a 2 minute phone call based solely off my recommendation. I could not be more thrilled that she was willing to drop everything for three months and come on this adventure with me! Also: Phew!
THEN, Friday while out running errands for last minute stuff for my trip, I got an email from RID with my NIC (National Interpreter Certification test) results. I stopped in a parking lot to read the news I've been waiting for for three months, and y'all I passed! I then cried hysterically and called my family and Nick, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. While this is definitely not the be all and end all in my career, it is definitely the next step and extremely gratifying to accomplish.
So, over the weekend, I packed, talked to Becca a million times and otherwise tried to have as normal a weekend as possible with Nick. We went to the public market and bought veggies and ate breakfast sandwiches at our favorite bakery. Ate at our favorite Thai place, had his mom over for homemade pizza, watched Parks and Rec on Netflix. We bathed, trimmed, and played with the doggies. We had banana pancakes and ate at our favorite Indian buffet (yeah, most of our activities are food related.) I was trying my best to hold it together, but cried frequently. He's been so supportive and patient with me the last couple of weeks when my leaving really started sinking in. Gush gush, I love my sweet boyfriend. The end.
I left Monday evening and after changing planes in Detroit (Jetsons-esque airport! Who would have thought?) and Paris (Charles de Gaulle is a cluster cuss. Srsly.) I arrived in Florence Tuesday afternoon. Becca was already at our apartment and after catching up, we explored our immediate neighborhood (so lovely!) and had a delicious dinner (y'all, the food is worth the hype. I could write poems about our simple meal.) I went to bed after settling into my room and briefly Skyping with Nick.
Even thought I slept for 10 hours I felt like someone had punched me when I woke up. Today we had on the schedule "Orientation 12:45," which to Becca and I seemed pretty inconsequential. An hour we supposed? Boy were we wrong. We had a simple breakfast of croissant and espresso (thank all that is holy for sweet sweet caffeine) we went on to interpret for SIX HOURS. Apparently the logistics of studying in Italy for 4 months is pretty complicated, which in retrospect: "duh." To say that we were exhausted afterward would be an understatement. We ate at this fancy reception the coordinating program threw the fete the semester, and then came home and crashed.
Because jet lag is awesome, I woke up at midnight, and have been practicing my Italian. I read somewhere recently that our ancestors kept a similar sleeping pattern with "two sleeps" and I know that freaking out over not being able to sleep won't really help my cause, so I'm trying to be zen about it. It also helps to know that I have nothing scheduled tomorrow so I can play catch up if I need to.
Our students are wonderful. It is really quite lovely here, and I'm looking forward to the next few months! Pictures soon. Ciao bella!
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