La vita si muove abbastanza velocemente

Right now, I am feeling like my life here is flying right by.  It seems like just yesterday I was sitting around in a park thinking how class would never start and now one has and the others start next week. I guess I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now.  But for those of you who know me, know that I tend to over analyze and over dramatize things. I think that may be an understatement.

My day started out by waking up a little bit too late for work to shower (big surprise) so I had to rock a ponytail which is not hard to do with this new short hair.   But it turns out that I wasn't as late as I thought I was and got to work about 10 minutes early.  So I decided to hit up the nearest bar.  Okay fellow Americans. First Italian lesson: Bars here are not like bars at home.  You get coffee in a bar here not shots, beers, and booze.  I know. I bet you were all hoping that I was chugging down pints of beer before I was going to teach little kids English.  I know I was. So anyways, I went to the bar and grabbed "un cappuccino" and hung out at the bar like all the other Italians do. Except the bar I choose to go to had no one in it except for me and the baristo. It wouldn't have been so awkward if I just talked to him but it was so early.  Anyways, I think I might try to make that little place my coffee shop twice a week before work and befriend some locals! That is one of my goals here, to make some places my regular stops so that I can be like some people I see who know everyone when they walk into a store. 

Work was uneventful and so was my first lecture. Afterward, Lauren and I went to Osteria dell'Orsa, a cute little cafeteria that plops you down on wooden benches and really lets you rub elbows with the locals, literally.  Except we were put next to the only other English speakers in the place. Anyways, lunch itself was great.  We ordered bruschetta and I got a giant panino with melted Brie and mushrooms sauteed in wine sauce. I love Bologna!  Then we headed to our program's office.  This is where I started to freak out.  Some of the girls were talking about making a trip to London for the premiere of Harry Potter. Let me just set the record straight. I do not read, watch or pretend to be Harry Pot-ski as I like to call him.  But I decided to tag along because one of my friends, Stefanie, is studying there to get her Ph-D and I want to see her.  After I decided to go I started freaking out.  Here is my though process:

"Okay, if I go to see her the second week in November then the first week I will be going to visit Lina when she comes to Italy.  And the weekend before that is Halloween. What am I going to be?! oh and then after seeing Stefanie its going to be Thanksgiving, which means its my birthday, which means Kelly comes after that.  Then I have finals and its Christmas and then I am basically halfway done with being here and before I know it I am going to be home and I feel like I am not going to learn anything and I will never be able to come back and SLAP!"

This is when I mentally slapped myself across the face.  If someone had heard me say all that out loud I bet they would have gladly done it for me. Needless to say, I left the office a little stressed and not myself.  Luckily, I cooled down on the walk home and realized a few things. I am going to be here for at least 9 more months. Thats 3 more moths than I was here the last time.  I HAVE TIME.  I just need to take a step back and realize how lucky I am to be here at all.  I also realized that my Italian has never been better.  I am learning more and more every day and learning new vocabulary and slang (living with 8 men will do that).  I just need to stop and take everything in once and a while and remember that I have time and I need to enjoy every minute of it!