Journal Entry #7

December 18, 2007

I cannot believe that the semester has finished! The past two weeks flew by! I've been busy finishing up all of my schoolwork and getting in last visits to some of my favorite places in Florence. The city has overnight turned into a Christmas wonderland with lights hanging over all of the streets! I have finished my internship and am getting ready to take all of my finals. We had a dinner with all of the girls who had internships to talk about our experiences. It was so nice to hear all of their stories from the past semester. We also had a farewell dinner with all of the students abroad in the Fairfield program to begin to close everything out. We all agreed that we were excited to get back to the US!

It has been an amazing journey being abroad and there are many lessons that I will take with me. It has been the most difficult challenge I have done so far in my life; being away from my family and friends, living on my own in a city, adapting to a new culture, and traveling through Europe. I will always cherish the memories of the time I was here. I've made so many new friends, explored my own perspective on the world and challenged my personal views. I am so excited to come back home with all the knowledge I have learned here. Even though I will definitely miss many things about Florence (such as the gelato, the café and pasta!), I am ready to get home to my family and friends. One of the hardest things for me being abroad was being away from them and I have definitely learned to appreciate them all so much more! It is definitely a worthwhile experience to go abroad whether it is a semester or a summer session or break trip. At times, it seemed like a long journey but looking back, the time really flew by!

If you have any questions about my experiences abroad, please feel free to e-mail me at 09_eekberg@stagweb.fairfield.edu. I would be happy to talk to you about my time here and all of the fun things I was able to do! I can't wait to get back to Fairfield for the Spring semester and hopefully I will see you on a tour! Ciao!