Home Sweet Home

I am ready to go home.  I know that is not something you are supposed to say when you are in a beautiful foreign country like Italy, but it's how I feel.  I have been here for 80 days and I am simply ready to spend time with my family and have a room that is really mine and be in my own bed with my new pillows that I got for Christmas, and cook in my own kitchen, and simply be home.  The thing about home is that it is were everything is familiar and you come to know what to expect, especially from those who you are closest to.  After nearly three months here I still don't know what to expect each day from Mike or Cristina, or Ale or the baby.  Their moods, reactions, assumptions, and feelings are still in many ways a mystery to me and it's tiring trying to read them all the time.

There are so many thing that are different here but one of the main ones is the hospitality.  Both of my parents, but especially my mom, have taught me a great lesson in this area.  They always have an open door to the house.  And what's even better is that they LOVE it when people stop by.  They love meeting my friends and putting names with faces.  My mom would take in anyone.  Once I called to ask if I could invite a girl home for Christmas who had no place to go.  Before I even asked my mom suggested that I bring her home with me.  She then went on to say that if needed she would personally call this girl to invite her, and that she would do some shopping to make sure that the girl had presents under the tree to celebrate.  This melted my heart and although it did not come as a surprise, amazed me how generous and open hearted my parents are.  Mike and Cristina are great people but they just do not have the same mindset.  They plan on having me take the bus from Bergamo to Milan to the airport, instead of taking me themselves.  This would be unheard of in my family.  It saddens me somewhat to think that they don't want to take me to the airport to see me off but I keep telling myself that this is a different culture and that not everyone sees things the same way but it is difficult.

My experience has been great but now I am ready to be home.  As Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says, "there's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's not place like home."

Love from Liberty,
Peggy