And that’s a wrap! My year abroad is over!
It feels like an incredibly long time ago thinking back to starting the second half of my year abroad in Italy, let alone completing my placement in Gran Canaria or even my very first weekend in Las Palmas, but yet the time has genuinely whizzed by.
The last little segment was a bit of a struggle, especially as my temper began to grow thin with the project and my host family. By the end, the only things keeping me sane were my regular spritz dates with the girls and the thought of my impending trip to Florida. It didn’t help that I was being forced into writing 4000 words in broken Italian on some random subject for an essay that counts a whole 5% towards my degree.
How am I a fourth year? I’m so not ready for that. Seeing all my friends graduate is so scary, but I’m very excited to be done with this degree and get started on my next project – learning to fly. What better way to unwind and relax before the stress of final year than another trip to my favourite place ever and second home?
Beaches are my havens, which is why is spent as much time as possible by the sea on our private beach when I returned to Florida in June. This time I took Kim, and we spent our days chilling on the sand, eating so much steak and soaking up the early summer sun. Southwest Florida may not be the first destination that comes to mind when you think of shopping, but it is seriously one of the best. Coastland Mall, Naples, and Miramar Outlets in Fort Myers offer some of Florida’s best shopping centres, and we definitely took advantage of this with my spending spree totalling way over a thousand dollars; sorry Dad. We also ate our way through as many restaurants as possible, with Outback, Naples sporting one of the best steaks I’ve ever eaten, and my all time favourite rack of ribs in Bricktops, Naples. Downtown Naples has a great set of restaurants only a stone throw’s away from the public beach and pier, a great place to watch Florida’s famous sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico. We even managed to get up to Fort Myers to watch a Miracles’ baseball match, (which unfortunately they lost), but it was fun all the same to sit with our hotdogs and beers and cheer on the teams with our British chants in our extremely English accents.
It truly was a great way to start the summer of all summers. Next up, a Mediterranean cruise.
This is the life.
