Big news!

Ciao family and friends!

I apologize for not being more up to date with my blog lately. It’s been a crazy last month or so with travel and the end of my program, but I am finally catching up. I am currently writing to you from Killarney, a small town in Ireland. I’ve been in Ireland since the 20th of April and will be headed to London in a couple days before I return to Florence.

I might as well take this opportunity to announce that I will be staying in Florence until mid-July! I got a job teaching an English camp for my English for Pasta family. I am very much looking forward to the challenge of designing and implementing my own English program as well as getting a more authentic and cultural immersion of Florence. I will be living with my English for Pasta family for the next 3 months. The camp itself is only for the month of June. So, I found another job working at a small jewelry shop in the Santa Croce area for the 5 weeks prior to the camp. The shop is The Gold Corner and is actually run by an American woman. It will be my first time working in sales, but I am looking forward to meeting new people and having a new job! I will likely continue to blog as much as I can about my experience this summer.

My program ended on April 18th, and we spent the last week of it taking our final exams. It was quite a stressful time, I have to admit, and a bittersweet ending. Many students stayed to travel for a few weeks after, but a lot of my friends went back to the States on the 20th. This semester sure went by fast but I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful I am for this experience and how much I have learned. I will write again to give concluding thoughts on my semester abroad.

As the Irish would say, Cheers! I will be back.

Mika