Arrivederci, Firenze

 The Ponte Vecchio, from afar.
 michelangelo's tomb, in Santa Croce
 Santa Croce, rear side.
 Firenze...I'll miss you
 The Arno river.
 Where many crappy, sub-par papers that I never would have turned in were this a class in NY, were written.
 Our bathroom.
 The 25 line bus stop, right down the block from our dorm.
 From the top of the Uffizi, the Duomo
 Near Santa Croce, quaint bar.
 Elinor tries her luck with Senor Pig.
 The Conversations in Italian summer class
 The Duomo - night time. Spooky.
One of the last walks up Via Bolognese...AKA Death Hill
 My bed. Obv. the lower, messy bunk.

So I leave tomorrow, and I'm sitting in ym room now packing up. I put in some pictures of my room before I started packing, which I probably should have done when I first got here, no? I always get nostalgic at the end. I spent the day today on my own, finally saw the Uffizi, Santa Croce Church (where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried), and another museum. Also did more shopping to get my list more completed. I have my final exam in Italian in an hour, but I'm not neervous for it too much.

Last night my Italian class went out with our teacher for gelato downtown. We saw this statue of a pig which is apparently famous. It has a mouth and water dribbles through the mouth - you make a wish, and put a coin in the pig's mouth, then let go. Right beneat the pig is a small grated area where your coin will or will not fall into. If it falls straight in, without bouncing, your wish will come true easily. If it bounces all over before going in, it'll come true - but not right away. If it bounces off, and does not fall through the grate - - - forget your wish, it ain't happening. I (stupidly) wished for med school acceptance, and tried THREE TIMES. It wouldn't freakin' go in!!! Everyone laughed, and it sucked. But then I tried again, without telling people what I was wishing for (actually, I didn't tell them before what I was wishing for,t hey guessed on their own) and I thought of a specific school I wanna go to... I put the coin, and it went straight in. :-) It was a cool night. Tonight, we're all going to go out together for one last hurrah before everyone leaves tomorrow morning. The group flight is at 5:30AM. I'm not on it, but 75% of the people are, and will be leaving the villa early tomorrow. I think I'll go with them, just bc I don't wanna be left alone here. I have to buy a third suitcase because I bought so much shit here. I also have to store it in the Florence train station for 2 weeks while I travel, because I don't wanna lug three bags all over Europe. Va bene, we'll see. I don't want this to end.

David