(4/21) I have never been so sad to finish Finals…

On Tuesday night we pretended it wasn’t finals week and played Monopoly all night. The boys in our Pensione love Monopoly, and finally decided to let the other Annie and I play with them. They are overly-competitive, harsh, and over-the-top, so now we understand why its an all boys game. Annie and I played with them once and decided we should leave it an all-boys game so we would still love them by the end of the week.
Wednesday morning was my Italian final. All three of Russo’s classes (101, 102, 301) took the final in the same room at the same time; yet still there were only about 30 of us in the room. She walked in, put her things down, and began speaking to us in Italian. She thanked us for being great students, told us how happy she was about how the semester went, how lucky she felt to be her age and still be coming and teaching new students all the time. She expressed her sadness that this was the last time we would be together, and how much she would miss us. She reminded us that if we were to ever return to Florence, that her home is always open, and to please come and visit her. Those of us who understood what she was saying were obviously moved, because she too, got emotional as she expressed her feelings to us. Russo and I have grown so close over the semester that I was obviously teary-eyed from the Italian send-off, and even more emotional that I had actually understood it all. My friend Amanda who was next to me had absolutely no idea what had been said so at least I got a good laugh when she turned to me and said “wait, what is going on, why is everyone quiet???” haha… It was a great way to end such a fun class. The final wasn’t too hard, I finished in about an hour. At the end of the test I asked Russo to come outside with me for a picture. She did so more than willingly, and gave me her e-mail address so I could send her the picture and so that we could continue to keep in touch. We had a very tearful goodbye, and quite a long one, before I left for the day, and she went back into the room.
I ran home to put down my backpack, then went over to the train station to meet Lucas Miller and his family. It was so exciting to get to see them! I took them over to the river, across the Ponte Vecchio and to the Piti Palace/Boboli Gardens. Along the way we exchanged stories, I gave them as much history as possible, etc. The gardens are huge, 11 acres, and we walked a majority of them. I left them at 1230 so I could make it back for lunch at home. After lunch I cleaned and began packing. This was obviously depressing so I stopped, and went to meet the Millers again at the Accademia to see the David. After David they needed a rest so we all went home to freshen up for dinner.
That night I took them all out to Zaza’s for dinner. We had a wonderful meal full of stories from mine and Lucas’ semesters. We talked a lot about museums, art, our favorite cities, etc. After dinner Lucas’s grandparents went home and Lucas and I brought out Mr and Mrs Miller to the bars with us. It was trivia night at Old Stove, so it couldn’t be a better opportunity to bring out the parents. The Millers were obviously a hit. Lucas and my friends instantly became friends, and everyone wanted to meet Jim and Michelle. We played some trivia, but not really because we got there late. Michelle is a Delta Gamma so I gathered the other DGs in our program and we took a group photo. We drank, there may or may not have been tequila…all my friends met the Millers, had great conversation, danced, and of course, and most importantly, sang karaoke. The Millers and I sang a song together, then Jim and I sang one, then I sang Man in the Mirror with the girls…as always.
Mr. and Mrs. Miller left us around midnight, and a group of us headed over to Kikuya. We introduced the Dragoon to Lucas and left at closing. Jackie and I walked home a majority of the way with Lucas but had to split when we got closer. I looked for Secret Bakery with Matt Smith and Amanda Westwood, but sadly, never found it. I am determined to find it before I leave…
Ciao!