Back in Milan...

Well, after a two week long hiatus I find myself back in Milan, Italy. New Years was great in Dublin, Ireland. Christmas was also wonderful in England. I cant remember what I wrote in my last post, so i may be reiterating a few things.

Christmas was great because I got to spend some time with family. For those of you who have had to spend this time away from family can understand some of the homesickness that goes on. But being in England and the welcomingness of my cousin and his family made me feel at home. It was something that I'll never forget and I'm very grateful for the experience.

Dublin is a really cool city. Very lively, with tons of pubs (many with traditional live music) and yes, everyone actually does drink Guiness (a bit strange to look around the bar and see black pints everywhere)! Once again I was welcomed into someones home and shown a great time. I think I may still be recovering from the traveling/new years party!

So now the new news in Milan is me trying to extend my stay in Italy. This is the short of it: there will (hopefully) be some papers waiting for me at the school when I go tomorrow. Then with these papers I can apply for an extension of my stay. Could I stay without getting these papers and an extension? Yes, I'm rather sure I could, however, herein lies the rub... When you leave Italy they check your passport and give you an exit stamp (at least leaving from an airport). If I decided to stay without getting my 'permit to stay' extended and they ask for it when I leave, there would be problems (my roommate told me that they have asked her for it before). The punishment, as far as I know, would be not coming back to the EU for 5 years. Now, the school told me that people last year had no problem just leaving the country after 3 months and coming back in for a new stamp for a new three months. I, however, am skeptical. I'm hoping that this week I can figure out what needs to be done, as I'm kinda getting stressed thinking about it right now. I'll keep you all updated on that as I wade through it all. But let's finish with something a little more upbeat...resolutions!

I usually don't make New Years Resolutions, and when I do they usually revolve around me saying 'I'll work out more' or 'I'll be in better shape'. More or less I think everyone does these. But this year is a little different. At first I didnt have any resolutions (hell, I even skipped the workout more ones). Then I started reflecting on my vacation over the holidays as they started winding down. I was amazed at how nice people were to me. Welcoming me into their homes, giving me food and drink, showing me a good time, a nice place to sleep. I was honestly touched by it all. So I thought it would be right of me to step up and make a resolution to be the most welcoming of a host that I can be to people. True, I do not get the chance to host people very often but I think I can stretch this resolution into other areas to make up for that by striving to be a generous person in general. So what does that mean? Good question, it's a bit too broad. I guess everything that has happened in the last few weeks has made me realize how much you can make someones day (or much more than that) by just putting the good foot forward and being welcoming. I hope I can really do that in the new year and I hope to have many opportunities to put myself to use (so come visit me in Italy or even Portland when I get back!!!).

In other news...
Lately I've been feeling like things have been put into fastfoward. People are getting engaged/married, my little cousins aren't so little any more, two of my cousins have had children recently, friends are getting careers and moving away, etc. It's all a bit big to grasp, especially being away from it all. So what am I getting at here? Not sure. I guess it's hard to see what will be happening in the future (like it's ever been easy). All my close friends and I have been doing school for years and years and now it's kinda time to break away from that. I've been thinking of what I could/would/will do when I get back (whenever that is). I'm fairly sure I don't want to go into gradschool, at least not right away. However, after going to the natural history museum in Dublin a bit of the archeaologist in me woke up and I've contemplated doing a summer field school in eastern oregon wihch is ran through the U of O, but that is kinda one of those distant thoughts. Teaching? Wine business? Something else? I'll probably find myself in my two old jobs (if possible) at least for a while when I get back so I'll have some time to earn some moolah and think it over.

Well, I could probably go on a bit like this, I'm a bit of a stream of consciousness writer. Whatever comes to mind at the moment makes it up here by the time I actually sit down in front of the computer. So we'll end here, for brevity's sake. Everyone take care!

matt

p.s. - I'm currently reading 'The Hobbit' in Italian. Awesome.