Word Vomit= an uncontrolled spilling of words out of your mouth.
Thanks urbandictionary. In this case, it is an uncontrolled spilling of words coming from my keyboard. A completely disorganized spilling of words. I have a lot of ground to cover since I haven't posted in over two weeks (minus the "Seriously?!" I posted ten minutes ago but had saved at least 3 weeks ago). I dedicate this post to my nagging family members... enjoy!
So before I left DU, they had these mandatory pre-departure sessions we had to attend one gorgeous, spring, weekend afternoon. They gave us a bunch of information that was quite overwhelming at the time, but one thing that stuck was the diagram of the cycles of the abroad "feelings/emotions". There was the initial culture shock, then the crazed "I love Europe slash being on my own" phase, and then the inevitable home sick phase. They call it the emotional rollercoaster. Me, being so independent and adventurous thought "no way will I be getting homesick. I've never been homesick before in my life, why would I be homesick when I'm in one of the coolest cities in the world?!" Well, guess what. For the first time in my life I am homesick for Maine. I'm beginning to think just America in general because all these emails I get from Delta Zeta, Daniels (the Business school) and HRTM (my hospitality school) with invites to career fairs, workshops, formals, homecoming events and other campus updates are really getting to me. I almost cried when I found out that Garbanzos and Spicy Pickle had closed on campus. I suppose I forgot that the rest of the world keeps spinning while I'm gone. I was really missing the fall season, the green grass, the orange and red leaves, the Columbus Day tourney at Shaws Field with hot cocoa, being able to wear a light sweatshirt and jeans, apple picking season, apple cider, the pumpkin patch, pumpkin donuts, I could go on but will stop to avoid further homesickness. The big one though is the greenery. Florence is a city of stone. Ancient, historical, full of culture, beautiful stone. But, nonetheless, stone. Majorly lacking in the vegetation department. Guess I took the gazillions of trees in Maine for granted. (Maine- share the love and send some over to Florence). 
So having this strange, unfamiliar feeling of homesick come over me, I decide to research cheap overnights in the countryside in Tuscany. I managed to find the one hotel with the most gardens, and brightest, greenest pictures. This was Tuesday night. Having sensible friends, they decided it wasn't worth it financially. Fast forward to Thursday morning. Before school. At my desk. Ready to walk to class, with my bag and shoes on. I decide to check my email real quick to see if I have a response from my Danish relatives. Nope. However, I do have a "Booking Confirmation". What? Oh, wow look at that, I have a booking for... tonight! Booking already went through on my credit card. Nice. Looks like we are going to... (still don't know what city we were in). So it was one not so cheap night in a city that only god knows about, but with some of the prettiest gardens I have been in (of course not including Nani's) . It was the perfect garden-getaway I needed. And provided me with the best meal I have yet to eat in Florence. The meal alone was worth it in my book. 
And then obviously chocolate helps everything. The International Chocolate Festival in Perugia was sure to help with my homesickness. Sure did. After eating double my weight at the chocolate lover's haven, I felt much happier. They had miles of tents selling everything you could ever possibly imagine doused in chocolate. The original chocolate truffles and bars in every crazy flavor you could think of, chocolate hot chocolate (which is just melted hot fudge), chocolate pasta, chocolate absynth. Chocolate absynth! As in the alcohol that I get a buzz off of by just sniffing it. I responsibly refrained from that sample. Also wimped out on my pear-flavored chocolate juice box- which I gave to a friend as a gift :)
I guess I will leave Rome for its own post..
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