i am not going to write about the bad things going on because i don't want to think about them. i have been struggling during this last leg of my trip; in fact, i tried to skip my trip to paris in the first week of august to go straight home but i could not change my flight. it is probably just as well. when will i be here again?

anyway, i am dripping with sweat and it is still quite early in the day. here, when you leave the house in the morning, you are already sweaty and gross. it's just something you get used to, like having a second skin. a second skin of grime. yum.

i am excited because i am going home for three weeks and then doing a semester in texas. boyfriend and i will finally be able to be together consistently. it will be wonderful!! i was talking to this guy who works at a restaurant near my apartment last night during a late night gelato run. he was like, 'gelato eh?' and i was like, 'i won't be in italy much longer, i have to.' he was like, 'aw, we won't see each other anymore, etc. but i bet you miss your family.' i was like, 'i miss my boyfriend.' then i realized that that might have sounded badly, like i don't miss my family, but he nodded and said, 'lo so,' which means 'i know.' i think he meant it in a 'i can understand that' kind of way. it can be difficult with another language because i try to be literal, translating word for word into english in my head, but it doesn't work that way at all. for example, he didn't know i had a boyfriend so he wouldn't say 'i know.' maybe he meant it as 'i see.'

it will be kind of sad to leave, if only for the great neighborhood acquaintances i've made. i can't stand any of my neighbors back home. and i doubt people will greet me with a daily 'hi beautiful!' as the often-used 'ciao bella's flow abundantly here, from men and women. if it were not for those, i might throw myself into the canal, living in a country with really thin women and gelato everywhere.