Home

Coming home was weird. Well, first of all, it was terrible because we didn't get in until 2 a.m. and I didn't go to bed until 4 a.m. I didn't sleep at all on the plane from Venice to JFK, maybe 15 minutes, and we had a five-hour layover. So when the plane from JFK to Pittsburgh was delayed, I was not a happy camper. I slept the whole time we were on the runway and the whole ride home.

But that's not why it was weird. I couldn't sleep through the night for probably three or four days, which was bad because I started work on Monday and needed to be up at 6.30 a.m. I was only getting about four hours of sleep and then falling asleep on the couch for like four hours. For some reason, I could not get back on cycle. I found that weird because in Rome, I had one day where I was kind of funky and then I bounced right back. I attributed this to the fact that I didn't really have anything to do--in Rome, we had a schedule to follow and stuff to get done. Here, I didn't really have anything to do until Monday, and I knew that it was just work (a summer camp for special needs kids) and I've done it for six or seven years so I didn't need to go to bed early. Which was a bad idea.

I'm still not completely unpacked. But in Rome, I didn't unpack for like five days, so I'm right on schedule. I just feel like it's weird being back. I'm used to building and people everywhere, and it seems so much duller here because there aren't people or anything anywhere, because my town is fairly quiet. I'm also used to that different pace, I guess. I'm used to moving slower and not getting that upset about anything, but just taking stuff as it comes. That's been a tough adjustment, especially with one co-worker who's always trying to get a rise out of me.

I wasn't really ready to come back. From the tour, yes, because I didn't like it as much as I did the whole Rome experience. I loved Florence, and Sienna and Venice, but I didn't like the pace or the set-up. I wasn't ready to leave and would have loved some more time in Rome. Maybe next year...