The Final 3 Weeks in Rome

The past few days I have found myself becoming more and more homesick. I know this is normal and I keep referring myself back to the “U-Curve” model that I learned about in an intercultural communication class. It says that we all start our “new culture” experience at the top of the left side of the “U”, and then as the trip progresses we move down the “U” until we reach the bottom. The bottom is where you realize how much you miss the culture from which you originally come from. After you spend some time at the bottom of the curve you realize that soon enough you will be back in your own culture and therefore you begin to appreciate the new culture that you are in. At this point you move back to the top right side of the “U”, and this is where your trip ends.
I am right now moving slowly from the bottom back towards the right side. For the first 3 weeks or so when we were here I did not really talk to my friends or my twin brother. But, these past 2 weeks I have begun to communicate with them more, thus realizing how much I miss them and spending my summer nights with them at the Yacht Club in Pittsburgh, just hanging out on the top deck of the boat that my best friend owns.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Rome and everything that it has to offer, but it is not America. Even after talking to those German students the other night, as much as they said they hated Americans that made me want to go home and see my family. So I have laid out the things that I want my next (and last) three weeks to be, here in Rome.
I want to experience as much as I can in the next three weeks, because who knows if/when I will be back to Europe. I want to make sure that I spend as much time as I can with my fellow CAS students, because we are all becoming such close friends. I want to continue to do my schoolwork, and do it well. I want to travel more, which I will be. In 2 weeks I will be in Switzerland with Cole and Courtney, sleeping in a hostel in the Alps. I want to try new foods and I want to spend less time in my apartment doing work, reading, hanging out, and spend more time in the parks or on a bench on the Corso, just people watching. I want to make sure that the next three weeks of my life in Europe are the best three weeks in Europe that anyone has ever had. On the 27th of June when I roll back into Pittsburgh airport at 6:45pm, I want to be able to tell my parents, and my friends that I went to and experienced Rome/ Europe.
I know that in a matter of weeks after returning home and starting work and getting my other Penn State classes done, that I will want nothing more than to be back in Rome eating gelato with my friends as we talk about where in Europe we plan on going this weekend.