Halfway Equals Sad Day

Another month over. Another month closer to that thing I've been trying hard not to think about lately...

As much as I hate to do it, here's my updated to-do list of what I've accomplished so far this semester and what I still have to do before I have to say good-bye to bella Italia in May.

The original list from December 16 can be found here and the first update from February 8 is right over here.

• Go to Croatia.   *Booked.
• Go to Germany.   *I definitely don't have the time or money for this.
• Go to Ireland.   *Again, it looks like I can't afford this.
• Go to any other country I can go to.   *Greece and Madrid are booked.
• Get a touristy photo of me holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• Eat authentic Italian pasta.
• Drink authentic Italian wine.
• Take a Beatles tour of Liverpool.   *In the planning stages.
• Get a photo of me crossing Abbey Road.   *Planning.
• Take a Harry Potter tour of England.   *Part of the Liverpool trip.
• Get a photo of me at Platform 9 3/4.   *THIS IS HAPPENING.
• Strike up a conversation with a local.
• Try to read an Italian newspaper.
• Spend a day just people watching.
• Follow a road just to see where it goes.
• Visit all of the major Italian cities.   *Not happening. There are more than I thought. But Florence, Rome, Assisi, Venice, Milan, Sienna, and Orvieto are checked off.
• Visit Dante Alighieri's house.   
• Swim in the ocean.
• Actually see an ocean.   *Hello, Cinque Terre.
• Stay in a hostel.   *Doing it tonight in Madrid.
• Attend an Italian youth group with Jess and Katy.
• Go to an Easter service in a church older than the United States.
• Appreciate the fact that I can be in anything older than the United States.
• Get lost without panicking.
• Do something 100% spur-of-the-moment.
• Grocery shop in an open-air market.
• Make one purely selfish and frivolous purchase.   *I'm going to call going to Madrid my frivolous/selfish purpose since it wasn't on my original list of places to go and the sales here are over, which means I can no longer afford a leather jacket.
• Hang my laundry out to dry over the street.   *Not legal in my neighborhood.
• Watch the local news.
• Learn about international communications (duh).   
• Learn at least enough Italian to get by.   
• Learn about art.   *"We call this an... en- ... tab- ... lature. Come on guys. You know this." Rocky is a trip.
• Live out of a backpack for a weekend.   *Rome, Assisi, Orvieto, and Madrid!
• Go to a pub.   
• Take more photos than I know what to do with.   *For real.
• Blog every (?) day.   *Like I said last month, I have failed at this. But at least I keep up with this blog.
• Remember to keep my feet off the frescoes.   *So far, so good.

Unfortunately, it seems I didn't dream very big with this list since it's basically all checked off. Also, from where I sit now, it seems my goals have changed quite a bit since I'm booking trips I never intended to take and skipping over places I had wanted to go. In the case of Germany, other opportunities have come up in the past two months that just seem more appealing to me. In the case of Ireland, I still really want to go, but it would be my most expensive weekend trip and I have no one to go with since no one can really afford it.

I'll have to go when I'm older and Mom can come with me.