Good Old-Fashioned Fun

February 3, 2025

What’s your go to karaoke song? Apparently, mine is You’re So Vain by Carly Simon. My friends found a karaoke bar nearby that is small and quirky and absolutely perfect in every way, and I think we will probably be going there every weekend for the rest of our lives. Or at least for the next six months. It was just good old-fashioned fun!!

It’s so weird how fast time is flying. My friends and I are feeling so ready to be done with school and exams and theses and being jobless, but we also keep getting waves of future nostalgia over the life we are living now. We have so many plans for our last six months here: game nights (Dutch Blitz!), karaoke nights, study dates, afternoon walks, morning runs, cozy dinners, day trips, etc. I love it because all of these things seem so little, but all the best things in life are. Living in Italy is amazing, and I still pinch myself when I walk through a charming cobblestone street every now and then, but it really is the relationships that make the place. I adore my friends here and I’m so excited for us to dive headfirst into our final semester together!

Other than Karaoke, I didn’t do a whole lot this week. I learned a bit about soil microbiology and nutrient cycles, and then I decided I will take my exam in the spring instead of next week. One nice thing about the Italian school system is you can kind of take exams whenever you want to. So future me might hate me for pushing it off but present me is thrilled!

Instead of studying, I spent most of this week writing for the fun of it. I haven’t written a fiction story since my creative writing class in college, and I fell into a different world this week that solely involved my pen and my paper and me. It was the best! I forgot how good it feels to create something! I’m excited to share it when its finished!

It’s funny to me that I moved here to learn about wine, which I am doing, but I’m coming out of it with a new passion for storytelling. The more places I go, the more people I meet, the more I notice the beauty in all the little details, and the more I’m itching to write it all down in story form. So maybe someday I will! Who knows! That being said, I feel like I’m out of words as I try to write this post, so I’m keeping it short and sweet. Thank you all for being here and for helping me rediscover my love of writing! I hope you find some time this week to do the things that fill your cup 😊