May 203 min read

Jetlag!

May 19, 2024

I think going from home 1 to home 2 (Italy to the USA and vice versa) gets harder every time I do it. It’s hard to leave Italy because I like my routine and love life here, but the minute I settle in back in The States it feels impossible to leave my family, the normalcy of life, etc. Then again, the minute I get back to Piacenza, it feels like I never left. It’s easy to jump back into a rhythm of sorts, and it’s always good to see my friends. The toughest part of the transition this go-around has been the jetlag honestly.

My sleep schedule has been rather insane! I got back to Piacenza after a 24-hour travel day around 10:30 Tuesday night, unpacked, and fell right asleep. That’s been my only normal night of rest.

Wednesday, I skipped class to catch up on other classes, then I finished The Women by Kristen Hannah. If you like feeling nauseous and depressed, you might enjoy that book. I was up sobbing at 2am because of it, then spent most of Thursday in an unproductive funk. We had a crazy thunderstorm that day, which matched my vibe perfectly. Around 7, the weather and my mood cleared up, so I joined some classmates for an evening aperitivo.

I wish America would embrace aperitivo culture a little more.

I went to bed at 11 that night and got a whopping 2 hours of sleep, then hopelessly laid awake until 6 when I headed to the Dolomites for a fieldtrip. We went to Fondazione Edmund Mach where we were able to visit an experimental vineyard and winery. They are working on editing genes within grapevines and apple trees in order to create more disease resistant varieties. I’ve enjoyed my grape and wine biotechnology class this semester (despite being utterly confused the whole time), so it was really incredible seeing the technology behind it. I just about fell asleep standing up while on a tour of the lab though. Thankfully I got a good nap in on the bus ride home, then slept a full 14.5 hours that night. It was incredible.

Saturday, I woke up in the late hours of the morning and had a slow breakfast before heading out to get a coffee. I went and ordered a cappuccino from Rosanna, my favorite café owner/Italian mother, and was heavily judged because it was after noon. I explained that I’d just woken up, so she laughed and made me one despite the unwritten Italian law that cappuccinos are illegal after 11. She even sprinkled a bit of cacao on top of it. We sat at a table outside, me sipping my cappuccino and her smoking her cigarette, and caught up for a while. I had to use google translate a few times, but she told me my Italian is getting better! Hooray.

I walked around the normal Saturday market, ran some errands, then stumbled across a Parisian market. I got a new lavender pillow mist from Provence and ate a true pain au chocolat (sorry Italian friends, I like French pastries more). That night, a few of the gals and I sat outside and chatted over a glass of wine, then I snuggled in at home and watched Disney’s Atlantis. What an underrated movie.

It was a tiring week, but a good one. I’m happy to be back.