Last Sienese Weekend

Only a few days left in Italy before the travel adventure begins! It's odd that this is the last week, but I'm also glad to get moving, because I'm getting a bit restless here. As much as I've really enjoyed being in Italy and had so much fun with my host family and learning Italian and whatnot, it's still hard to be stationary in a foreign country for so long. It's funny some of the things that you can get used to, like not being able to understand. At first it made me feel a little stupid all the time because I'm really not used to just striaghtup not being able to understand, but you get used to it and come to make peace with it. That's an aspect of reverse culture shock I'm definately anticipating: suddenly comprehending everything said and written around me automatically will be overwhelming! I think it'll be nice to be on the move because it wont feel so odd not to feel completely at home and at ease in countries when I'm only there for so long. I feel at home here in Siena in a lot of ways, of course, but there are many cultural things that I just wont be able to understand, and I'm not exactly fluent in the language (although I've certainly come a long way), so its hard to feel completely, as the Italians say, at my ease.
Anyways, my last weekend in Italy was a lot of fun. On Saturday we had our last program excursion,a trip to the beach on the Tuscan coast. The Mediterranean was lovely, of course, and it was generally a nice day relaxing in the sun. Then on Sunday a few friends and I headed to Lucca for the day, which is another small Tuscan hilltop town. It's very medieval looking, and VERY small. We rented bikes and rode the around the city walls. Super pretty and it was nice to be able to get a bit of exercise other than walking for a change! But like I said, Lucca is tiny so the entire loop around the city wall is only 3km so we did it twice in no time. Overall both days were slow and relaxing and a really pleasant way to spend our  last weekend.
And since this is the last week, it's finals, which is funny to me because usually aren't you supposed to classes first? We had classes of course, but none of them were particularly serious or rigorous, so I can't say I'm at all stressed about any finals. I had art history today, which went well, and tomorrow I have a paper due which I've already done most of, and anyways, it's not due until 4:30. It's funny how Italian professors assign things-really, there isn't much of an assignment at all. This paper was basically: write about something interesting we talked about in the class, as long as you have things to say for. It's a funny way of dong things, but maybe  that's just the American in me.
ALSO I almost forgot to mention that Monday was my last day of teaching english to the bambini. Teaching was fun and all but I'm glad it's over. I liked the kids, but coming up with a lesson plan I absolutely hated.  I'm really glad I did it, but I don't see teaching ESL anywhere in my future. But hey, the teacher gave me a giant tin egg full of Lindt chocolate, so I even got more out of it than I was expecting!
Anyways, I'm excited and nervous to get moving, but I know it'll all be a good time.