Here I sit, one week from the end of this incredible journey. A hot caff\u00e9 Americano is placed on my table amongst my books and laptop and tattered journal. \u201cGeorgia on My Mind\u201d gently fills the room with a smooth jazz rendition. I cannot help but believe that the caf\u00e9 owner put this song on just for me. I am the only American in here, it just so happens. This has become my favorite place. I love the way the owner knows me. He speaks Italian to me even though he knows I don\u2019t understand. I speak English back. I have begun to understand him though, the way he works. We communicate through bad Italian, bad English, and facial expressions, and its like we have this understanding of each other, a sort of harmony in this dance routine.
\nAll of the sudden, I realize the insane beauty in this mirrored moment. A week before I left America, I sat in a coffee shop daydreaming about Italy and what could happen. The coffee shop I sat in a month ago is my place in Athens. It is my home away from home. The barista knows me and my order. We do not need words, and I think if I came in speaking another language, he would still know what I wanted.
\nNow I am here, in Italy, and I have gained so much more than I ever expected. I sit and drink coffee, and daydream about what life must be like for these people. I wish I knew Italian. I wish that I could get to know these people better and love them with more than just a smile and the few greetings I have learned. Maybe one day I can give back to them in the same way that they have filled my life. I want to play them a song about home as they sit in my coffee shop in Georgia. I want to speak English to them and attempt Italian and in the end rely on hand motions.
\nSomehow I always end up here, in a coffee shop, daydreaming. This place is beautiful. This life is beautiful. Cortona is my home away from home away from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here I sit, one week from the end of this incredible journey. A hot caff\u00e9 Americano is placed on my table amongst my books and laptop and tattered journal. \u201cGeorgia on My Mind\u201d gently fills the room with a smooth jazz rendition. I cannot help but believe that the caf\u00e9 owner put this song on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,35,28,23,3,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-faculty-led","category-italy","category-maymester","category-reflection","category-viticulture-and-enology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}