The beginning of the rest of 2015.

Well, thank goodness for that, January is over!

It wasn't a bad month for me, in fact some parts of it were lovely.

It started off by the Tyne in Newcastle, with Tom, watching the fireworks at midnight. It was so lovely that I ended up crying a bit because I remembered I don't live there and I was going to have to leave him again. Haha, all the emotions. Still managed to get a picture though didn't I!

On New Year's Day we went to St James to watch the football, and ended it at a friends house for food and drinks and general loveliness.

The rest of the first half of January was then just filled with relaxing at home and feeling anxious about coming back to Italy.

However, only 5 days after my return Tom came to visit again. We had another lovely week and filled ourselves to the absolutely brim with pizza and wine. We walked to the oldest church in Perugia, visited Assisi and sat in cafes for hours.

The last week has involved doing conservatorio work, planning visits and things to look forward to, and a bit of unexpected snow.

I like the idea of monthly round-ups. I began February feeling like January was crap, but now I've looked back on it I realise it wasn't. The actual things I did were lovely, it was just the way I felt that was crap, and my oh my did the month drag. 

But I think I needed a bit of a down month, I feel ready for the rest of the year now, and to make the most of my last few months in Italy. (Yes, last few months. How did that happen?!)

~

A FEW SIDENOTES:

1. On my way out this morning I had two unexpected but successful conversations in Italian. I don't panic anymore when someone speaks to me and can usually work out what they're saying and come up with a suitable answer. Who needs lessons when you've got good guessing skills?! (I definitely still need lessons.)

2. Being an introvert is OK. I started to feel really guilty about this last month, so much so that I stopped wanting to do anything at all, which isn't being introverted, it's just avoiding things. I've decided from now on I will do more social things when I want and if I want to spend the rest of my time doing my own thing that's ok.

3. There are so many things in Italy that make me think, 'Aw bless. It's all too much isn't it.' Like this morning when I walked through the extremely quiet city before realising a lot of things don't open on a Monday morning. I just imagine all these grumpy Italians still in bed, saying 'No. Not yet. Not ready for week.' (I wish England was like this. Imagine if Monday mornings were cancelled?!) Also, the power in the cafe I'm sat in completely went out a minute ago. And no one batted an eyelid. It must be quite normal for the place to have a little tantrum every now and again.

That is all. Hope you enjoyed reading and seeing what I got up to in January, here's to a more exciting month!