Oh, the places you will go...

My first official post on my first official attempt at staying connected with everyone who has access to the web. I have never been the type to record my inner thoughts in a journal or ever wanted to post a blog about them, but seeing how I need to be some what organized about my thoughts and concerns as I get older, this seems to be a very modern and easy way to do just that. I do not write poetry when my heart gets broken or jot down lyrics to songs when I am feeling blue, however I do confide in my closest friends and some times random companions at the local bars when I have something on my mind. (So, really what is the difference?) Yet I have noticed that my random thoughts can catch the unsuspecting person off guard if they assume my outside matches my inside.As of now, I have spent 6 months living in Italy. Just this sentence alone can send anyone into a wild and crazy chase through their imaginations. Searching for images of Coliseums, Tuscan hillsides, acres of hazy vineyards, etc... And I would like to say that that is exactly what it has been for me. However this would be a lie and my new years resolution was to stop telling fibs. To me Italy has been played up by countless movies and tourist brochures. I am sure that Italy is everything and more of what people proclaim it to be, yet still, that is not my Italy. My Italy is amazing though,to say the least.This past January I decided to do something different. I had been in Savannah, Ga for almost 3 years of college and (to me) have nothing to show for it. (Besides a few really close friends, college credit and countless failed attempts at love.) I wanted to get out of the life style I had in that place. My second home, Savannah, was and still is my bitch lover. I changed so much when I was there. I started disregarding my morals and values. I hurt people and stepped on people to get what I wanted. For this I will forever regret, yet I have learned from my mistakes in that place and have moved on....To a new chapter that I have forced open with my decision to move to Italy.One of the easiest decisions I have ever made was to travel here. I knew that I needed to find my own way in this world. I just had to find the right road to get there, even if it did take me around the world and back home again. My thought process during the time of my decision went a little something like this: I am 21 years old and what? What am I going to do? Do I want to continue college without a sense of direction? Do I want to keep depending on my parents to fix everything for me? I have to start a change! I must figure out who I am before it is too late and some one else is telling me what to be. I don't want to get stuck. Stuck in a job I hate. Stuck in a life I hate. Which eventually I would start believing I was happy in (because that is what I do) and then I would get stuck in a fake world that on the outside seemed perfect and put together but some where in side would be a crack that would one day bring down the entire foundation and I would crumble beyond repair.No, this was not acceptable. So I searched for an alternative and found one in a book I had bought my sister years ago when she was in her second year at college. " Delaying reality" was the title of this sneaky little book. I find it quite funny that I bought this book as a joke for my sister and I ended up taking advice from its pages. But fate has a funny way of doing things like that. I found a solution for young adults in their twenties looking to get paid to travel. " Ah ha" Be an au pair for a family in the location of your choice. So wait, I get paid to live in a different country and the only task I have to do in return is play with their children? Excuse me but why don't more people know about this?So the deal was made. And I jumped on a plane in May and never looked back.First, I ventured to Paris to see a beautiful city full of lights and to visit an old friend from college. I made new friends with a Dutch and a strange American from Oregon (of all places) and left the city limits of Paris to see the Palace of Versailles. That evening we decided to roam around my side of Paris and found ourselves at the Eiffel Tower. Adam (Dutch) bought a bottle of champagne and french wine from a vendor under the tower and we sat in the park and watched the light show. (Which I have to add is my favorite memory of Paris, sitting with strangers in the park at night, drinking cheap cheap wine and beholding one of the most magnificent sites made by man, the Eiffel Tower light show. It truly is something magical.) I allowed the two new friends to stay with me in my very small hotel room, however they opted to sleep on my rather large balcony, which seemed to me strange at the time... but who doesn't want to sleep under the stars in Paris?The next morning I was on the train to Milan to start my new life.[Photo]