Sometime in the past few weeks, we hit the halfway point of our year-long sabbatical. We just bought our tickets to go home to LA at the end of July 2017, so it is official. Josh is getting morose and saying that we are already on the downhill slope. I can feel a bit of the list beginning to grow in the back of my mind (get health insurance in the US, get new cars, get US cellphone number again). But, I feel more excited and happy that we have officially hit our stride living abroad. Kids’ school? Going great. Apartment? Loving it. Speaking Italian? Doing just fine, thank you.
I also like the idea of being halfway home. We are having the time of our lives here. I cherish the extra time with the kids and Josh. Sylvie and Noah have really become partners in crime, and so have Josh and I. But, I do miss family, friends and my life in LA. Friends from home have warned me that we will be bored coming home. They think that we should stay abroad, delaying our return to the US. Of course, there is also that issue of the new president.
But we have six more months that will take us to Spain, the Amalfi coast and Switzerland. Josh is going to do a two-week long marble carving workshop in Tuscany (oh, more on that later, don’t worry) and I have a week-long yoga retreat scheduled in Puglia. Most importantly, we are really looking forward to the upcoming visits of Grandma from New York (her first trip EVER to Europe) and my sister and her whole brood from LA. We may be halfway home, but we are not done adventuring yet!