I'm sure Ben Stiller was there.

(and now for your enjoyment...mi vacacione Italiano dramatico!)

With a year of teaching in Thailand under my belt, I spread my wings to fly home, but not before a fun detour. This would not be my first trip to Italy. Six months ago, in April I traveled to Italy to visit my brother, the Air Force guy. I was pleasantly surprised when I hit the jackpot with my brother’s amazing best friend and fellow Air Force guy. My dream (oh come on now, every girl's dream) come true…to travel to a foreign country and meet guy.

My handsome Air Force fella and I did our best to keep in contact when I went back to Thailand after spending three weeks getting to know each other, including many expensive text messages and a phone call every Sunday. I would set my alarm for around 2 a.m. to call him at 8 p.m. his time. We even made plans for my return trip in October on my way back to the states. Endless possibilities of Germany, Rome and Ireland, all the while drinking wine and dancing, two interests we both shared. What could be better than that? Easy answer: nothing. Ready to embark on another adventure, I practically skipped off the plane in Venice. Our reunion was like one you would see in a movie. Okay, not exactly, but in my head there was a slow-motion run set to cheesy music involved. What came next, however, was my punishment for attempting to make plans with a military man and allowing my head to disappear into the clouds of a travel romance.

He had scheduled leave for my entire visit, which would be about two weeks. Perfect right? However, a week prior to my arrival his leave was cancelled due to lack of able men to do his job. FUN surprise! “Our” vacation quickly turned to “my” vacation as our travel time would now be limited to weekends. Insert dramatic sigh here. No worries, I would be spending my days with his loving golden retriever and after work we would cook dinner, well he would cook dinner while I provided entertainment. Lucky for me I am QUITE the entertainer. The outlook still seemed pretty positive to me. I consider myself an optimist after all. I was not about to let this simple fact of him not having time off ruin our time together.


The week went by much as I expected, adding to the list a lot of time spent talking to his sweet dog, but at least we were getting to see one another. I became a bit stir crazy one afternoon and decided to walk from his country home into the nearby town, which was only about a mile away. A bike would have been peachy at this point, but who is complaining? Of course with my expert skills I immediately got lost as I have about as much sense of direction as I have cooking ability. The nervous, about-to-cry breaths were just starting to build in my chest when suddenly my phone rings. I look at the screen and breath a sigh of relief! "My hero! I exclaim as I pick up the call. Now kindly get in your car and come find me," (I'm sure I was polite at this point:) 
He replies with a surprising, " No can do." Confused I ask that he explain why he cannot pick me up. Another unpleasant surprise...he has received orders to Spain and is leaving for the airport, like now. 
"Yeah right you‘re funny, I’m lost...please come get me,” I counter sure that I am on a hidden camera show in Italy. Nope. No joke. He's leaving--for a week. WHAT THE WHAT?! About a million questions scream through my head as my hand trembles while holding the phone. Am I being punked right now? Don't I have a say? What about my holiday? Our romantic travels? So many unasked questions to go along with my tears of frustration, but instead I hang up and start wandering home, definite tears falling now. With a stroke of luck, my military guy passes me as I walk home despondently, pulls over and we exchange a quick I'm sorry, lean-through-window kiss and he’s gone. Just like that I'm left on the side of some Italian road wondering “is this what military life is? Constant disappointment? This blows.

So…to sum up, I’m alone again with no one to blame. Who can I call? Family right? That's what I'm thinking and immediately call home to vent, where I get nothing, but compassion and understanding just like I thought. Wrong again. What I DO get is a lot of, “but you’re in ITALY! Suck it up!” Man I heart my family. (insert a special shout-out to my big sister Sunshine) You all really know how to make a girl feel better. 


After a very s-l-o-w week with the best four-legged friend ever, who is awesome company even though she can't actually talk to me, I catch a break when my brother is also sent to Spain stranding his visiting girlfriend with me. A small victory for my romantic Italian getaway. Someone who CAN talk to me and make guitar hero work (something I could NOT figure out to save my life.) Just add technologically savvy to the list along with cooking and navigational skills. A few days turns into another week without the guys so we are forced to make our own entertainment, including hat fashion shows, free drinks in all three bars in town from old Italian men and...karaoke. Awwww…the wonderful romantic memories.

After two weeks of my “dream” getaway, (HA!) I am ecstatic when he returns. We have less than 24 hours until I depart, but we can finally spend them in the same country! Who knew that dating a military man would be so hard. Did I learn anything from this fantastic trip abroad? Nope, not really. I'm sure I would do it all again expecting a different result.