I've been super busy lately, but I can explain why: I finally graduated from high school and.. my American brother came to visit me in my home country! As soon as I picked him up at the airport it was like nothing changed during this year apart, like I never left Colorado. But the thing is, I did leave last year and now he was the one on my side of the ocean. I spent 3 weeks with him, during which we toured Italy and spent some nights out with my friends. It has been awesome, we went to Lake Como, Verona, Venice, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Rome and Cinque Terre. I hope Italy didn't disappoint him, he ate Italian food, visited the colosseum and rode a gondola, is there something more Italian than this?

Already half of my summer passed by as I will start college in a month, but I am for sure happy of how I spent it. I had the chance to visit a lot of my friends along our trip and I got to do new things. But Sunday my American brother's time here expired. My family and I drove him to the airport and I helped him checking-in. The hardest part of the morning wasn't leaving him, because his visit made me realize that there will be other opportunities to see him in the future. What has been hard was not boarding with him, knowing that he was going to land where I once landed for the first time almost two years ago. As I was slowly walking out the airport facing the ground, I thought I would have done anything to catch that flight as well. People told me I am crazy. I mean, seriously, why would I go back there when I live in freaking Milan, Italy? I know, my American town sometimes smells bad, I gotta walk 30 minutes if I want to get some Subway or a cup of coffee, but so what? it is still MY town, with people I love.

As my exchange brother was on the other side of the gate, I started feeling strange. I cannot explain what I felt, but it was like leaving my exchange for the second time. As I did a lot of high-quality stuff in such a short period of time, I felt sad because I missed the fun I experienced a few days before, but I am feeling better now as I know one thing: there will be the time when I will land at DIA again, and it will be beautiful and emotional. I just gotta be patient because the right time will come and it will feel amazing. There's like a transparent chain that connects my American family and I, no matter how many miles divide us and how many months pass by, we will be one and the same because even if a solid year went by, I still feel part of the family.

READ ALSO: TRAVELLING BACK TO MY HOST CITY AFTER TWO YEARS.

- Cris