I’m here!!! Definitely hasn’t started kicking in that I’m in ROME, ITALY. =D The flight was wonderfully uneventful. Leaving was kinda hard, but once I got through security I became much less stressed…the luggage was either gonna get there or not: all I had to take care of was me, myself and I. Sitting around in the airport for three hours got long, but I passed them by reading a novel (and no Jake, it wasn't a steamy Romance novel, lol) I bought at one of those little airport stores, working out a crossword puzzle, and stressing just un poco. The flight was short. Maybe a little bit more than an hour? And then I was in Philadelphia where I had another three hours to kill. While I waited for my next flight, I also tried to find Sara, a girl who I had contacted through - what else??? FACEBOOK - and who I knew was supposed to be on my flight to Rome. Once I got in line to get my boarding pass stamped (about an hour before the flight left), I heard someone mention North Carolina and, stupendo! There she was, looking exactly like her picture! She was with another girl….whose name I can’t recall right now, and we spent the rest of that hour getting to know each other over our last American meal - McDonalds, of course! Hey, what can I say, they really wanted a last hamburger and fries. I tried telling them that you can't escape McDonalds no matter where you go, lol, and how true...I've already seen three Micky D's in Rome. We didn’t sit together for the flight, but it didn’t really matter – I tried sleeping for most of it. There were no good movies on, so I listened to my ipod (which had barely ANY music on it – thank you, Gintarai, you totally erased most of my music! I woke up in time to watch a BEEEEEAUTIFUL sunrise – first everything was blue. Every imaginable shade of blue. Now, I don’t really like the color blue, but how can’t you NOT like BLUEblue? I mean, there are the fake, commercial colors that you see in advertising and on furniture, and then there is the sky blue: a color totally separate. Where the sky met the clouds, there was a light, bright blue, and then the sky deepened first into a periwinkle color, and then into the prettiest lavender. Ok…I’ll stop gushing – suffice to say: It was rather enjoyable.
When the flight ended, I once again met up with Sara and….what IS her name? Short brown hair, headband, and funky Ugg boots….??? Also two suitcases, plus two large carry-ons…heehee…made me feel better about my rather large suitcase situation! But HEY, guess what? My other duffel came out safe and sound with only two rips in it...I wonder if I can find duck tape in Rome? We exchanged some money at the airport – the American dollar is so worthless! The exchange rate was something like 1.6, and then they took out 11 percent for a service charge! Sheesh. I might have waited, but Sara and the other girl wanted to do all that then and I wasn't sure when I'd get another chance. We were all making our way to customs…when we realized that there ARE not customs! Lol Here Americans are so paronoid about checking and rechecking everyone coming into their country, and Italy had one passport check and that was it! Yipee!!! There were two guys waiting on the other side for us – one was an older gentleman – quite enthusiastic – and holding a little Georgia flag (I found out later that he's in charge of the program and his name is Rick - he's really nice). The other guy was a college grad who lookes like he’s Italian, but is actually a student from the U.S. who's here to do a year of teaching. Sounds fun – I wander how you get that job??? They showed us where a whole ton of other Cortona students were waiting, and so we sat down with them and gabbed until ten, when our bus took us to our hotel.
Our hotel is nice – a LOT nicer than what I expected. I’m sharing a room with two girls. Once again, their names escape me. Can you really blame me??? I’ve known them all of a couple of hours, and have had very little sleep, plus gained six hours in the deal. They’re both upstairs sleeping right now. I’m tempted to do the same, but I now that it’ll be easier in the long run if I stay up until about nine-thirty, at least. I want to get adjusted to this time FAST – it’s irritating to be all jetlagged and everything! =D The hotel is made up of several buildings - the main lobby and restaurant are in front, then you have to walk through these really pretty gardens (and some gravel areas – not so fun with heavy suitcases) to get to the other buildings. I’m staying on the second floor of S. Pancrazio. Right now I’m sitting in the entry way, where there are two , pink stuffed chairs and a table with a green marble top. Our bedroom has three beds – two twin and one queen. The twins make up for being small by having softer mattresses and being higher up – rather like normal beds. They’re set off in another room, but one that isn’t seperated from the main bedroom area. I’m sleeping in the queen, which is low to the ground and doesn’t look comfortable, but okay…I’m not ACTUALLY complaining, just trying to describe it! The bathroom is TINY – it is comprised of a sink (no soap), a toilet and an eeny, wheeny shower (so small that I had to turn off the water in order to lather my hair). It’s fun though – I’m really enjoying getting to know everyone and hearing Italian everywhere. I haven’t been quite brave enough to initiate a conversation, but have been listening intently and trying to hear words that I know. My vocabulary is very small right now – consists mostly of: ciao! Belle! Molto Bene! Non oh capito! Uno, duo, tre!
Right now I am counting down the minutes until orientation (@ 6). I. Am. So. HUNGRY! And I refuse to take a nap. Not happening.
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