Day 1 almost down! It’s about 8:00 and I am ready for bed. I said that 9/9:30 is the earliest that I can go to sleep, though. (I think I can make it!)
So, I left our of Ohare at 3:20 on the 27th, meaning I’ve been awake for more than for about 32 hours now. (And for those of you who know me know that I’m not a night person.) We got to the airport a little less than 3 hours in advance and had one last lunch at McDonald’s. Yes, that was by choice. Katie and I met up with our roommate Jackie then and we walked to the gate. We sat there all excited until we boarded. Our Alitalia flight finally took off from Chicago around 4:10. Katie and I had the idea to take some Tylenol PM, so we did sleep a lot of the way. Not the WHOLE way because the flight attendants felt the need to wake you up every time they brought out the food or drink carts. (On the plus side, the dinner was very delish.)
We arrived in Milan around 7:30 a.m. Italy time. Getting off the plane we realized that all 10 of the St. Norbert Students going to Florence were on the same flight. That made it fun because we were in a big group the whole time. Customs in Milan took about 10 minutes, but I had a little bit of a scary moment. The person working customs looked at my VISA and asked me why I was arriving in Italy a week before my VISA was valid. I had no idea the answer to that question and just told him because that’s when I planned the trip. He talked to the guy behind him and finally let me go.
We just sat around Milan for 2 hours, bought a water (my first experience with Euros), and finally it was time to board. Now, in Italy there is absolutely no air-conditioning anywhere, including the bus that they packed all of us into to take us to board the plane. Now I know why the Italians are known for their lack of deodorant.
The plane from Milan to Firenze was very short. It was a small plane, though, so a bit of a scary ride. When we got to Florence we had to take another bus from the plane to get our luggage. All of the luggage was there, so that was definitely a good thing. Katie and I were both pretty relieved. My first impression of Italians is - no personal space. I was standing trying to get our luggage was surrounded by people, many of them touching me. They were very willing to help me lift everything down, though, so that was nice.
Waling out of the airport there was a man holding a Study Abroad Italy sign. They split us into groups and drove us to campus to sign in, get our apartment keys, and our cell phones. Well, the drive was very interesting. First off, there might as well not be a middle line because we were going into oncoming traffic for a good portion of the time. Second, I learned very quickly that cars do not stop for pedestrians. I can't use any of my Chicago skills, that's for sure!
After our van ride, we got to the school which is right on the water. We got our apartment material, bags of little snackies, and our ghetto cell-phones. Then they dropped us off right at our apartment door. Here's where the fun started. It was about 92 degrees and we live on the 3rd floor. That = about 12 flights of stairs. Carrying up all our luggage was a trick. THEN we finally got to the "3rd floor" and realized there were no numbers so we didn't even know if that was our room! Well, it was, and our apartment is very very impressive. It's 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, full kitchen, family room, and reading area. Katie and I chose the biggest room away from the other rooms. It's really plain, but I'm sure that'll change soon.
The best part, though, is our apartment is literally 3 blocks away from the duomo. Katie and I can open our 2 windows and see a perfect view of it. (Our school is a good 20 minute walk, but more exercise = more gelato?) The duomo is so beautiful. The line to get inside was probably a few hundred people deep, so I'll have to figure out a good time for that.
There are millions of stores all over the place, so we went into a few of those, but we're saving it more for tomorrow. We ended up stopping at a grocery store that is accross the street from our apartment and got some dinner and went back to eat. After unpacking and showering (in the freezing cold because there is no such thing as a water heater here) we made our way to the closest internet cafe, which is the next street over! I am ready for bed, though. I want to get up early and hit the streets.
You can e-mail me at emily.buckley@yahoo.com
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