Jet lag, what what??

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Bonjourno!

I have arrived in Italy!!! I was here for maybe a total of seven minutes before I saw man capris (manpris). That nutty Italian fashion!

The plane ride was a nine hour plane ride, what to say? My butt hurt. My legs hurt. I slept an hour and a half, and I have yet to take a nap today. In my college time, I have never pulled an all nighter. So, I guess this is as close as it comes. Ideally, I don't want to take a nap today in order to acclamate myself to Roman time. We'll see what happens when 4:00 rolls around (it's 1:40 right now). Oh, and all the Italian male flight attendants (they weren't all gay!) had some ridiculous sideburns.

My first glimpses of Italy weren't really that exciting. Maybe it was the fact that it was 1 AM my time, but it looked a lot like Los Angeles. Palm trees. Brown expanses of space with spots of greenery. Grafitti too. However, there were not as many people. There was also an annoying guy behind me who liked to hear himself talk, and thought that he could still go to Oktoberfest for cheap without already having any reservations (joke's on him!).

Campus is nice. I'm still taking it all in. Today feels, in a word, surreal. I've been planning this trip for so long, that it feels weird to actually be here. I walked into my dorm room and thought, "I have fallen asleep and woken up in freshman year." At first glance, I thought my room was a total shithole (no air conditioning). But it's actually not that bad (it comes with a fridge, and hangers in my closet!). My roommate is named Mary. She's from Kentucky and is very nice. All in all, I feel like a freshman again. Walking around confused with that glazed look in one's eye trying to meet new people. I feel like I should have a lanyard around my neck- like all the other freshies back at LUC.

Honestly, I'm very excited to be here, but I'm also feeling a twinge of US sickness. It's sort of like a resurgence of those awkward freshman feelings of 'i don't fit in.' I imagine/hope those feelings disappear when orientation begins and we get to know each other. But for the time being, I'm sort of on my own.

I miss you all!
Love,
Katie.

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