A week and A Half so Far

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Hey ya'll!
Yes I did copy Vincent with his Travel Blog but I have figured that it'll be much easier this way so I don't have to explain what's going on in my life to people over and over again.
So if you are here, it means you know I'm in Italy for the summer! Yeay!
So i'll fill you in on what has gone on so far in my journey:

May 26th:
Around 1 pm I get shipped off to Italy by madre and fly to North Carolina. Upon arrival I meet up with Lauren and we go to the Tequilera restaurant in the Charlotte airport. Pretty nice airport might I add. I don't really remember what we ate but I know it was good. So we chatted and caught up for the 2 weeks that we hadn't seen each other and then walked to our gate.
We didn't have to wait very long to board the plane but once on Lauren got the girl sitting next to her to switch seats with me so we could accompany each other on the 8hr 45min plane ride across the ocean. I feel bad for the girl that switched with me because my seat was in the middle next to some really old lady that was dressed in a sort of german/normandy-ish traditional dress... thing. I dont know but I did feel bad.
So of course we get straight on the little tv's in front of us and check out our movie listings. Twilight was our first choice and we began watching it even before we took off. Never mind you, that we took off a half an hour late!
So we get rolling and the next thing we know we are in the air. Of course, like any other human being, I go to recline my chair. Then I sit up to get something and I lean back but my chair is up right again. I push it down again and then it is upright once more. I try to put it back again and this lady behind me yells " There is someone behind you, you know." I had my ear phones on so I didnt quite catch was she said until a couple seconds after so I couldn't come back with a witty comment. But honestly, HELLO! its an airplane! there are people behind everyone and every body reclines their chairs! I lean back if someone in front of me leans back thats how it is. So I had to sit up for another hour or so until she went to the bathroom and I leaned back. I guess she switched places with her daughter or granddaughter I don't know which one it was but for a while I sat comfortably. My seat also wouldn't stay reclined so the whole flight i was basically pressing down on the seat as well as "relaxing" and having to deal with the now girl behind me kicking my seat, etc.
Morning comes, we eat, groggily look around, watch another movie, whatever and then we hear this girl talking about the program we are in and we realize we are going to the same place. What do we do? Make friends! Duh!
We find out we have about 10 minutes to get to our next flight so Lauren, this new girl Kayla and I are somewhat rushing through customs (I was swiss), and get stuck at security.
We miss our flight by five minutes but we just saunter over to the ticket counter and get put on the next flight. We have breakfast with our 7 euro breakfast passes the airline gave us and then get on the last flight.

May 27th FLORENCE:
Yeay me finally made it. We walk into the baggage claim area which is super small and wait for the bags. Takes a while so of course potty break.
I come back from the bathroom and the other girls have their bags; Lauren with two rollers, 1 small roller and a big purse, and Kayla with a back packing bag and a small duffel ( I envy this one's packing ability). I get my two rollies and we head out. We see the SAI lady who greets us and says, "Where have you been?" so we tell her the whole story blah blah blah and we wait for the shuttle.
It was HOTT. We weren't even moving and we were sweating bullets.
Finally, get on the shuttle with some other SAI people and drive through the town to the main office. The van ride was very quiet as we were all pushing our faces on the glass to see this new foreign place we had just arrived to.
We get our keys, phones and orientation information and go out to the van area where our bags are dropped on the side walk and we separate into individual vans that take us to our apartments. We arrive at our apartment. Via Dei Servi, 19. We get our stuff dropped off and we sit down for a quick breather. We are finally here.
Our apartment is on the 3rd floor which means the 4th floor since there is the bottom floor, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

THERE ARE NO ELEVATORS.

WE HAVE 4 SUITCASES BETWEEN THE 2 OF US. PLUS OUR BACK PACKS AND PURSES.

hmmm tourist much?

We start hauling the suitcases up the stair case........... 20 minutes later we have our stuff in our room at the apartment. Two of our roommates are already there and we say our first awkward/excited hello, how are you, what's your name, where are you from, etc.
Then our other two roommates come home from wherever they were and we go through it all over again.

We sit down for a little while and unpack a few things. Then we head out to get our modems and cell phones. Takes us about 30 minutes to find the place we are supposed to go to and then we walk around for a bit. Get some groceries. We finally get our computers back and cell phones and meet up with our roommates for dinner.
I don't quite remember what we did that night. I think our roommates went walking and Lauren and I came home to try and clean up a little.

May 28th, ORIENTATION:

Orientation is at some Meditteranean hotel thats like SO FAR. We finally make it there sit through some introduction information and then head out before our individual meetings at 3pm. We do some walking, have lunch, have our second meeting and then go home.

May 29th, First Night Out!:

First night out. We are all excited.
First we start with a bottle of wine. As we have been doing since we got here.
Then we go off to Astor. It was still early so we were the first people there. Free shots! Wahoo!
Get two bottles of wine and around the time we start the second people start coming in.
Before we know it, the club/bar is pretty packed. One of our roommates friends that is in Florence for the weekend meets us with her other 5 roommates. Lauren and I go up to the bar and ask the bartender that, "Since we got two bottles of wine and 6 shots before can we have 2 free shots?!" (blinkyblinky eye lashes) He agrees and women have conquered once again.
We decide to go to a bar called the Red Garter. Next to a bar called Home Sizzle (I think this is hilarious). On our way over! Around 1130 we HAVE to stop for Gellato of course. We have had it every day since we got here.
We arrive into Red Garter and make our way to the bar. Get some drinks and head into the back room where there is Karaoke. we can tell tonight is going to be an interesting night
By now we are all happy, having our moments of, "Oh my god guys! We are in Italy!"
Lauren and I sing Shania Twain "That don't impress me much." And Addison and her friend Diane sing another song, the name escapes my memory.
Around 2, we stumble out of the bar and try and hail a cab. I make friends with two guys that are very nice and start asking them how to say things in italian. How do you say this how do you say that. They keep laughing at different things and I repetitively tell them not to make fun of me as they keep telling me they are not but that they each keep doing silly things.
We can't all fit in the cab so Lauren and I journey home by foot. Which is not far at all!

May 30th, LAZY
We sleep till about one. WOW.
Walk a little and then make dinner.
Lauren cooks the chicken and I make the salad.
Thanks to my sisters excellent instructions I have heard so often I made awesome salad dressing.


Taking a break from writing! Be back in a couple hours to finish what we have been up to!

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Comments

[nadi]

darn right. best dressing known to man.