My First Italian Blog.. but in English

I packed too much.. of course, what else? My bag was 51.5 lbs until I emptied pills, peanut butter, and extra converters. Good thing is once I did that my bag only weighed 49 lbs (mwahahahahah). I got no sleep 2 nights ago because I was stressing about every little thing. I was grumpy yesterday morning and pretty mean to everywhere I came in contact with (Sorry Mom & Dad!). After trying to check in online (and later found out I couldn't for some strange reason) I got so frustrated and decided to check in at the airport. Even though I was on a "united" flight it was operated by Air Canada so I had to go there to check in. I ate lunch with mom &dad at the same place we ate before Mel left for Spain 2 years ago. I found out I was going to be in the middle seat all the way on my 8 1/2 hour flight but after a failed attempt to change that I accepted it. After eating lunch and saying goodbye I headed through security to the gate and found the people who were standing around the gate check-in counter were angry because their flight to Montreal was canceled (because the engine failed.. full restores my faith in planes!) I am just glad it didn't happen in the air. I sat in a sitcom type boarding gate.. no joke, imagine: a nun texting, 2 small children running around screaming, and 3 women gabbing on the phone. Oh yeah and there was a guy who literally was yelling into his phone. i started reading Eat, Pray, Love which is a true story about a women's self discovering search in Italy, India, & Indonesia (the 3 Is on a self discovery.. haha) Well I thought it would be appropriate since it discusses the fabulous food in Italy. The author reminded me of me because she said her 2 majors are in conversation & food with a concentration in gelato.. yup! So anyway the flight was pretty nice despite some turbulence and there were the cool touch TVs which no one seemed to think was quite as cool as I did.. After landing in Canada, which is a very cold place, and going through customs I waited at the gate for a pretty long time eating chex mix. They did feed me dinner on the flight which was all right as far as dinner on an aircraft can be. Even my middle seat was literally the middle of the entire aircraft, a husband and wife were supposed to be on either side of me so the woman let me switch with her (which was nice) but I guess I still would have rather had a window seat.. maybe on the way back :-D The flight was ok.. way too long but I did sleep some which is more than I expected. Once I landed I felt pretty gross though :-/ I met up with some other people from the Arcadia program (1 is my roommate here) and we headed out to our apartments. Ours is ADORABLE and pretty big actually. I will be taking pictures and posting them later but it's really nice and it has wifi :-) After I unpacked, took a shower, brushed my teeth, and took out my contacts I began to felt like a clean human being for once (hah!). We waited until the rest of our group and Geraldine came to get us then we went for gelato. My first gelato in Italy? FANTASTIC! I got chocolate and mint chocolate chip :-) yummm... Anyway then we walked.. a pretty far way - not sure how far right now to the arcadia center (the school is across the street) to meet the director of the program which was fine and all but I was SO tired & thirsty. She did give us some fresh lavendar from her adorable garden on the terrace. We walked a ways to go to dinner, which consisted of some interesting italian food (but no pasta yet :-( ) then we took a taxi back to the apartment since we could no longer drag our legs anywhere. We tried going to the supermarket but it closed (I am used to Kroger...) so then we got lost for a few minutes but eventually found our way back. Now I am back in my room thinking I am already ready for bed and it is only 9:22 PM Roma time. Until next time, which will probably be in 2 days.. I know this is a lot for just the trip over here and the first day!

Oh and the 3 most Italian things I saw: Geraldine reacting with "Mamma Mia!" when our van driver almost ran into someone, a man honking from a vespa saying "Ciao Bella" at us, and an old lady standing in her kitchen with an open window (we are across the side street from her) wearing old lady pjs making pasta & talking on the phone loudly.

Ciao,
Mary