…so to start from “where we last left our heroes!” (you’re
welcome daddy) I arrived Saturday evening all fine in Chicago and headed to
meet Aunt Wendy in baggage claim, when I am heading down to escalator towards
her only to see someone that I think looks an awful lot like Aunt Maria, after
going down a few more steps I realized, IT WAS her because she was standing
right next to my Aunt Wen! She had taken a coach bus over to the city to spend
the night with us and see me off the next morning….it was a fantastic night,
filled with some fantastic food from a GREAT Brazilian restaurant, some
actually good sleep which is rare for me in hotels, and the best send off in
the morning….we checked out of our hotel Sunday morning around noon, and headed
to the airport, it was finally time….
…I spent the next 4 or so hours waiting around O’Hare
International and somehow managed to lose my headphones, buy new crappy ones,
find how to return said crappy ones, spend the money to buy new better ones,
then lose my new waterbottle (sorry megs, I really did love it too) and
culminate it in a teary phone call trying to be brave to my mum and a cold
Mickey D’s cheeseburger…..needless to say I was more than a little thrown off
by the daunting travel ahead of me….FINALLY I made all the final texts, and
phones calls and was off to see the world and teach myself what I would do if I
knew I couldn’t fail…I boarded that plane and spent the next seven hours
transitioning between thoughts of “oh my goodness I am so excited to be living
in Italy/Why am I so blessed?” and “what did I do? What did I do? What did I
do?”….it was a loooonnnggg 7 hours….but we finally landed in Frankfurt safe and
sound….
….when we deplaned I finally found another USAC kid!!!
Trevor from Ohio J
we went through customs together and went to find the gate, AND another fellow
USAC kid waiting for us…..it was only the 3 of us
that were on the Chicago
flight; however, over the next 5 hours, one by one they trickled in…and it was
so much fun asking and reasking, “whats your name?’”where are you from?” “where
do you go to school?” and with each answer, my fears lulled a little more, I
was making fast friends, and surprisingly I went from feeling like the girl who
was afraid of everything about being in Turin and all that came with it, to the
one of the only people who had ever been to Italy or spoke any Italian (man it
is amazing how God shows you that everything is going to be alright)…five hours
and about 30 new friends later we boarded a plane (and unboarded and then
reboarded due to mechanical issues) a flight to our home for the next 4.5
months….Turin, Italia….
…upon our arrival in Turin…J
)…the rooms are spectacular, super high ceilings, a cute dressing seat with
hooks for jackets, sizable bathroom with a powder chair and best of all……*drum
roll please*…..two small windowed doors, opening to two gorgeous old shutters
opening up to our own balcony!!!!! Its sooooo perfect!!.
after gathering our bags we
headed through the gates and towards the large USAC flag being held by one of
our staff and checked it, loaded the bus, and headed for the city! After about
a 30 minute drive (of which pretty much every eye was fighting desperately to
stay awake) we arrived at Hotel Roma, our casa for the night…it is stunning,
two to a room…I chose to room with my new friend Bethany , of course she is the
one of only 4 of us from the northwest, she was raised in the Treasure Valley
and goes to WSU (after all, us NW girls gotta stick together
…we were given about two hours to get settled, get cleaned up, and explore a bit of the city if we chose before we met for a wonderful “family dinner” at a J so that is awesome, too bad the abscesses are really really bad, that Monday class I am sure is going to be tempting to skip when coming home from traveling J)…dinner started with bread and salad, culminated with chocolate gelato (of course) but mainly consisted of pizza after pizza, each new one a different classic Italian type J perfect, just perfect first meal!...during our downtime beforehand, Bethany and I went exploring
…walking around, window shopping (Jimmy Choo, Louie Vitton, and
of course, Prada!)..Oh! and Dad we found the Eataly store and you are going to
just LOVE it!! I will definitely take you there! I am going back to spend more
time exploring it soon I hope!..and finally stopping into a bar (not a bar like
in the States, here it is like a coffee shop) where I ordered my first cappuccino
of the trip….AAANNNDDDD held my first (of many I hope) conversation ENTIRELY in
Italian….the man behind the counter said my accent was very good! At one point
I couldn’t understand what word he was saying so I told him that I only spoke a
little Italian and he responded by asking if Beth and I were from Spain, and
was shocked when I told him I was American J I was so freaking
excited about it….when we walked out, Bethany did a happy dance for her first cappuccino
in Italy, and I did a happy dance for my most proud conversation!!!pizzeria (we were also given A TON of paper work/orientation materials when we got in that also had our class schedules on it, looks like only one class Monday and Thursday and two on Wednesday
….we finished the night with a short walking tour of
Downtown Turin with one of the staff, Daniela (only one “l” means it’s a man’s
name) and I learned so much of the layout of downtown and saw a lot of spots I can’t
wait to go explore! (So excited to take you on the same tour when you get here
Mum and Dad!) It still hasn’t really hit me that I get to live here, and that I
don’t have to leave in a few weeks…that there will come a time when I know
every street, and can speak without fear to the Italian people…I cannot wait,
this is such a blessed adventure that I have been given and I am loving it!!
..tomorrow it is time to go meet my host family (I am the
only one of all 50 some of us) and start to get settled in there, then the
afternoon to ourselves, so that should prove to be interesting….thankfuly quite
a few of the other student’s apartments are really close to my home so that it
will be easy to stay with them J totally anxious about meeting my new family and
really really excited….
this is it, I am finally here! And sitting in bed, totally esausto from all the travel and flights, being sick,
and being up for over a day, but so elated as to what the next few months will
hold….of course there are many parts of this near future that I still cant
think about for too long or my stomach thinks it needs to tie up in knots, but
mostly all I can think is how beautiful the rain sounds out on my balcony J
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