Heeeeere!

Buon giorno!!!

I made it all in one piece, and with all of my bags (probably the most exciting part)! Here is how it goes:

Leaving on Monday was actually much less stressful. Suprisingly, I was 100% more composed than I thought I would be, especially saying goodbye to Mom & Dad. Got to the Columbia airport with plenty of time left to spare, and actually was able to eat food (and keep it down!). The flight to Atlanta was just fine. I sat by the window and next to a HUGE guy who was on his way back to Kuwait. Then got to Atlanta, found my way to my next gate (which was different than what it said on my ticket), and just hung out for a while. Allison made it with about 30 minutes to spare, and we boarded for Rome. Unfortunately, there was a little girl inbetween us, so we didn't get to snuggle on the plane. Daniella was going back home to Italy from vacation with her parents in Mexico. She didn't know a lick of english, except to ask us our name. She slept the whole way. I didn't sleep any on the plane, and the movie screen wasn't working, but I managed to keep myself occupied. At one point, I got up to walk around, and I got to see us flying over Paris at night. Very cool.

So we got to the Rome airport, and it was dead empty. No one around anywhere except for those of us getting off the plane. We met up with two other students headed to Genoa, and made it through 3 or 4 different security places, checked back in with the airline, and then sat around for four hours for the plane. I managed to get about 30 minutes of sleep. Then we boarded a plane (a huge plane for about 50 people... very empty) and made it to Genoa. It was beautiful flying weather, really awesome to see all of the islands (especially Corsica). We had to fly back down through a thick layer of clouds, and landed in Genoa (practically right on the water). Shared a taxi with two other girls (which was more like a roller coaster), and got dropped off right outside of our door. Literally. I could roll down the window and knock on the door because it was so close.

So now, after a bit of reshuffling, I am in a room with 6 other girls (yeah, I know... but at least I'm not on the bunk bed), and we have an awesome balcony with phenomenal views of the city and the ocean.

It has been cloudy yesterday and today, but still fairly warm.

Went out and walked around the city some. There are stairs EVERYWHERE! Must be thousands or so, but you don't really notice until you are on the way up. Haha.

Funny story: Today when we were walking down, we saw a woman get bodyslammed by a MOPED! Haha, she ran out in the street (maybe trying to catch a bus) and only looked in one direction. Unfortunately, in the other direction was a moped. She got up and limped over to the side while the woman on the ped was yelling at her. Traffic stopped for a bit, but then went on like normal?!?! I can't imagine the lawsuits and such that would've taken place had that happened in America.

Class started today as well. We have studio 2:30-5:30 MWTH, a couple of history classes in the mornings, and field trips on Tuesdays. We got our first assignment today, but it's pretty much just walking around the city and taking pictures, so that should be fun to do this weekend.

Alright, that's all for now. I'm not proofreading this for obvious reasons, so deal with it.

CIAO!

Sara