taking it all in.: we've arrived!

Running on only about 3 hours of sleep in the last 35 hours, it seems like a chore to remember everything. But I want so bad to document everything, so I’m sticking to it! But what a 26 hours it has been.. I said my last (& definitely hardest) goodbyes Monday morning; then it was off to the airport. The five of us girls & our parents stood around for a while, taking pictures & avoiding goodbyes until we finally had to.

the fab 5. the rainboots were not a strategy to lighten our luggage by 5lb, but instead a way to intimidate everyone who saw us. it worked.

Then it was just us – left to fend for ourselves on three flights with 100lbs of luggage each, really important documents, & still maintain enough composure to make it the whole stretch (didn’t last long).

yeah, no problem.

The flight to New York was quick & kept us entertained with the Food Network – it was a great start. Then we enter JFK… it was like we were there for everyone else’s entertainment. Starting with the guy we sucked into carting our bags through the terminals, while we were still somehow dripping sweat walking behind him (in sunglasses, obv). Fast forward to us casually hanging out at the gate, watching as ¾ of our flight boarded, before we realized that the Alitalia flight to Rome probably meant us too.

Luckily, an Alitalia worker liked us & put Caroline & I next to each other on the flight! The planes were nice & we got to watch movies, play trivia, & even Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (mom, you’ll be so proud to know I couldn’t get past the $2,000 question..). You could also watch the landing & take off from a camera on the outside of the plane!

why would you sleep when you can watch the little plane move across the ocean?

landing in Rome!

Naturally I didn’t sleep at all, & we reached Rome around 8am local time. Caroline also didn’t sleep, which was impressive because she took two Vicodin throughout the flight. (Emergency wisdom teeth removal on Friday, mom; I swear my friends are normal.) After a short flight from there, on which I enjoyed waking Caroline up every time she seemed to be finally asleep, we finally landed in Firenze!

there's the duomo!

caroline thought this would be cool. i guess..

A really nice woman picked us up & we cruised around the streets, giddy as small children, taking in all the sights & anxiously waiting to see our apartment. It definitely did not disappoint! It’s so much bigger than we expected, & we were all so (sadly maybe the most) glad to find out it has WiFi! It had a single & two doubles. Blame it on either FOMO (fear of missing out) or the fact that all of us are scared of our shadow, but the single is now bed-less. Mullen, Alyssa, & I are livin it up baby dorm style & I couldn’t be happier. And Julie & Caroline are right next-door! We then went all HGTV & re-arranged the living room & dining room… our new home is just about perfect. (I’ll put up pictures of our humble abode when we finally unpack!)

We had to walk somewhere to set up the Internet & it all started to hit us that we are in fact in Italy, & actually living here for the next four months. This place looks straight out of a movie set & I cannot believe how lucky I am!

walking along the river; ponte vecchio in the background which is what we cross every day to get to class! it's lined with gold & jewelry sellers.. just to go along with every other item market you can find here

view from the ponte vecchio

florentine deltas!

Of course when we got back, we couldn’t get the Internet to work… So Alyssa & I decided to go find WiFi down the alley to email them & see. We realized we forgot a key but with the other three girls still upstairs, we figured it shouldn’t be a problem. Lesson learned: we should always figure there will be a problem. After ringing the buzzer 10458 times with no answer, a man let us in. We went upstairs & rang the door bell even more times.. with still no answer. Confused, with no solutions, & to be a honest a little scared/thinking about Taken, we managed to meet our landlord! He barely speaks any English but is so so nice & gave us an extra key. He also told us the right WiFi password! His name is Johnny Messai, but we have appropriately re-named him Johnny Messiah. Of course Julie, Caroline, & Mullen had just fallen asleep & somehow slept through literally the equivalent of six TriDelt fire alarms. It really was THAT long of a day. To be serious though, & I can speak for Alyssa, maaybe we were over-thinking it, but I hope we never have a scare like that the rest of the time we're here!

After a much needed half hour nap, it was time to go meet all the students on our program for dinner. It was at a restaurant called Bandovino & it’s safe to say I’ll be full for about 3 days. Or until we pass a gelato place on the way to school tomorrow. But seriously – two pizzas, pita & hummus, grilled zucchini & eggplant, fresh mozzarella (authentic Italian – YUM), two pastas, a pear & chocolate pie, chianti, & prosecco – welcome to Italy! We talked with a bunch of people from our program & of course managed to make ourselves even more tired than we already were.

We were all so excited to walk around Florence at night & oh man, did it deliver. Standing in the Piazza Della Signorio tonight (taking really cute self shots lol), we could not stop reminding ourselves just how incredible it is that we’re here! These are going to be some preeetty fun four months. That is for sure.