Finally Here!

After a long three days of Traveling I finally made it to Florence.

Shortly after missing our connection in Paris, we discovered we would be set up in a complimentary hotel for the night. We were told our next flight would be at 7pm the next night. We were excited to get to our hotel and Tina and I soon headed into Paris via train.

After buying our tickets we decided our first stop would be Notre Dame. On our way in Tina and I got a look at the slums of Paris. It was hard to believe what we saw..if anyone has seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire, it looks something like that. Finally we made it to Paris. We had Gyros (a cheap meal) and explored the Notre Dame area.

We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower, which consisted of about an hour of walking in the wrong direction, a few missed train stops, then another hour of walking, until we finally made it. Exhausted, we explored the area for a bit, then walked to the nearest Metro and made our way back to the Hotel.

We arrived at the airport hours early to make sure we got to the right spot. Charles de Gaulle Airport is a nightmare, FYI. Upon security check-in we were informed that our flight was at 7AM not PM as the man had told us. (We had met another Santa Reparata Student named Toni and she was with us as well. We were helped by the information desk receptionist who told us we could only be on a waiting list for the day and the next flight he could get us on was Wednesday morning.

We decided to go on the waiting list. After a few hours were were told that there were three open seats. We ran to the gate but there were only two left when we arrived. I let Tina and Toni go ahead and I told them I would find a way.

I headed back to the information desk where an extremely helpful woman got me a flight to Rome connection to Florence. I gladly took it, and headed to a different terminal, went through security again, and waited by my gate. The rest of the night went well, ran to my Florence connection in Rome. Arrival in Florence saw me with No luggage and some sympathetic French women.

My taxi ride to the school was interesting. My driver was going 50 over the speed limit and was writing a response on facebook while he was at it. Fortunately he was nice enough to help me get someone in the apartment to let me in, because my paperwork had the wrong apartment number. Some other SRISA girls finally (reluctantly) let me in. And I went through a good portion of the Apartment knocking on doors until I found home. I've never been so happy to see Tina.

Looks like I wil be taking Painting IV, Printmaking, Italian Cinema, History of Modern Florence, and Italian I.

Everyone I Have met is so helpful and I am looking forward to the semester here.

Tomorrow begins intensive Italian training. (6hrs every day for 3 days!)

Here we go!