My Apartment (26-01-2012)

My view

My apartment is huge and gorgeous. It is in Piazza de Santa Felicita. I have three keys. One to get into the building, the other two to unlock my door. It took a lot of experimenting to figure out how the locks work. The lock is very tricky, and you have to turn the key most of the way, but not all the way, to open it. Luckily, Jackie figured out how it works before we were all out of the apartment and no one could let us back in!

Main hallway to my other roomies rooms! 

Still our room.

Jackie's and my room!

As one of the last people to arrive at the apartment, I was given the smallest and furthest room in the house. It takes a left and two rights to get to it. After a bit of arranging of furniture, the room has been successfully made ‘bigger.’ Because Jackie’s and my room is in the middle of the complex, it is also the warmest. Though the other girls have great window views and direct access to the veranda, we have no outside noise to keep us up and stay decently warm.

Yes, we have a veranda! The apartment is between the 5^th and 6^th floors, which is 6^th and 7^th floor to Americans. The complex does have a lift that fits two people comfortably, but we have been using the stairs a lot.

The apartment has two kitchens, two refrigerators, a dining area, some small eating areas, two and a half bathrooms, a living area with TV and three bedrooms for 6 girls. I have to say it is a pretty good deal!

We could not figure out how to get the heat working the first two days, but we were able to ask a maintenance person to come and show us how it works. Now we shall be comfortable! Because of electricity being difficult to come by (Italy does not produce any of its own), we have to be very conscious of how much electricity and water we use. So the heater only goes three times a day for 2 hours each time. Better than none! Short showers and turning off all lights is a must. Jackie and I have already successfully blown a fuse—we now know where the fuse box is.

It almost feels like two apartments for how big it is! I am so happy and blessed to have been placed in such a beautiful apartment.

Hey Mom, I'm in Italy!!! (25-01-2012)

I wrote this yesterday before I had internet.

I have never been subject to such torture as two transfers and three flights in less than 24 hours.  I exaggerate—Well, maybe not. Most of it was pleasant. International flights keep you plugged in with movies such as Harry Potter 7 part 2, any music, and multi or single player games. I rock at solitaire, just so you know. Towards the end of the 8-hour flight, though, I did not feel well. Maybe motion sickness caught up to me, or the long day had, but I really wanted to crash. I finally zonked out in my last flight from Amsterdam to Florence for an hour that I do not recall. I think that nap has allowed me to stay up to 9:00pm Florence time when I woke up 6:00am Racine time. I don’t want to know how long that is.

I can tell you right now that I love the shuttles that ship you from one terminal to another. They are so fast and smooth that it is almost like flying, just on the ground. In Chicago, the shuttles are above ground traveling over a decent distance. In Atlanta, the shuttle was underground, and the distance shorter. The contrast was amusing for whatever reason. None of the layover times were long enough to be bored, which was very nice.

Other than my plane-mate Abbey, a colleague of mine, who kept me on my toes and knew where to be and when, I ended up meeting a Facebook friend, Monica, on the international flight. We all got along great, which was very cool. Another classmate was on the flight, but we did not meet her until later. Jessica and I talked Doctor Who and Sherlock all the way to the flight that would take us to Florence. New best friend? I believe so.

On the final flight to Florence, I saw the Swiss Alps. I have seen the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains earlier in my life, but I have to say, the Alps take my breath away. While the Rockies and Cascade are a straight line, the Alps are a forest of land jutting high into the sky. They go on forever! It makes me sad, though, to look at them. Parts of the mountain are bare due to the glaciers melting off of them. Trees have crept up to the snows edge, but now it looks as though the snow bleached the summit tan and let the forest darken the bottoms. Houses dot the mountain-sides in niches. It is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Don’t tell the Rockies, but I’m having an affair with the Alps!

All my bags were accounted for! That worry was down. I had some confusion with my last ticket, and I feared that my bag would get lost. The fear was in vain, though. Everything has gone smoothly so far!

Well, that ended. Over half of the class arrived around the time my flight did, but only two shuttle buses were reserved to take us to the office. I had to wait 2 hours before finally getting my baggage in the van. Compared to the Netherlands, it was baking in Florence! Staying in the sun for all that time is sure to have fried some of my brain.

I have settled into Santa Felicita apartment with my apartmentmates Makena, Devan, Gloria and Leah. My roommate is Jackie, and she is very kind to let me move everything around before she came and to let me have the comforter. Makena, Leah, Jackie and I went out for dinner this evening to a pizza place. It was a great time to talk and enjoy our first meal in Italy.

I cannot wait for tomorrow!

P.S. I will finally have pictures of my amazing, totally renaissance apartment tomorrow! It is better than I could ever hope for.

I'm off!!

Will you look at that? I can't believe it--I leave tomorrow!

After all the packing and repacking to get the required weight for my checked bag and the scanning of all my documents, I finally have settled down to write this.

I now realize the things I will miss. My college friends who are totally awesome and take me as I am even when I'm being fecisious. I have to make new friends! I always forget how daunting this task is for an introvert like myself. Hopefully someone in the program likes anime! I'll miss my family. I don't see them during the school year much anyhow, but it will be weird not having them coming up to seem me. I have a feeling I will miss certain books I cannot bring due to weight/size requirements...

Getting closer to this experience has also humbled me so much. Many people have given me their support in so many different ways. It makes me feel more and more like I'm supposed to be going where I am going. I am honored so many people think highly enough of me to go out of their way to make sure I meet the goals I have set out for myself. Thank you, everyone!

I do believe it is almost 11:30pm right now. I will be waking up at 6 or so, so I'd best get to bed! Love you all!

One Week!!

I'm getting the final preparations for going to Italy wrapped up. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have all my clothes packed and the necessary documents copied.

It is not as easy as I thought to get my wardrobe set! I don't consider myself to have an obnoxious amount of clothes, but the challenge to whittle down to a week or two wardrobe is formidable. And the hats. Oh the hats! If anyone remembers, in freshman year, I had 16 or so to choose from. I'm picking my more classy hats for Italy. That leads, of course, to the need of classy clothes. Italy is more fashionable than America, and that is a change I look forward to. Can't wait to see all the gents dressed up nice!

So the status is I have clothes on every piece of furniture in the basement family room spread out and a slowly growing pile of "not taking" clothes.

I can't believe I only have one more week until I leave! Well, less than a week if you are technical... It is still a little befuddling to me. I don't think my mind has fully comprehended the situation yet. I can assure you my body already is anxious, though. I have not eaten well for at least two weeks! That is troublesome. I have not craved for ice cream in two weeks. It is very horrible.

Please check back for I am off soon! Thanks for following!

Two weeks and three days...

... I can't believe it is coming so fast! It seems as though yesterday was freshman year, and I was plotting my adventure abroad. I recall arriving a week early for a retreat my freshman year and making an appointment before classes with the study abroad office to get my name into their system. A little soon, no? I recall Rosemary Sands, the Italian study abroad advisor at the time, was surprised at my appearance, but happy for my enthusiasm. Now, as a second semester Junior, I am done with the waiting!

I can honestly say that this is the first new experience I have actually dreamed about, or to say I have expectations of. So many people have given me amazing stories of their experiences, that I feel completely at ease with daydreaming up my own. I enjoy the fact that the situations I fantasize about will be thrown out the window due to my lack of knowledge on Italian culture and the people I will actually befriend.

I do have a huge concern: language. I started the LiveMocha free month trial Study Abroad Italy (SAI) offers us, and needless to say, I rock so far, but I admit that I have no confidence in the actual speaking. I only pray that the people I meet will be patient with me in my struggle because I will be putting an effort towards speaking Italian whenever possible. Wish me luck!

What do I have left to do... pack! Buy toiletries! Work... Either way, only two weeks and three days!