I've Arrived!

Hey Everyone! I made it!!! It took forever.... 

The flight from Minneapolis to New York boarded on schedule, but we had a bunch of people not able to fit their luggage in the overhead compartment and so they had to be checked. Then we had to have ice removed. Go figure. Needless to say I didn't land in New York until 11:00 when I was suppose to land at 10:00. This was fine for me because I had a long layover, but I had crabby people next to me on the flight that were pissed about being late so I slept the entire two hour flight. Apparently I was tired?!? When I got to JFK I got one suitcase back (the nicer one!) with the framing ripped off, which led this minnesotan in search for duct tape :) but I found the next best thing--siran wrap! I had my bag wrapped together for the next flight and then had to get from terminal 4 to terminal 1 and leave it to me to get on the tram going the wrong way... which again was fine since I had a lot of time to spare. I only had to wait twenty minutes to check my bags, they check in starting 4 hrs before the flight, but then found out that my flight was already delayed an hour. so I had to wait until 5:15 to board when it was originally set to leave at 5:05pm. I slept a bit, so it didn't seem too long, but we actually didn't end up boarding until after 5:30 and we didn't leave until almost 7:00 (lots of waiting on the tarmack). those international planes are HUGE and ours was really nice. I got a window seat but it was dark when we left, but was nice to have when we landed! I sat next to a girl that actually lives in the same apartment building so it was nice to meet someone who'll be living close! From JFK to Rome was 4270 miles I believe, and 7 1/2 hours. We were served dinner, beef or fish (halibut!!), which was really good actually, and the wine was complimentary, go figure! we also got a little pastry and a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast. They showed some movies, one in italian and then Fred Claus but I read mostly. I didn't get a lot of sleep. I did do a lot of reading--Ash, I read 15 chapters of Twilight! We didn't get to Rome until 9:15 and we were suppose to get in at 7:30am, and our connecting flight to Florence was scheduled to leave at 9:30. luckily, since it was the group flight for arcadia students, that flight waited for us since there were like 30 of us. But we still didn't get to take off until after 10:00. The flight to Florence was super short, maybe half hour. We got in about 11. I was very ready to be off the plane. I had a lot of problems with my ears popping, but otherwise my illness wasn't too much of a problem. When we got to Florence (tiny airport!) I luckily got both of my suitcases (many lost theirs!) and we got transported to our apartment (in a Mercedes Benz by the way) and literally thought we were gonna die! They drive so fast there and stop so quick and really dont look out for pedestrians (Nama don't worry, I just have to watch for cars instead of the American way of 'the pedestrians have right-a-way). The roads are very narrow and streets and signs hard to decipher. We were told to not expect much room in our apartments but found out that our apartment is really nice and HUGE! There are two single rooms and one huge room with three of us in it. One roommate is on a year-long study abroad so she was already there and has one of the single rooms and will come back tomorrow, we haven't met her yet, and the other single went to Emily, because she got there before the rest of us to claim it. We're on the top floor, and have to climb 68 stairs to get there but we have three bathrooms!

well i'm at school and have to run, i'll add more later! ciao!