Welcome to Italiano

I am laying on a bed too short for my legs, too stiff for my back and too sticky from the heat, but I am as happy as can be. Arriving to the country of your dreams can' t be affected by any case of jet lag. As long as I can remember, my dream has always been to go to Europe and to visit Italy. Just thinking about the fountains, the language, and living a life of pure fantasy and a high status was something I wanted to do. It had never felt like something I could ever experience, so I decided the closest I could get was rotting in an apartment in Rexburg, Idaho. Because I am a college student and nothing gets me motivated other than a party later that night or getting a good grade, I figured it wasn't worth the effort of looking up how I could go. Thank goodness my mom will go through any amount of research to help me. Two months later, I had booked a flight through Delta Airlines and I was packed and ready to go!

I entered the country of Italy at around 10:33 a. m. after 13 hours of flying across the world. Tired and delusional, the rest of the girls in my study abroad class tried our best to great each other and to get to know everyone's names. As one of the three "new-er" girls that arrived, I had to make sure I was way too possitive, and weirdly happy just to make sure that they got a good impression. I hope it worked....

Following our Art professor, Charlotte Stanford, we jumped on a bus and headed into Central Italy. Our apartment for the next 10 days is a 4 story, yellow building with roof gardens everywhere. It is beautiful. Climbing the winding stairs and entering my apartment room, its surreal. I have a large mud room, a green mini kitchen that outlooks the rest of Italy, a dining room that has a balcony to enjoy the cool weather, three bedrooms, and two full bathrooms that give you the luxury of actually pushing a button on the wall to release water to the toilet. Its more than I thought it would be like. Before we could rest our heads on our pillows, we were sent to Hotel Portol where we were able to have a three course meal for lunch. Already full from eating everything given to me that day, I forced myself to finish an entire bowl of Green Pasta, that was given to me extra by the service man. (maybe, I gave him the wrong look or something? But my bowl was overflowing). It was good and was satisfied until he brought over potatoes, salad, lamb and green olives. I was so confused, didnt we already eat? I asked the girl next to me, if they were going to finish it all, and they informed me that it was inpolite to not eat what was served to you. All of us girls finished almost our entire plates and politely responded, "Gratzi, Gratzi." About to stand up and go, we were then served Red Raspberry Gelato. It was one of the best things I have ever tasted in my life. Who cares if I was already full and would gain weight this vacation? It was worth it. Stuffed and more tired than before we were sent to our apartments to relax and take a nap before we visit St. Paul. It's going to take us a while to get used to this time zone, but I could not be happier. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to take it!