Day 1 - ROMA!

What an interestingly long day, and it is only 10am. After a wonderful shepperads pie dinner, watching a pretty interesting Italy vs spain game, we headed back to the hostel to pack and check out. I showered then, and it was ice, since I stank now. After my shower I checked to make sure everything was ok, and decided that it would be best to leave much earlier at 1:45 to make sure that I had three backup busses to take me to the airport. I ended up taking one down to piccadilly square, and then another to the airport, for an travel time of around 1hr adn 15minutes. it was not too bad. I got to ride on the top of a double decker bus, I saw winsor castle, and a mini dealership. I talked with a DJ for a bit, and did a little reading. Though I felt scared because it was new, and I did not know the area, I ended up feeling pretty good at the end since everything was CCTVed, and did not think people would try to pull things when there is evidence. At the airport, I was greeted with an expansive airport that was completely shut down. I guess I should have expected that at 3am nothing would be open. I wited for an hour and a half since the ticket agent opened at 4:30am. She was very nice, and laughed at my broken italian phrases. I was put in 15A, a swank seat I would learn. Heading to the security, iit was the BEST security that I had ever been through. THe lady at the gate that checked my passport, was very nice. then there was a leave everything you own, small things, laptops, and everything else, in your bag. fucking genous. shoes still came off, but it was a breaze and they were quite helpful. THe gate was completely empy, so I walked around trying to get some breakfast. sad nothing open. So i had some cookies, and granola barsthat I had packed in my bag, and chekced out the random things around. Finally 5:20 rolled around, and they quickly boarded us. I remember the boarding safety video, and then nothing more. I was flying air itali and everything was said twice, once in italian, once in English. sometime later, I awoke to the captain telling us that it was 90 and clear skies at the airport. I slept the entire fight, but they were nice and left me a pie/cake thing that was quite satisifying. I left to find an ATM. I could not find one, so I passed through passport ness, and then walked to get my baggage. all was in order, so I read for an hour and a half and noticed that the flight the other students were on comes at 11:24. and at baggage claim 7. so I started wiriting this and here we are. I have been up wait too long, for 3 hrs of sleep. hopefuilly they get here, and everything is fine with the car that we ordered. We decided that with five people, splitting a car at 14euro per person is 2 euro more than the train, but easier, and much faster. talk to you on the other side of things.

So after a bit. They arrived and we headed out to find the the car. It worked well, as that we walked outside of the airport and the driver was there. We walked outside to find the hot hot humid weather. The driver left and got the van for us. A quick drive later. we arrived in the rome center. It was much different than I expected, but it was awesomely nice. We walked to the third floor and got our keys and signed in. We walked to our apt and it was pretty cool dropped off our stuff. Kinda less unkept than I expected, but nice enough. We left and went to the the computer. I emailed my parents. I then helped Catharine get her bags to her room. It was quite the walk, and rolling on cobble stones does not help too much with heavy bags. At least they had an elevator, so it was much better than just moving it to a walk of stairs. Their apartment is fucking awesome compared with ours, but ours is close to the meeting place in the morning so it is ok. I headed back for orientation, and then got cash, and tried to get a phone. My parents are doing an awesome job getting me a the code for my phone so it is fine. After some cleaning up, we dressed up and headed out for an amazingly large and great dinner. It was at this awesome place close to the square, so it was a nice walk in the slightly cooler air. I returned and it was a good night. I need to look over my presentation stuff for tomorrow so that I can talk with lisa about it. See ya all tomorrow.

this post was long, so I am not going to check it, not that would change much.