My Arrival

Hey everybody,

I arrived in Florence safe. I left on the 6th from Minneapolis. The day before my departure was pretty rough, it started hitting me around noon that day that I was really leaving and that I was about to be in a place I was totally unfamiliar with and about to be surrounded by many people I was also unfamiliar with. It was hard saying good bye to my family at the airport, all I wanted to do was cry my whole flight. I started to relax when the plane finally left for Chicago, but arriving in Chicago was another story. I hated every second of being in that airport. People were so rude, even the majority of the people I asked politely for help. It was stressful trying to find where my terminal was but I found it and before I knew it I was on the plane headed to Switzerland. Luckily for that flight I was sitting to a very nice girl from Eau Claire who was also studying abroad but for graduate school in Madrid. She was very nice and we talked a lot during the flight. We stuck together at the airport since we were headed to the same terminal. It was easy getting to the terminal in I needed in Zurich, but the plane was crammed. As long as I had the window seat I would be happy, and luckily I had the window seat. I stared out the window the whole flight; the Swiss Alps were beautiful. Before I knew it I was in Florence. I was beyond tired at this point (and still am). I got my bags easily at the airport and got a taxi to the school. If I would have been fully awake for the taxi ride, I probably would have had five heart attacks. It was craaaazy. I thought we were going to hit people and bikers.
When I arrived at the Santa Reparata I met with Laelle, the woman from the register's office. She gave me my apartment key and we walked to the apartment. The sidewalks are pretty small and I have learned that people don't usually move out of the way, so I was balancing on the edge of the side walk with my suitcase trying not to fall into traffic, haha. When we finally got to the apartment I was so excited. My roommate Emily was already there so it was a relief to have someone to talk to. The apartment is beautiful! It is the cutest little place ever. I will upload pictures to Facebook obviously. I have to get wifi at my apartment first though. Later on, my other two roommates Jordan and Veronica arrived. My roommates are all great, super nice. We went out to dinner around 7pm, I can't remember the name of the place but we went with a group of students from SRISA. I have already met so many new and amazing people. After dinner, Emily, showed us all round town. She knows so much about the city, it's amazing. Laelle told me to stay awake until nighttime here, so I was extremely tired by the time I got to go to bed.