Here Goes Nothing!

Goodbye, America!

Whew I finally have efficient wifi and things have finally settled down enough for me to grab my computer, change the web address and title of my blog (take note!), and get typing. Today was my first full day in Verona, Italy (is 7:30 pm here) and I am so in love.

Of all things about this semester abroad, for some reason, the journey to get there was the scariest to me. I've flown by myself once but international travel seemed like a task too difficult for me. I proved myself wrong. I'm hoping this happens quite often during my time in Europe.

Though I accomplished traveling abroad, I would not necessarily say I excelled at it. O'Hare was crowded but totally fine despite a man speaking German at me for about 20 minutes straight and being so clearly frustrated with the fact that I had no clue what he was saying. I thought he was telling me about his doctor so I was politely nodding and then he was showing me pictures of a teenage girl which I thought was weird until I understood the whole time he had been saying "daughter." Guess that's why we shouldn't make assumptions!

I also, for some reason, went through security twice at the Frankfurt airport alone? I had quite a long layover so I started wandering and trying to find a place to eat (and drink a beer because Germany, duh) but I must have wandered too much because I was all the sudden continuously going through security around every corner lol. But alas, I have made it along with all of my belongings, in one piece!

We enjoyed our first real Italian meal last night at this very modern pizzeria with very traditional food. The pizza was UNREAL let me tell you. It was so fresh and doughy and just so stinkin' good. Dessert was some sort of chocolate pudding covered cream puffs? Can't remember the name so for now we deemed them "Dream Balls."

Many students are from the Washington/Oregon/Idaho area which is very cool but we're definitely realizing that college students in America remain pretty consistent across the board (we all made the comment that the wine "didn't taste like Franzia"). I've already made friends and have been laughing my butt off. Everyone at the dinner table last night made the comment that I was the only person they had ever met from Iowa so I will be sure to try and give our state a good name:)

I live in an apartment with two other girls and we moved in today. It's actually pretty spacious and bigger than what I was expecting! I'll post some pictures once I am finished unpacking but for now it looks quite a bit frazzled. I'm just happy to be able to get all of my things out of bags and into drawers/closets.

The grocery store was BOGGLING. I had no idea what anything was at all. In order to purchase a piece of fruit, you have to use gloves to pick the one you want, weigh it yourself, and then mark it. This seemed like too much for me so I will not be eating fruit until I see someone who knows what they're doing demonstrate this for me. People also almost never use carts and only pick up 2 or 3 things when they go there. I'm sure our 8-10 things looked quite obnoxious to everyone.

I do not speak Italian at all. I thought that my Spanish would help me here but yeah no I was wrong. To me it just sounds like noises. Talking in Spanish  does actually help them to understand me though. Hopefully my Italian language classes will help but for now it just sounds like noises to me. And there are not very many English speakers here.

Classes will begin on Monday after a brief orientation at school. We are told that our Italian class will be with Italian students learning English so that will be quite interesting and also hopefully a good chance to make some Italian friends.

There's a lot of logistical orientation going on right now so not too many exciting stories to tell except that I am here and in love! I think I said "aww" or "oh my god" or "look how cute!" around almost every corner. It truly looks like a movie set or a Disney theme park because it is just the most beautiful Italian city. I'm going to add pictures on Facebook so look for those! I was planning on including them in this post but the upload process is going unbelievably slow so Facebook it is!

Ciao to my friends back home! I have a feeling these next months are going to be some of the best of my life.