Hey everyone!
Today I am writting my first official blog post. It is nothing fancy, or creative like my mother´s, but I have an excuse... I am EXTREMELY jet lagged. In fact, I have not slept at all since the Friday morning I left for the airport. And it is around 6 pm here. I am trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I can get a good night´s rest tonight and be ready to meet up with the rest of the Florence Study Abroad gang tommoro. We are meeting bright and early at 10:30 at the hotel we are staying at for the next three nights. Its going to be really nice to see my friends again, and I am also very excited to meet new people on the opening tour from Gonzaga and other schools that are participating in the program.
Today was definitely an interesting day to say the least. I woke up to my mother in a flurry at 8 am and from that point on the day was absolute chaos; yet it was nothing less than I expected it to be. Traveling is a stressful experience, and especially when I am leaving for nine months and dealing with the anxiety that comes from worrying about my luggage and having all the right things, weight limits, etc. Finally my mother and I decided to just surrender to the whole packing firenze and adopt an attitude that basically says that "whatever happens happens, and at least we know we put in our best effort". Well, we did exactly just that. As we approached the daunting front desk of the Lufthansa check in, we were greeted with skeptical expressions. I think everyone knew that I had overpacked... I had two huge black suitcases in addition to a purse, a medium sized backpack, and a medium sized carry-on duffel bag. Needless to say, I was around 4 kilos over on one of my big black bags. However, I wasn't going to let that cramp my style! Luckily, because we signed up for the flight ahead of time in May instead of August, we were able to get away with a fifty dollar fee instead of a whopping 150 fee. OUCH!
Many other small stressful happenings occured at the airport such as almost misplacing my red carry on, my friend Sarah accidentilly leaving her passport behind at security check point, and my friend ashley dealing with nit picky check in clerks who insisted on her rearanging her bags so that the weight was more evenly distributed.
Anywhooo, once we got on board, the flight mainly consisted of attempted naps, reading pointless magazines, listening to music (my personal favorite relaxation mix was enya), watching maid of honor (as one of the movies the plane provided), eating, and watching Ps I love you on ashley´s laptop. It was a long journey, but we made it with ease. After spending a few hours between flights, we smoothly transitioned unto our last flight from Frankfurt to Berlin. It was a bumpy ride, but we got there none the less.
I was very impressed with how easy it was to get our luggage after arriving at our destination. The baggage claim was literally RIGHT there after we got off our flight. It was just a matter of time between getting our luggage and walking literally through what we think were customs. However, after having second thoughts we recall in Frankfurt a man looking at our passports in detail to make we were the individuals represented on the IDs. I guess we thought that were going to be asked more questions, held up longer, who knows... but no complaining! It was for the most part an easy traveling experience.
Once we picked up our luggage, and me and David were recruited to find an information desk which would allow us to get a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. We scurried around with some confusion for quite some time, but we managed to find someone who spoke English, and she called a shuttle for us. After we loaded the caravan with literally a truckfull of luggage (believe me it looked ridiculous), we knew were ALMOST there. Once we got to our hotel we pretty much just "parked butt" as my family would say. We relaxed, watched tv, took showers, and sent a few emails to our parents. We were originally thinking of getting pizza for our dinner choice, but we were quickly shot down after we realized how vastly different pizza is in Germany compared to the U.S. The only choices that seemed remotely appealing were a beef and jalepeno pizza, a bagel pizza (WTF?!) and a curry pizza... whatever that is... instead we decided to go on a little adventure and we embarked on a local gas station which had your basic every day necessities. Of course, with all new marks, brands, and labels. Good thing for pictures! The only brand that was familiar was coke, gingerale, tropicana, and a select few of candies. All I can say is we must of looked pretty funny with our hands full of soda, candies, and chips. Typical American behavior, but we wanted a cheap meal, and we wanted it now. All I can say is it will hold us over till tommorow.
So much for a short post! I guess I am already starting to like this blog thing. And yes mother, if you are reading this, you can say I told you so!
I will keep you informed about my opening tour adventures in Berlin, Poland, and Prague.
Arrivederci!
Today I am writting my first official blog post. It is nothing fancy, or creative like my mother´s, but I have an excuse... I am EXTREMELY jet lagged. In fact, I have not slept at all since the Friday morning I left for the airport. And it is around 6 pm here. I am trying to stay awake as long as possible so that I can get a good night´s rest tonight and be ready to meet up with the rest of the Florence Study Abroad gang tommoro. We are meeting bright and early at 10:30 at the hotel we are staying at for the next three nights. Its going to be really nice to see my friends again, and I am also very excited to meet new people on the opening tour from Gonzaga and other schools that are participating in the program.
Today was definitely an interesting day to say the least. I woke up to my mother in a flurry at 8 am and from that point on the day was absolute chaos; yet it was nothing less than I expected it to be. Traveling is a stressful experience, and especially when I am leaving for nine months and dealing with the anxiety that comes from worrying about my luggage and having all the right things, weight limits, etc. Finally my mother and I decided to just surrender to the whole packing firenze and adopt an attitude that basically says that "whatever happens happens, and at least we know we put in our best effort". Well, we did exactly just that. As we approached the daunting front desk of the Lufthansa check in, we were greeted with skeptical expressions. I think everyone knew that I had overpacked... I had two huge black suitcases in addition to a purse, a medium sized backpack, and a medium sized carry-on duffel bag. Needless to say, I was around 4 kilos over on one of my big black bags. However, I wasn't going to let that cramp my style! Luckily, because we signed up for the flight ahead of time in May instead of August, we were able to get away with a fifty dollar fee instead of a whopping 150 fee. OUCH!
Many other small stressful happenings occured at the airport such as almost misplacing my red carry on, my friend Sarah accidentilly leaving her passport behind at security check point, and my friend ashley dealing with nit picky check in clerks who insisted on her rearanging her bags so that the weight was more evenly distributed.
Anywhooo, once we got on board, the flight mainly consisted of attempted naps, reading pointless magazines, listening to music (my personal favorite relaxation mix was enya), watching maid of honor (as one of the movies the plane provided), eating, and watching Ps I love you on ashley´s laptop. It was a long journey, but we made it with ease. After spending a few hours between flights, we smoothly transitioned unto our last flight from Frankfurt to Berlin. It was a bumpy ride, but we got there none the less.
I was very impressed with how easy it was to get our luggage after arriving at our destination. The baggage claim was literally RIGHT there after we got off our flight. It was just a matter of time between getting our luggage and walking literally through what we think were customs. However, after having second thoughts we recall in Frankfurt a man looking at our passports in detail to make we were the individuals represented on the IDs. I guess we thought that were going to be asked more questions, held up longer, who knows... but no complaining! It was for the most part an easy traveling experience.
Once we picked up our luggage, and me and David were recruited to find an information desk which would allow us to get a shuttle from the airport to our hotel. We scurried around with some confusion for quite some time, but we managed to find someone who spoke English, and she called a shuttle for us. After we loaded the caravan with literally a truckfull of luggage (believe me it looked ridiculous), we knew were ALMOST there. Once we got to our hotel we pretty much just "parked butt" as my family would say. We relaxed, watched tv, took showers, and sent a few emails to our parents. We were originally thinking of getting pizza for our dinner choice, but we were quickly shot down after we realized how vastly different pizza is in Germany compared to the U.S. The only choices that seemed remotely appealing were a beef and jalepeno pizza, a bagel pizza (WTF?!) and a curry pizza... whatever that is... instead we decided to go on a little adventure and we embarked on a local gas station which had your basic every day necessities. Of course, with all new marks, brands, and labels. Good thing for pictures! The only brand that was familiar was coke, gingerale, tropicana, and a select few of candies. All I can say is we must of looked pretty funny with our hands full of soda, candies, and chips. Typical American behavior, but we wanted a cheap meal, and we wanted it now. All I can say is it will hold us over till tommorow.
So much for a short post! I guess I am already starting to like this blog thing. And yes mother, if you are reading this, you can say I told you so!
I will keep you informed about my opening tour adventures in Berlin, Poland, and Prague.
Arrivederci!
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4 comments:
You GO GIRL!
What a fabulous post about a jammed packed first day "on the road" (an in the air). Loved the pizza story.
Hope you can rest up before you join the group on Sunday for Opening Tour.
Have a fabulous time in Berlin and take pictures!!!
Laura sounds like you had a busy day i miss you already i cried myself to sleep last nite cause i knew that i wont be able to see you for a long time but the good thing is that we will see each other again soon one day! i love and miss you and ill write you again soon sometime keep writting your blogs!
Great post; you're off to a great start and I will look forward to following your adventures in Europa!!
Agree...a great first post. I can't wait to read more!
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