Arrival

July 2, 2009

Warning: this is LOOOOOONG!
Ciao dal’Italia a tutti !
Yesterday was a really long day… It started off on really sad note; having to say goodbye to Markus and not knowing the next time I’ll get to see him was really, really hard. It got better as the travelling went along though, and I didn’t really have any trouble until I arrive in Catania – always a good sign when you don’t have troubles until you reach your destination… At the Houston airport, one guy started talking to me about where I was traveling. (He was going to Genoa (?) to visit a friend). It was good to have someone to talk to keep my mind off of saying goodbye. Ironically enough, he is the band director at Cy-Ranch High School. Our plane took an hour to actually leave the runway because there was “bad weather.” It wasn’t raining or anything at the airport, but there were black clouds. I don’t know… there was just a really long line of airplanes waiting to take off. Anyway, so I arrived in Paris ten hours later! The flight felt long at first, but then seemed to go by really quickly after that. I didn’t have to sit next to a fat, sweaty, body-odor man, so all was good. There were movies and everything to watch on the plane with the video screens and all. On my next flight I met a really nice guy name, ironically enough, Karl. Haha… He plays for the Milan basketball team (but plays for the French national team… I’m still pretty confused about all of that) and spoke really good English so we talked for most of the flight from Paris to Rome. He was really nice and soon we’ll be facebook friends haha. He actually was in LA at a basketball camp while we were there when the Lakers one. His agent got him 3rd row seats at the Staples center! Crazy… I met people all along the way, which was really nice. When I arrived in Rome, I made my way through the airport to my gate, while the atmosphere became increasingly more Italian. At the gate, no one was speaking English and I felt like everyone was looking at me. Haha As I tried to use the payphone to call mom this lady laughed at me when I couldn’t figure out how to work it. (I think the problem was more that I haven’t used a payphone since like 1996…. Not that it was Italian). Fast forward and I arrive (yet another hour late) to Catania in Sicily, with my luggage nowhere to be found. A nice Sicilian missionary who lives in Michigan helped me as I talked with lost and found and waited to check the next flight’s luggage…. Meanwhile, my roommate (who I had just met) had gone through customs to tell the taxi driver what happened. He (very Italian-style) was yelling at her (Cailin) in Italian about having to leave, so she came to find me and we left… luggage-less. I told the driver I was sorry, buuuuuut he just yelled at me in Italian and we drove in silence the entire hour to Siracusa. (well, not complete silence; he entertained himself with numerous phone calls in Italian – he told one person he wouldn’t be able to eat with them and he’d tell them later what had happened…. Nice. (I could pick up bits and pieces of his conversations even though he probably thought I had no idea)). When the EXTREMELY fast “van” finally stopped, he got out, shouted something out us in Italian, got out our bags, and drove away… We had no idea where we were, but one lady and her child were motioning to us to come inside (speaking Italian only, mind you) so, not having any better ideas, we followed her through huge wooden doors, down the stone walkway, and up a couple turns on the stone stairs up to another wooden door along a pathway leading to her apartment. We were trying to explain we didn’t have a key, so she spit out “one minute please” and down comes a shirtless 20-something Italian man in man-pris (hahaha, Markus!) who speaks great English. He offers us to leave our stuff at his apartment while we try to find SOMEONE from the program. (we kindly declined…) We didn’t have a phone, so we decided to walk to the school (just two buildings down) and were stopped by an Italian man with a dog who turned out to be the housing coordinator, Ramzi. Thank goodness! He gave us our keys and showed us our apartment, which is actually quite nice (when you have the fans turned on!). We missed the check-in so we couldn’t get our phones or Internet, but Liz had been asking when we were coming and Ramzi had told her, so she came over! I was SO SO SO glad to see her, because after having to say goodbye to Markus and my family, 30 hours of no sleep and losing my luggage, the waterworks came… We walked to Liz’s apartment (that has A/C!) and she pointed out various coffee places and markets on the way. Our area is pretty small so we have already kinda learned our way around. After skype-ing home, Cailin checked her e-mail and we headed back to go to sleep! Finally!
I woke up super late today (noonish) and got somewhat ready (without my stuff…) and Cailin and I walked to a coffee shop to get some breakfast (a croissant with Nutella) and an espresso (SOOOO strong!!!)). It was fun and funny using my little Italian to order and pay… Then we explored Siracusa: the market is fantastic. Everything smelled delicious (minus the seafood…)! I bought some peaches. Cailin got some apricots, tomatoes, and buffalo mozzarella cheese (that I actually ordered in Italian and could get the gist of what he was saying- exciting!) It’s only my first day here and I feel like I can communicate enough to get around, so by the time I leave it will be awesome. After getting some rest, today is so much better! I have my cell phone (received calls are free for me, but if you call, it will be normal long distance for you, but if you want to call go for it! I also will have my modem for internet after 6 pm tonight. Italy is 7 hours ahead, but here’s my number: from US, dial this entire number: 011 39 335 7146 575). It’s 4 pm now and we have a meeting at 7, but it’s so hot outside that after we went out for the second time, we were too hot and had to come back into the shade. (ew, I just looked at my feet and they’re filthy)…
More to come later ☺ I love you and miss you all! Arrivederci!