Officially In Italy!

      Hello, everyone! I have officially arrived in Florence, Italy and settled into my apartment! The journey over was very long and tiring, but completely worth it, if not just for the views flying into Italy! I began my trip with a little flight from Duluth to Minneapolis, caught a connection to Detroit, and from there flew to Amsterdam, where we had about a 4 hour layover. The final leg of the journey was a quick hour-and-half flight into Florence, which seemed like a blink of an eye compared to the rest of the trip over! Between a problem with my boarding passes, a $100 fee for six extra pounds of luggage, and a little bit of motion sickness, the journey wasn't exactly without hitches, but was overall fairly pleasant, so I can't complain too much! It was also awesome having a fun group of people to travel over with and pass the long hours at the airports!

Here is the view form my plane window flying into Florence:

       After arriving at the Florence airport looking very disheveled, we were greeted by our wonderful Italian advisors, who ordered us taxis and distributed our apartment keys to us. Because of the group being split into about four different flights, my friend Lizz and I were the only two of our six roommates to have arrived, so we shared a cab with another student that had an apartment in the same building as us. We all piled our (overweight) luggage into the small Italian car and rode about 20 mins or so into town from the airport. 

       Just in the short drive to our apartment, I was in complete awe of the city. It is truly amazing. Most of the bigger, more modern businesses and industries are located just outside of the city, and the more historical part of Florence is surrounded by a giant ancient wall. We live inside the city, about a 20 minute walk from the main plazas and shopping, where our school building is located! Our apartment is AMAZING and much more spacious than we had anticipated; there are 2 double rooms and 2 single rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and an adorable little porch off the back. It's in a cute old building on the 2nd floor, which we quickly were forced to learn actually means the third technical floor to the Italians, as we struggled to pull all of our luggage up multiple flights of steps. But I truly can't complain, because we are so blessed to have such a great place to live! 

Here is the view of the street outside my bedroom window:

        Now that we are settled in, unpacked, and have a few hours of sleep under our belts, we have a day off to explore the city before our orientation starts. I'm not gonna lie, as exciting as it is, I'm a little overwhelmed! It's going to take awhile to find my way around and get accustomed to a new city, and try to communicate in another language. I miss my family lots, and wish they were here to help me figure everything out, but that's part of growing up, I suppose! I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone throughout my trip, as well! I have WiFi in my apartment, so if you text, Facebook, or email me, I should be able to respond as soon as I'm in for the evening, or in the morning! I am also a big fan of Skype and FaceTime, so don't hesitate to contact me! That's about all I have for now; sorry for rambling & thank you for reading! 

xoxo