We’ve been in Florence for over a week now…sorry I’ve been slow with posting blogs; this is just a lot to take in! Our first day in Italy was really stressful, but actually really hilarious now that we can look back on it.
So let’s start from the beginning…we started out in St. Louis on Sept. 1 and took the short flight to Chicago. From Chicago we flew to Frankfurt, Germany, which was about a 7 and a half hour flight. Despite the fact that neither Selina nor I slept at all on the plane, it was a great flight that seemed to go by relatively fast. We finally landed in Florence around 2pm (7am on Sept. 2 at home). After waiting for our luggage for what seemed like eternity, we took a taxi to our school. This was our first experience with people speaking Italian. Our taxi driver dropped us off on the correct street but then gave us walking directions (in ITALIAN) on how to get to the correct building. We just smiled, gave a thumbs up, and said ok. Big mistake…we walked up and down the same street for several minutes looking for the right building. We finally got there and got the keys and directions to our apartment. Selina and I couldn’t find a taxi so we decided to walk since it was only about 10 minutes away. Another BIG mistake. We got lost multiple times, had to walk through a really busy street market (with all of our luggage), and ask multiple people for directions (of course we managed to ask people that didn’t speak ANY English)…all while carrying our extremely heavy backpacks and two 50 pound suitcases each. Oh yeah…it was also 90 degrees and we had been awake for over 30 consecutive hours. We were hot, sweaty, tired, frustrated, and lost in a new country...it was probably the worst experience of our lives. But, we FINALLY made it to our apartment...an hour and a half later!
selina and I on the plane :)
our little GPS in front of our seats on the plane...pretty cool
Our apartment is very small but very cute. It’s super European and we love everything about it. Check out the pictures below. Our only complaint is that internet wasn’t included and we would’ve each had to pay 48 euros ($77) a month for it…so we’re going to do without. Fortunately we get free internet at our school and there are tons of internet cafés within walking distance of our apartment.
our living room
kitchen
super cool windows
After we cooled down we went out to eat our first Italian meal! We couldn’t read the menu or speak Italian to the waiter, so we pointed to random things on the menu…very embarrassing. But our food was delicious and we also had our first legal drink. I’m officially legal for life. I’ll turn 21 over here so once I get back to the states I’ll be legal there, too.
After being awake for a total of 36 straight hours, we were completely exhausted and went to bed super early and slept in the next morning to try to get rid of our jetlag.
No comments:
Post a Comment