Success!

Jon, Caroline, Jessica, Meredith, and myself made it to the house around 10:30 this morning after our flight leaving JFK was delayed on the tarmac by an hour, Caroline nearly missed the flight at JFK because they're just mean at that airport, and then her bag was lost someplace between her house and Venice. The flight was shorter than expected despite the delay, so it was nice to arrive in Venice at 8:45 instead of 9:15 am, especially since wrangling with our bags took a while. It was obnoxious on the flight, though, because one flight attendant was really mean about having to help with my carry on and later chastised me for trying to use the bathroom since the pilot apparently had to go back in the cockpit. He also refused to give me my dinner til nearly 2 hours into the flight, so I didn't get much sleep, although the man next to me got enough for the both of us as he took an ambien pill around 5:45 when we boarded, and subsequently passed out before we even took off (because of the delay). But, it really wasn't that bad, and I got lucky to be on safe, quick flights and even luckier to find all my luggage in Venice. And, Jon was so, so helpful...he offered to carry my one super heavy red bag/carry on, led us to the water taxi, negotiated a price, and then even paid for my pizza this afternoon when I only had a 20 euro note!

The house is amazing...it's HUGE. It seriously just keeps going and going. It's adorable, too. I really think it will feel like home for a semester (without parents/neighbors/etc, of course). I have yet to venture into the shower, which looks a little daunting, but after so long in the air and in airports, I'm going to have to bite the bullet, especially since my group plans to go out tonight (I've got to figure out how to keep up!). And I unpacked successfully after the pizza break earlier...my stuff fits relatively well...the drawers are definitely stuffed and my sweaters are pretty high up in the closet, and Allie and I have yet to figure out where to put our stuicases, but all in all, it's working out quite well. And my view is amazing. Our one little window looks out on the Grand Canal and you can see water taxis, the public transportation boats, police boats, ambulance boats, etc...and hear the bells ringing at nearby churches, see boat races...there's so much to take in!

The only hard part is not being able to do all these great things with my family and close friends. My housemates seem awesome and I'm sure we'll all get close and have a great time, but it's hard right now because we're all just getting to know each other while some people know each other really well...it'll be just kind of strange for a while I think.

I'll stop rambling and take a shower...I feel like once we go out tonight and start the orientation to Venice at 11am tomorrow, I'm going to feel like there's not enough time in the world!