hello, goodbye

Oh, just 160 lbs of luggage

The Alps from the plane

bed in my room

makeshift closet

desk

While this is stating the obvious, I made it to Casa Artom without any trouble at all! After a particularly slow check in at the Delta counter in Charlotte, everything else ran smoother than I expected. The only minor incident involved accidentally leaving behind my favorite black cardigan somewhere in the Charlotte airport, but I suppose it gives me a reason to shop here in Venice, so I can't complain too much. On my first flight (Charlotte to New York), I sat next to a friendly lady about my Grandma's age and immediately felt bad about whining about my hatred of flying...she's headed to Madigascar (about 24+ hours of travel time total). That flight was really smooth, which was probably the only reason I didn't get to JFK and immediately want to go home. Then I found the Delta lounge, conveniently located right next to my gate, and ate some fruit & crackers while making all my last phone calls to friends and family. Being tucked away outside of the hustle of such a major international airport and being able to talk to some of my favorite people definitely helped keep my mind off the upcoming marathon flight.

Once I made my final phone calls, I headed to the gate just in time to hear my zone being called, so I got on the plane and called Mom and Dad at which point I got a little anxious, but knew I didn't really have a choice and that it'd be worth it once I landed in Venice. I had hoped to sleep my way through the entire flight, but true to international traveling form, I kind of tossed and turned all "night." Part of my problem, too, was that I initially refused dinner (nervous stomach and all) but I hadn't eaten much since breakfast and hunger was winning over exhaustion, so I killed a package of chips ahoy cookies and resumed the pursuit of sleep. I finally gave up a few hours before we were supposed to land and killed time reading, looking out the window, eating some fruit & drinking some coffee and trying to figure out how to deal with all my luggage upon arrival.

Luckily Rhianna (a girl from my group who arrived a day earlier than the rest of the group) was waiting for me pretty much the minute I cleared passport control and we headed over to find my bags. I'm proud to report I pulled every last bag of mine off that conveyor belt, wrangled a few luggage carts together for us, and got us out to the docks and on to a water taxi in about 20 minutes flat. The driver dropped us off right at our dock and Professor Hagy helped us get our luggage to our rooms. I was absolutely famished as was Rhianna, but we both wanted to unpack and clean up before leaving the house again, so we finally went for lunch around 1ish (Pizza al Volo and gelato from Il Doge...2 of my favorite places for quick food in Venice).

As the pictures prove, everything I brought managed to fit in my sadly closet-less room, but it's a tight fit! Me being me, I felt light years better about life once I had everything in its place, even if it means I won't remember a week from now where everything ended up. Since I got unpacked, I've been doing whatever David (Professor Hagy) asks of me, including assigning pantry and fridge space, distributing house keys (to the tune of $50 each), labeling the rooms, giving house tours, etc. I had thought only Rhianna and 1 other student, Chris, were arriving today, but Megan and her mother arrived from Florence this morning, too, so it's not as empty as I anticipated.

It's so incredibly weird to be back--strange, I think, because it feels so normal, feels like I just left a few weeks ago and now I'm "home" again. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone that at times I questioned whether or not I'd be able to really enjoy being here. But then I thought about all the hellos I get to say, too--hello to one of my favorite cities on earth, to one of the best train systems ever, to beautiful Casa Artom, to the hundreds of unique bridges, to Bar da Gino, to the gondolieri who sing beneath my window, to a whole new group of kids in this house, and most importantly, to the semester of no regrets.

I'll quit boring y'all now--I've lost the energy to type (jet lag + nearly lethal humidity). Keep me up to date on what's going on back at home!