Andiamo! The first two days...
Monday May 30th, 2005
Andiamo! All day today I've been reflecting on my journey to this day. I've had about 4 hours of downtime in the Detroit airport before I flee... umm... I mean, leave the U.S. Haha! Knowing that I'll be spending the next month in Europe, more specifically, in Italy is so surreal! As one of my colleagues put it, 'it's a singer's dream come true.' I'm very happy with how things have turned out. I've sold about 50 CDs (much more than I had anticipated.) and with my hopes having been on a rollercoaster ride this last semester, it's so exciting. I'm really nervous though, when I went to France, I had studied French for 4 years, and still was a little lost on the language barrier. Now, my extent of Italian is so limited and I'll be arriving and spending my first night there completely alone.
Tuesday May 31st, 2005
I'm currently sitting on my 3rd plane of the trip. Ah! The journey and I'm ready to get to the hostel and shower! However I still need to exchange the cash I have on me and get cash out for the hostel. I think I'll take a nap too after all of this traveling. The engine on this small commuter plane (from Rome to Florence) is ringing my ear. And I'm hungry but my stomach hasn't completely settled from all the take-offs and landings. I realized somewhere over the ocean last night that I had forgotten to print off and pack the text for my Italian Opera course. Eeks! So, I'll also have to find a place with internet that can also print. I had better stop writing before I continue to ramble about uninteresting topics. My brain is so tired that I cannon even recall the day. Ciao!
***
I have arrived in Florence! On the flight from Roma to Firenze there was a gentleman from New York who was setting a school program for conservation. He was very nice and helped me a lot when we arrived in Florence. He told me that he studied in Florence twenty-two years ago studying Italian literature and political science, and was here for six months then. Then when he went back to New York, he said he started to cry and his mother said that he must be glad to be back home, but he confided in me that it was really because he didn't want to leave Italy.
Today has really been exhausting. I feel horrible that I didn't study the language more befor eI came. I feel so inadequate at communicating. I know it will become easier and I'll know more as the month progresses and the Italian classes start. Once I checked into the l'albergo (hotel) I took a long, relaxing shower. I was so glad to get all that travel grossness off of me. Then, I was so tired and my room had become so humid that I opened the doors and let the sounds of Florence fill my room and laid down for a nap with my cool towel over me. I'm not sure though that I should've napped because then I didn't get up until 7:30 pm (19:30) and a lot of places were closed. So, I wasn't able to get a phone card. However, I did a lot of walking and exploring and after an hour I came across a pizza place (it was near my hostel) that I saw when I circled back. I went in there but realized quickly my ordering vocabulary is near non-existant. So, I asked the lady if she knew English (which I hate doing, this is after all, their country) and she didn't seem to like it either because she bacame real short in patience. They had many tables but she never offered me a place to sit. I started racking my brain as to how you might ask 'May I sit?' but came up blank. So, I decided her hostility was more than I wanted to experience anyway, so I took my pizza to my room. That's when it sunk in the most how alone and lost I felt. I wanted to do more exploring but it was getting late and I was feeling too much like a failure to brave my face again. I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I'm ecstatic at being here. I just wish I had a companion to ease the barrier some. Well, buona notte mi amici. Mi t'amo. Ciao!
Andiamo! All day today I've been reflecting on my journey to this day. I've had about 4 hours of downtime in the Detroit airport before I flee... umm... I mean, leave the U.S. Haha! Knowing that I'll be spending the next month in Europe, more specifically, in Italy is so surreal! As one of my colleagues put it, 'it's a singer's dream come true.' I'm very happy with how things have turned out. I've sold about 50 CDs (much more than I had anticipated.) and with my hopes having been on a rollercoaster ride this last semester, it's so exciting. I'm really nervous though, when I went to France, I had studied French for 4 years, and still was a little lost on the language barrier. Now, my extent of Italian is so limited and I'll be arriving and spending my first night there completely alone.
Tuesday May 31st, 2005
I'm currently sitting on my 3rd plane of the trip. Ah! The journey and I'm ready to get to the hostel and shower! However I still need to exchange the cash I have on me and get cash out for the hostel. I think I'll take a nap too after all of this traveling. The engine on this small commuter plane (from Rome to Florence) is ringing my ear. And I'm hungry but my stomach hasn't completely settled from all the take-offs and landings. I realized somewhere over the ocean last night that I had forgotten to print off and pack the text for my Italian Opera course. Eeks! So, I'll also have to find a place with internet that can also print. I had better stop writing before I continue to ramble about uninteresting topics. My brain is so tired that I cannon even recall the day. Ciao!
***
I have arrived in Florence! On the flight from Roma to Firenze there was a gentleman from New York who was setting a school program for conservation. He was very nice and helped me a lot when we arrived in Florence. He told me that he studied in Florence twenty-two years ago studying Italian literature and political science, and was here for six months then. Then when he went back to New York, he said he started to cry and his mother said that he must be glad to be back home, but he confided in me that it was really because he didn't want to leave Italy.
Today has really been exhausting. I feel horrible that I didn't study the language more befor eI came. I feel so inadequate at communicating. I know it will become easier and I'll know more as the month progresses and the Italian classes start. Once I checked into the l'albergo (hotel) I took a long, relaxing shower. I was so glad to get all that travel grossness off of me. Then, I was so tired and my room had become so humid that I opened the doors and let the sounds of Florence fill my room and laid down for a nap with my cool towel over me. I'm not sure though that I should've napped because then I didn't get up until 7:30 pm (19:30) and a lot of places were closed. So, I wasn't able to get a phone card. However, I did a lot of walking and exploring and after an hour I came across a pizza place (it was near my hostel) that I saw when I circled back. I went in there but realized quickly my ordering vocabulary is near non-existant. So, I asked the lady if she knew English (which I hate doing, this is after all, their country) and she didn't seem to like it either because she bacame real short in patience. They had many tables but she never offered me a place to sit. I started racking my brain as to how you might ask 'May I sit?' but came up blank. So, I decided her hostility was more than I wanted to experience anyway, so I took my pizza to my room. That's when it sunk in the most how alone and lost I felt. I wanted to do more exploring but it was getting late and I was feeling too much like a failure to brave my face again. I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I'm ecstatic at being here. I just wish I had a companion to ease the barrier some. Well, buona notte mi amici. Mi t'amo. Ciao!
posted by Unknown @ 1:05 AM
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