The days leading up to my departure were not so bad... I was pretty calm about the trip, and just a little anxious about flying.. but mainly I just wanted to get to Florence already so I didn't have to wait around at home. I visited Muhlenberg the Thursday before I left and it was so great seeing everybody and going out one last time...... except it made it so much harder for me to say goodbye to certain people. It was a sight to see.
So finally it was my turn to go to the airport and again, I was pretty calm when I said goodbye to my parents right before I rushed through security. My flight departed on Sun Jan 22nd at JFK and we left around 4:30 to Paris. Right away I could tell that there were so many girls from my program on my flight, and I talked to some of them, but I really just kept to myself. When I was boarding the plane, I was told my carry on would not fit on the Paris plane and that I had to let it go straight to Florence. This made me nervous and I panicked for a minute until the guy reassured me that it would be "priority" and one of the first bags to arrive. Once in Paris, with just my backpack, I made my way to the gate to Florence. I was nervous because it was a confusing airport and I had to find a shuttle to take me to the right area... but I found it on my own pretty quickly (the rest of the girls finally got there as the plane was about to board). The flight from Paris to Florence was pretty uneventful and I started dozing off until I woke to see these beautiful mountains (Swiss Alps?) below me. This flight was only an hour and a half and we arrived at 9:30.
Of course, my big luggage bag arrived, but my carry on didn't so I had to file a report... but then we made our way to the exit and found the Fairfield group that took us to the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Mediteranno? I forgot. I had to wait forever for my room to be ready so while waiting in the lobby I met some more people in the program. Finally Katie arrived and then around 1:00 we were able to go to our rooms. Ashley arrived a little bit after that and we all took a nap. They didn't serve us lunch so by the time we had dinner we all were starving! Afterwards, they gave us free time and the three of us explored a little bit before meeting a few other girls and going to the restaurant next to the hotel called Outdoors for our first Italian pizza and some wine. Nice way to end our first day in Florence.
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