Il Primo Giorno

In case you didn't know, this is my first time flying or traveling out of the country.The airport was an adventure in itself because I was surrounded by unknown languages that somehow seemed familiar to me. I was shocked to find out that not all Italians speak as fast as I thought they did. Me and one of the other girls going to Italy were just sitting, waiting and people watching when we started to overhear a conversation in Italian. It was very comforting to actually understand them. Then we went to have pizza in the airport, a sort of pre-Italy activity. Our first flight landed in Frankfort, Germany and so everything on the plane was German. It was really cool to understand half of the things that they were saying as well as just listening to them speak. It was difficult to sleep on the plane, but when I finally did I was quickly awakened by a strong light coming out of the one open window on the entire plane. When we arrived in Verona, Italy we took a coach bus from the airport to the school to meet out host families. It was super awkward at first, but once I realized that my host's English was the same as my level of Italian then everything was fine. Their house is huge and beautiful. They live about a 10 minute drive from the school. We were practically driving up a mountain to get to their house. The roads are narrow and the turns very sharp. There are apple orchards everywhere in this region of Italy. Monica's (my host's) mother thinks it is funny that I can understand her when she speaks to me in Italian before Monica gets a chance to translate. We had a very delicious dinner of vegetable stew, green beans, bread,and salame. For dessert there was a pear cake that was also amazing! In a little while we are going to meet up with some of the other students for some gelato and then I am going to to figure out how to use the Italian shower system.

PS. I have been taking a ton of pictures, but I am unable to upload them directly