ARRIVED!

I have been keeping a journal on my computer so I could copy/paste the entries I've made so far. Here goes:


May 7th-
Today was the day of traveling. We left KCI a little bit after 10:00 this morning. We flew from there to JFK airport in New York City. We were the first of the groups we were meeting to arrive. We were meeting people who were flying from STL and from ATL. Once we got to JFK we ate lunch and sat around to endure our 4 hour layover. We sat around. A lot. Finally at about 5:30 they started boarding the plane (our original departure time was 6:00). Once we were on the plane we were all very excited to leave, only to find out that there was something wrong with the intercom system on our plane. We didn’t end up taking off for almost another 2 hours. Once we finally got into the air, things were fine. I had trouble sleeping on the plane, unfortunately. The dinner that we were given on the plane made my stomach upset so I wasn’t very comfortable through out the night. Plus things were a bit loud, because even though I have rad headphones.. my iPod called it quits during the flight. It won’t even turn on now. Ridiculous, right? First my camera, now my iPod. It seems as though technology just hates me in Europe, so hopefully my lap top can stick it out with me for the whole trip. Here goes nothing...

May 8th
Once we landed in Milan we took a bus to Carpi. Our host families picked us up at the bus station. My host dad Andrea, host mom Allessandra, host sister Asia (which I’ve found out is pronounced Oz-e-uh), and Andrea’s parents all came to meet me. They signed a waiver taking responsibility for me for the next month and we were on our way. Asia went with her grandparents to her swimming lesson and Andrea and Allessandra drove me home. Once we got here they gave me a tour of the house, showed me where things were, cooked me lunch, and then I took a shower because after 20 hours traveling I felt gross. I went over my schedule with Allessandra and then when Asia got home we went to the mall. The mall here though isn’t quite the mall we have at home though. There were very few stores in the “mall,” the largest being the one we went to, which was their version of a WalMart super center. I got shampoo and they got me some things to eat for breakfast (cereal, fruit, bread/jam for toast). Steak at this store cost 24.90 €/kg. A kg is about 2 pounds and 1 € is equivalent to about $1.30... do the math. Ridiculous.

After we left the shopping center we came back to the house and prepared to have dinner guests. Andrea and Allessandra had invited over their friends and their 3 kids. So while the men went to get the pizza, I had to sit at the dining room table with Allessandra and her friend Melissa, while listening to 4 children all of the age 6 or under play games and run/chase each other around the house. This on top of being exhausted, and already having a headache SUCKED.

They sent me upstairs around 9:00 because I was so tired. I got online to check Facebook and now I’m trying to put off sleep just a little longer so I will feel awesome when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Ciao!


May 9th
Today is Mother’s Day and I’m halfway around the world. That in addition to the fact that I can’t understand a WORD of what anyone is saying is making me really homesick. Don’t get me wrong, my family seems to be really great and they’re trying to make me feel comfortable, but I miss home. I miss my bed. I miss my Gramma pillow.

I have my own room here. It’s not very big, but it’s my own. It’s nice to come up here and get away, but it makes me kind of lonely. And I’m still really tired so all I want to do is sleep, but I can’t. I guess the 12 hours of sleep I got last night were not enough.

The only channels they have in English are CNN and Fox (both international channels), so I’ve been watching a lot of CNN news reports to hear some English. Hopefully it will be better once I start doing the school thing and will be around some American students.

I have constant internet access since Andrea works from home when he’s here, but due to the time change the only time I will be able to talk to anyone will be when I get up at 7:00 am to get ready for school (midnight in Missouri) or in the evenings when it is early afternoon there.

Today they had cousins come over for lunch. They had bruchetta and steak. It was good, but I was full so when they brought out the strawberries and gelato, I didn’t want any. Andrea told me that I don’t eat enough and that if I eat more then my metabolism will be faster. That seemed weird to me, but I guess they’re the tall lanky ones, not me. Haha.

Last night I also heard Allessandra call Asia a “potato.” Apparently that’s what they call girls who are a little bigger. I think when I get back I’m going to call girls “potatoes,” just because it will be funny AND they will have no idea what I’m talking about.

This afternoon we took a bike ride to the city center. Thankfully I remembered how to ride a bike because it was about 2 miles round trip. Riiiiiight.