Italy...so Far

So this trip has been everything I have ever dreamed of and even more. I said goodbye the morning of the 28th and now I’m on a train headed to Modena to meet my family and I’ve been perfectly fine. So many funny, awesome, and unforgettable things have happened. My hand is basically numb from writing so much in my journals. I absolutely love it here and I’m not even to my family yet. Since so many things have happened I’ll try to be short but some things just need to be described lol.

*Right after saying goodbye at the airport in KC I went into security only to be chosen for a random security search. So while I was still crying I was patted down and all my stuff was gone through. Once on the plane I just kinds sat there because the turbulence was so bad. I got to Atlanta fine and to JFK as well. Of course it was raining in NY so I had to walk through the rain in JFK trying to find the AirTrain and waiting for the shuttle bus. But I made it to the hotel and got to my room to sleep!!!! I finally got to meet all the people I met on facebook and we hit it off instantly! After eating and a few orientation things we all basically crashed.

*We woke up, had more orientations, and then just hung out till we went to the airport. We got through security then sat around at our gate till we got on. I was sitting with Tyler from CA and Grace from OR and we were just so excited! We were on American soil for the last time until July and we were about to take off! Tyler and I were trying to think of what we wanted to do with the last few minutes in the USA and we decided to pray. It was perfect! The flight even though it was like 6 hours and all night was so much fun! We watched movies, talked and had an amazing time. Tyler and I were basically laughing the entire time.

*We arrived in Paris completely drained because we left NY at 7:30pm and it was now 7:40am in Paris and we had not slept any. It took forever to get through security and once I got up there of course with my luck I had to have a special supposedly random security search lol we waited around then got on the plane to Rome. We slept most of the time but we were awake when we went over the Alps, WOW is all I can say! Once we got to the airport some how 11 of us AFS students managed to get separated from the group. So we basically walked in and out, followed a random Italian man, and tried anything to get to our group. It was actually really fun. After walking like 3 miles trying to get to the group we walked another mile to get to the bus. Next thing we knew we were at the hotel. At this point we were all so hungry, tired and gross feeling that we looked like a bunch of rehab students. Lol I quickly jumped in the shower but of course that was an adventure as well. My roommates said to pull this string thing in the shower for hot water so I just did and it set off an alarm. Then the door broke, therefore my clothes got soaked, oh and I couldn’t get the door unlocked lol we finally got to have our first Italian meal and it was amazing! 3 huge courses! After feeding us we finally went to sleep!

*Saturday was by far one of the greatest days of my life. We woke up, ate, and went to some orientations that were really fun because we had very young nice leaders. Then we ate lunch. (They eat pasta at the beginning of every meal!) After lunch they put us on a bus and we got to go to the Vatican City. Oh My Gosh it was amazing!!! St. Peter’s Square was just so unbelievable! We walked around, took tons of pics, and even got gelato J The weather was perfect and I was with some really great friends so it was amazing! If my day wasn’t going amazingly well already Tyler gave me my phone and was like call your sister I know you want to so I did. I got to call her as I stood in front of the Vatican. It was the highlight of my day. Once we got back we had more orientations that topped them all. They gave us a crash course of Italian and then the young leaders taught us a ton of cuss words lol. It was so so funny. Dinner was great again and so funny! We played a game one last time as the AFS USA group and were free to do whatever. We all stayed up and were talking when some of us found a door that led to a chapel. We went back there and found all this stuff. It was really creepy though because it was like 1am and dark and all these weird sounds were coming from this one door. After successfully freaking each other out we ran out but in the process somehow got the attention of the guy at the front desk on the cameras. He was walking down the hall toward us so we all bolted upstairs and hid in one of the other kid’s rooms till the coast was clear. It was so much fun!

Every little thing that has happened had been such an adventure and an experience. Even though I do miss everyone I am so glad I did this. I love Italy; it is just as great as I had ever dreamed it to be! I I’m on a train on my way to meet my family and I can’t believe that I’m in Italy still. Crazy how God works, you would never have convinced me at this time last year that I’d be riding a train through all of Italy today. But He knows what he’s doing and He has done some pretty amazing things through all of this. I will try to write more as soon as I can once I get to my home and with my family. Love you all and thank you for all your prayers and supports!
Tanya
(Post time is weird because I don’t have internet on this train)