Arrivederci America

What a few weeks it has been. Since getting out of school in December, I have been busy getting ready for my semester in Italy. Everyone has told me that it will be a life changing experience. While I am so excited to live in such an amazing place for 3 months, I’m going to miss home a lot.

I arrived at RDU at 4:30 Sunday afternoon with way too much luggage in hand. After saying a tearful goodbye to Mom, Dad, and Lori, I headed to my gate where I met up with Tim, a student also studying at CIMBA. Our 7 hour flight to London-Heathrow left a little after 6:00

We arrived in London at 6:30 AM their time and were immediately in a rush to go through security again then make it to our flight to Venice. As we were walking to the gate, we heard “Final call for Venice” so we sprinted through the terminal and got their just in time.

Once we landed in Venice at about noon, the journey was not even close to being over. We had to take a bus to Mestre Train Station, then a train to Bassano del Grappa and finally a bus to Paderno del Grappa. Five hours after landing in Italy, I finally made it to the CIMBA campus. Lugging two huge suitcases, a backpack, a Longchamp purse, laptop bag, and a pillow through out this journey (including up and down stairs at both train stations!) was not easy. Thankfully, I found friendly Italians and boys from CIMBA to help me 

Once at school, I checked into my room in the La Salle building (pictured above) and headed straight to the cafeteria for dinner. My first orientation was at 7:30 that night. After that, I met up with a few girls to go to “The Sports Bar”, the on-campus bar. After a few drinks I headed back to La Salle to get some rest.

Tuesday morning started off bright and early with Travel Orientation. After learning ways to travel Europe on a budget, I went back to my room and met up with my neighbor Vanessa. We went on a walk around Paderno then headed to lunch. After a quick nap, I went to another program orientation and got to meet my teachers. They are from all over the United States, with one from the UK. With 2 hours to spare until our mall trip, I decided to go on another walk, this time with my camera. I found a pastry shop near campus and had to try a nutella filled sweet roll. It was even more delicious than it sounds.

After a quick Skype, I got on the bus to go to the mall, which was 30 minutes away. I shopped with Karen and Nicole then had pizza for the first time in Italy. It was even better than expected! Shopping at an Italian supermarket was quite an experience. Absolutely nothing was in English, so it took us a while to find what we needed.

Once back on campus, I was finally able to hang up all my clothes with the hangers I bought. Also, I was so excited to use my new European hairdryer! After a quick shower it was time for bed since classes were starting the next morning.

I woke up just in time for a quick breakfast with Danielle before heading to my first class at CIMBA, Italian for Travelers. It was interesting to say the least. My teacher, Angela, told us, “I am not very proud of my English and will teach only in Italian.” I’m not sure how well this class will go…

After Italian I had a break until 1, so I had time to check my email and start planning for the travel breaks. I then headed to lunch and Journalism Ethics with Vanessa followed by Marketing and Topics in Management: Business, Culture, and Society.

Ciao!