Italia!

Well, after 5 days of travel and various orientation, I arrived in Padova at about 2pm on Sunday. Ever since I arrived in NY I go through phases of reality and dream. Every time I go to sleep I am surprised to wake up and not be in my room at home. I constantly have to remind myself that I AM in Italy, and I will be here for 10 months.

I will tell you what each day has been like so far. Let's start with Wednesday, travel and first day (well more like afternoon) in New York.  

Wednesday was full of fun, I met all of the people I have been talking to on Facebook from the USA for the past few months. They were all so nice! I also met a ton of new people going to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Ghana, France, South Africa, and Turkey. Talking was not awkward at all, it was so easy, and we were all going through similar emotions (which is why the volunteers had to calm us down a couple times haha!) The group of 30 Spain students was by far the loudest, but Italy was up there too. Later in the evening we played "people BINGO" which is where you have a bingo sheet with different things like "has gone to Disney world" "can stand on his/her head" "is on a soccer team" "will dance in front of a large group for 1 minute" you sign in the box that is true about you on other peoples sheets, you try to get BINGO with other peoples names. Then we watched a AFS video, had a few different talks about safety, and other information like that.

Thursday morning we had a few more random instructions and then the afternoon was just chill time. In the evening we left for Switzerland from the Newark Airport. Dinner and breakfast on the plane was not awful, but I like the food here better. (hehe) Most of us only got an hour of actual sleep, but about 4 hours of shut eye time.

Friday we arrived in Switzerland, and had to rush to get through security, the place where they stamp your passport, (because we had a little less than an hour before our plane left) and we all fast walked to the airplane. We made there on time! We arrived in Rome around 2 pm, but we had to wait like an hour and a half to get on the bus because one of the girls lost her cello and another her suitcase. It was funny because we saw AFS Thailand, Poland, and some other country in the airport when waiting. Finally when we figured out the bag was in Switzerland and would be mailed home we organized ourselves and walked to the bus. At some point we arrived in Rome. I recognized right away Mikael, Anni, Neea, and Jòn. The rest of Friday was kind of just a party, we all talked. Bedtime was scheduled for 11 but was not enforced at all. I went to bed around 11:30 because I was so exhausted!

Saturday was a day of actual orientation. We were given information, but we also sang songs and played games. Most of the games had an objective to either  have us practice talking louder, or get used to touching and being close to people. It was really awkward at first, but then we just kind of went with it. For example, in one of the games the volunteer would say a statement (like,"who has more than 3 siblings" or "who likes fashion")  and if you were answering yes, you would move to the next chair. If there was someone in the chair next to you, you had to sit on their lap. haha

Sunday I woke up at 6 AM to be on the bus to Roma Termini (the Rome train station) by 7:15. Well...that was the plan, but we left 20 minutes late. haha Italian time...no, more like disorganized people. The train took about 3 hours to get to Padova Train Station. I gathered my bags, and was not completely off the train before I was greeted with "Ciao Sara! Mi chiama (fill in the blank)" and hugs and kisses. Finally I found my way to my host family, people I actually recognized! A few minutes later i found out that there was not only my host family there to greet me, but also my tutor (liaison) her daughter, and my host uncle Manuele. When I got home, there was a sign "Benvenuti" (Welcome) on the stairs. I went upstairs to put my stuff away, and a few minutes after I came back down, I was greeted my more people! My other host uncle whos name is Fabio (No mom, I am not joking) and mia Nonna e Nonno who were Alessia's parents. Later came Fabio's girlfriend.

Monday Daniele, Enrico, Nicola, and I went to the Posta to get some AFS paperwork exchanged, then we went to the police office to hand in another paper, and then we went to tour the market!!!! :D Mi piace (I like) the market!!! It went on and on. They sold fruit and veggies, cheese, fish, and clothes. Later that afternoon we checked out my school. It is old, but in a charming way.

Today I spent the whole day at my tutor's house. Before i go on explaining their names, I shall tell you that she has 5 children. I met her daughter Diletta (who will be in my class), her son Samuele (a senior in high school who went to the USA last year), and I also met the two younger siblings...names are not sticking right now. I also met Diletta's friend Sara (apparently, including me, there are 5 Saras in the class this year...quite confusing.) They were all sooooo nice! I had so much fun!

Well that is it for now, tomorrow's adventure is the first day of school. Only 2 hours!!!!!!! Very amazing! The rest of the days will be about 5 hours.

Ciao!