MAMMA I MADE IT
I'm finally here!
My 19 hours of travel time is finally over and (most likely) worth the scrambling to make my luggage the right amount of weight. Don't use space bags. Just don't do it.
But actually, just the view on the flight in was probably worth it.
During the layover in Frankfurt, I met five new friends, some of whom are in my program, others not, and it was like we'd been friends for years. This was seriously a gift from God and we drank mimosas at the weirdest hour for jetlagged students. Then we took a HARD nap because let's all remember, friends who nap together, stay together.
We grabbed a cab in Florence to head to LdM and good God almighty I will never drive here. I didn't feel unsafe, but no. Never. Also it was the quietest drive (minus the honking) I've ever been on. And the best part was that all of Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing played over the radio after a Sam Smith song and NO ONE aknowledged it. Every last second of it. We just sat there, three 20-year-old girls and an old cabbie listening to sexy slow jams.
After I got my keys to my apartment I got rather lost trying to find it and was carrying all of my overweight luggage with me the whole time. I kept looking at maps and asking people for help like the raging American that I am and on a sullen trek, and young man yelled at me for not smiling. I'll show him not smiling. By the way, I live right next to Il Duomo, which is insane, and I haven't even fully appreciated that yet.
Anyway, my forearms were numb by the time I made it to my apartment and my landlord scared the crap out of me becuase he's creepy. I'm not gonna beat around the bush. He's creepy. Just straight up. But he was helpful and nice and after he and some guys spent 4 hours putting in the doors, (yes, they forgot about the doors) our apartment looks an Ikea. Literally evertyhing is from Ikea. For example, here is our beautiful, yet likely flimsy, kitchen:
Eventually all of my roommates came home and we hugged and we talked about travelling and we walked around and someone bought hangers and I ate some pretzels and I tried some of Erica's wine and it got dark and I laid down in bed and I wrote this and I didn't even cry once.
And that, my friends, is a personal and international victory.
