Ciao, Italy!

So, as you can see from my post two days ago, I love Italy, the ridiculous amount of time it took to get here was totally worth it. Basically, we had to be on the bus for Heathrow at 5:45 AM, and didn't leave till 6:30 because some people decided they didn't feel like getting out of bed (rude). They unloaded us and our luggage at the airport where we had to wade through everyone's luggage to find our stuff (not an easy task when there were probably 300 suitcases or so). Then got through security (London security is craaaazy) and then our flight was delayed for about an hour, so we literally sat in the middle of the airport waiting for our gate to be posted. This was all made up for when my friend Ali and I got bumped up to first class (the British Airways guy joked it was becuase of my shoes--I knew there was a reason I bought bright orange rain boots). The plane was then delayed about another hour because everyone had so much carry on stuff, that the small plane did not have room for it all and it had to be put underneath. The flight attendants were amazed at how much stuff we had, but we explained it to them and they were extremely understanding. I slept a little on the plane, woke up to eat breakfast (Ali and I pigged out on croissants, mmmmmm), slept more, then woke up to see the hills of Italy underneath me. I was SO excited to see the coast line--it kind of felt like the first time I flew into Israel, I had been imagining what this place and looked like for so long and I was finally here. Just you when you though everything was going to be ok, we get off the plane to find out British Airways has lost literally half the program's bags. Pretty much everyone had at least one bag (including me, yay!) except for a few people, so that took a really long time to get sorted out. Then they took forever and a day to get us on busses, which took even longer to leave the airport, until finally we were on our way to Siena. I fell asleep, but when I woke up my eyes were glued to my surroundings-Tuscany is absolutely stunning. I couldn't decide which direction to look in and forced myself to stay awake despite my exhaustion. I did fall asleep again, and woke up in Siena, where I arrived at my hotel to find I was rooming with Miriam (who is in SDT with me and will also be my roommate in Florence). That night we had dinner with the whole group...complete with three different wines to try and multiple courses (including a cheese platter that had a big chunk of mozzarella and a wedge of the most delicious parmesan cheese, obviously I was in heaven). Dinner took forever which normally would have been fine, but we were all exhausted and just wanted to to go bed, which is exactly what I did afterwards. It was really great to experience a real Italian dinner (complete with a pasta dish (yummy yummy lasagna) and a meat dish (which I clearly did not eat)) They really love their food here and really take the time to enjoy it. It was such a tiring day it was so great to get back to our room (which is literally a closet, Miriam and I can hold hands from our beds) and go to bed.

Miss you all!