A few photographs...

It looks like a painting, but it's really the view from the plane as we approached Milan...nbd ;-)

They have this here.......AND it's duty free....

MAMMA MIA!!!!

The following pictures were taken from my Italian phrase-book:

........it goes on

...just wait...

...yeah. So I'm gonna go ahead and say that if you need to be reading these out of a phrase-book, you shouldn't be doing whatever it is that you are doing........

The view from the balcony attached to my room. It has character!

So, basically, I am all moved in. Almost all of the roommates are here, they are all cool, and I spent half of the day walking around town with one of them searching for Wi-Fi with (very expensive) success! So, I will be able to stay connected! YAY!

Now, off to eat a second dinner...why not?

Things that I have already learned before even arriving at my final destination...

1. Charles De Gaulle airport (in Paris) is the most poorly organized airport in the world. If you ever plan on connecting here, be sure to allow for a 45 to 60-minute bus tour of the entire terminal before you can get even close to your gate. And wear sprinting shoes.

2. Italian airport food is better than American restaurant food......

3. I really need to work on my Italian....like...a LOT.

4. Don't watch "The Blue Valentine" unless you want to spend the rest of your life depressed (I made this mistake on one of the flights).

5. Everyone in Europe is attractive. EVERYONE.

6. Asking for a glass of wine on your 7:00 am flight is not normal. Just because it is 1:00 am to you, and you spent the past two hours sprinting for your life, does not make it socially acceptable or okay at all.

7. Italy is freaking SWEET!

...

And it begins...

So, I am headed off to Italy for a month and then some. This is obviously a great adventure upon which I am about to embark, and I am going to have a lot to talk about (even more than I usually do...which is really saying something). Since I feel the incessant need to post internet updates on my daily experiences, I decided to keep a blog here on my experiences, rather than annoy people with pages upon pages worth of Facebook status updates (I still haven't caved in to the world of "Tweeting").

...So, tomorrow, it will begin! My flight leaves Dulles at 4:40 pm. This is the farthest I have ever traveled away from home without a parent tagging along. Hopefully I will make all of my connections, and hopefully I won't encounter any painfully awkward TSA security experiences (yeah...I am referencing THAT story...if you haven't heard it already, you probably shouldn't).

My goals for this trip:

- Actually learn Italian. For real.
- Become somewhat of a wine connoisseur
- Maybe ride a Vespa? This one might eventually be removed from the list, depending on my health insurance...
- Make Italian friends
- Eat lots of pasta without gaining a ba-jillion pounds
- MAYBE get a liiiiitle tan. MAYBE.
- Learn about the Italian culture in a way where I get to come home and explain it to my friends and feel really cool
- Avoid extended contact with the Mafia
- Avoid kidnapping

...The list will go on later.

Here we go!!

Arrivederci, America!