So...how about that ride in?!

I have officially been in Italy for more than a week now and it still doesn't feel real yet!  When I first arrived in Venice with two of my very good friends from Iowa State, Emily and Abby, I was so excited and fascinated with the city that I couldn't even fully wrap my mind around the fact that we had actually arrived, that Italy (something I had been looking forward to for months!) was actually happening!  After arriving in our hotel we decided to immediately go out and explore the island and just like that I had officially kicked off the Italian adventure that had been so many months in the making!  Walking around and exploring the historic city was absolutely amazing and I may of had a religious experience with a my first authentic Italian pizza!  Seeing so many things that I had only ever before seen in pictures or movies was so surreal that I'm still ridiculously excited about it.

When we all arrived on campus the next day I was once again completely blown away by the beauty of Italy - the countryside, the mountains, the towns were all so different from what I'm used to in the United States that I know it will take me awhile to believe Paderno is actually going to be my home for the next few months!  Taking a tour of campus, meeting all of the other people in the program, and recovering from jet lag took up a good portion of the first few days but it has all been so interesting that the time has flown by.  My roommate Beth is really awesome and I felt like I'd known here forever within the first two hours!  I'm seriously looking forward getting to know everyone else just as well and I know that is definitely going to be one of, if not the, best part of this entire semester!

So far the most stressful part of the trip (aside from LIFE!) was making our first weekend travel plans.  Before we actually started the process of working on transportation details and hostel bookings I had never considered how time consuming it actually is to figure everything out!  However, we successfully planned and executed our first adventure outside the safety of the campus walls and had a fantastic time in Verona but I think that's a story I'll save for the next post...ciao until then!!


Just a few pictures :)

Me, Emily, Abby & 3 months worth of  luggage!

Venice was more beautiful than I ever imagined!

The view from my room...definitely beats Iowa!