So It Begins

I’m gonna be in Rome, Italy for the next four weeks, and even though Internet access here is a bit spotty, I’ll do my best to update this at least a couple times a week to keep everyone in the loop on my adventures. It’s as much for myself as for other people – I’ve long since forgotten the details of my trip to Spain (July 2004) and Il Viaggio (June-July 2005), so I’m making a conscious effort this time around to document the daily goings-on of our group. On the other hand, over the past couple summers, I’ve lived vicariously through several people’s travel blogs; the least I can do is return the favor, or at least pass it on.

I woke up at 6:30 on Friday morning to catch an 8:30 flight to New York City. Breakfast at McDonald’s, slept on the plane, caught a shuttle that took me from LaGuardia to JFK. I got to JFK at 2:00 and my flight didn’t leave till 5:00, but lucky for me, the terminal I was in had wireless access. I killed time sending a few e-mails, Facebooking, and reading Lostpedia, the waiting area filling up around me as I did so. Every once in a while, I looked around, wondering which one of these fellow jetsetters I’d be sitting next to for the next eight hours. I was talking with my friend Brian once, who also nonrevs a lot, and we agreed that the most exciting part about flying is the anticipation of sitting next to a cute girl. Most of the passengers were young, college age, but then again, who else would be flying to Rome in the middle of the summer?

I didn’t get my ticket until everyone else had already boarded the plane. I always have to dress up when I fly in case the only seats open are in business class, which never happens. Not this time, my friends. Not this time. I was in seat 5A, and let me tell you, first class is a cushy way to travel. The seats recline like Lay-Z-Boys. On the seat in front of you, where there’s normally a tray table, there’s a TV screen (a touch screen) where you can select from a wide variety of movies, TV shows, music videos, and games. They serve steak, potatoes, and hot fudge sundaes. They give you a hot towel to wipe your hands with after you’re done eating. The blankets are as thick as comforters. Needless to say, it was a good flight.

Next to me was a girl who appeared to be about my age. We didn’t start chatting until about six hours into the flight because of the aforementioned TV screens and then naptime. We talked over breakfast, though, and kept a patchy conversation going for the rest of the flight. Her name was Annie, she went to Trinity College in Connecticut, and she would be in Rome for the next six weeks. It was nice to meet someone I had so much in common with (both college students, both knowledgeable in pop culture, etc) instead of a businessman or a little kid. Made the last half of the flight go that much quicker.

Anyway, after we landed, I made it through customs and took a seat in the baggage claim area. I got there at about 7:15 a.m., other students were arriving on two flights over the next hour, and then a shuttle would arrive to take us to our apartments at 8:30. Turns out at least one of the flights got delayed – I sat there waiting long enough that I was starting to think I was in the wrong place or had gotten the time wrong, or something like that. The first person I saw was Priya at 8:45 or so. The two of us waited a little longer and finally decided to head outside on the off chance that we had missed people we knew going by. We met up with our driver and an AIRC (American Institute for Roman Culture, the sponsor of our program) representative outside of security. Turns out that one flight had been delayed and two other students had been delayed in the States thus missing their connecting flights, so we were only waiting for one other person, Magown. He came out shortly after and we left.

Quick cast of characters, simply because I’m gonna be using first names instead of full names or pronouns or epithets like “my friend” every time. There are fifteen of us on the trip – Amanda Jones, Amanda Longoria, Andrew Cross, Angela Barrett, Anne Thompson, Ashley Park, Cheuk Ng (my roommate), Dhananjay Jagannathan, Elaine Wang, Harrison Powers, James Magown, Megan Sanders, Priya Hora, Sherry Yao, and myself. I know almost everyone either from classes or from dorm life, so that’s kinda neat.