16.1.10

arrival.

so kids, i made it! liz is making me update, even though my hands are shaking really bad, so here goes...

on thursday, my mom dropped me off at the airport rather early because i was nervous about lines/its an international flight. of course, barely anyone was there. the bag i wanted to check was 9 lbs over so i had to do some shifting around, but that went fine, except my backpack got rather heavy. then i was a hot mess going through security... forgot to take my laptop out, forgot to take my belt off, they had to rescan my purse after searching it for mysterious, invisible liquids. yeah, i was THAT person. and even though there was no one there when i got to security, it filled up right after so a bunch of people witnessed that mess. my flights went smoothly and i had nice seat mates each time; the first was a physical therapist on his way to london and the second a woman who was visiting her daughter in rome. the only bad part was that the in-flight movie options were bolt and cloudy with a chance of meatballs, both of which looked cute, but i wasn't that interested in seeing either one. i also wanted to sleep, but that proved difficult. flying into rome was a beautiful experience. for the whole descent, i just looked out my window (luckily, i had a window seat!) and soaked it all in. it was interesting to notice how different the country looked from the sky than america does. when flying over the states, the land is divided much more evenly and into very distinct patterns; not so with italy. there was some order, but also some chaos. it was nice. i couldn't help but wonder what implications this had for differences in lifestyle. i guess i'll find out soon.

after making it through customs, liz met me at the gate and then we were off... only a train, a tram, a bus and a short walk separated us from her apartment! quite the adventure with my gigantic bag, but we made it. we went to the market and ate fresh fruit on the way to the grocery store. then i took a nap before we went out for the night. liz took me to a beautiful fountain and we watched the sun set over the city. then we meandered through this piazza and that, liz showing me some of her favorite sites while i ate my gelato. we at dinner at a fabulous little place where the owner gave us postcards to send home and then we went to a bar where i had my first experience with an italian man hitting on me. he didn't speak english and i don't speak italian. as you can imagine, we were doomed from the start. went to a few other bars and met some guys. after several problems with people pronouncing my name, liz and i decided that i would be sofia for the evening. it went much better after that. we met some italian guys who took us to a salsa club, but we couldn't get in because there was a list. FAIL. went to one last bar, but the italian guys disappeared and we were tired so we came home.

right now, i'm sitting on liz's couch and contemplating my next move. my body is rejecting me for going out last night. and punishing me with a wicked headache/the shakes. can't separate which is from drinking and which is from just jetlag. hopefully i'll recover soon and go experience the great american pastime: shopping!

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