Day 1: My Adventure to Italy

My Saturday started with my grandparents coming to my house with donuts and coffee. They wanted to hang out with me before I left for my trip. So my family and I were eating breakfast and watching movies until about 11am when I realized that I had nothing packed for my trip. It did not shock me at all that I was still not packed for a trip I was going on in a few hours. After rummaging through my room to find what I wanted to wear in Italy, I got my suitcase out (which is about ¾ as tall as I am) and started packing. I got ready and within a few hours I was on my way to the airport. My parents and I arrived a little early so we grabbed lunch before my flight. After lunch my parents and I walked over to airport security. This is where we said goodbye. I was starting to feel excited, not that I haven’t been excited since I found out about the trip, but I was feeling more excited because I knew it was actually happening. The group all got through security and met at the gate. A few people, myself included, decided to grab a drink at the bar before getting on the plane. We finished our drinks and boarded the plane for a 7 hour flight to London Heathrow.

After arriving at London Heathrow, we all wanted to get something to eat or coffee. This is where everybody got to meet up and get to know each other a little better. We finished breakfast and headed off to the next gate to board the plane for Pisa. The second flight was only about 2 hours and just about everyone in our group was asleep for the whole flight. We arrive in Pisa and get our luggage and make our way to the train station. This is the first time we met our ISA guides. After about a two hour train ride we arrive in Florence and are carted from the train station to our hotel. We are told that we have about 2 hours to get ready and then we have to go to the orientation dinner.

At dinner we ate homemade pizza and drank champagne. This is where the fun really started. There was a kids table (where the students sat) and an adults table (where the teachers and ISA guides sat). The students got to know each other pretty well over dinner, but the bond between us definitely grew as the trip went on. After dinner some people went out but the majority of us just went back to our rooms and went to sleep. We all had extremely long days.