Delayed

Right now I am suppose to be on a flight to Rome on my way to study abroad in a nice little Tuscan town called Arezzo.  Where am I? Sitting in the Cleveland Airport Sheraton.  I was suppose to be flying from Cleveland to Montreal and from Montreal to Rome.  I don't know what's going on in Montreal but apparently they did not want my flight from Cleveland to land there.  So after two hours of standing in the customer service line I learned there was absolutely no way I could get to Rome by the time I was suppose to be there.  Instead I am now going to arrive in Rome a day later than planned. 

 

I'm kind of bummed that I'm going to be missing the welcome dinner tomorrow night and probably the tour of the city on Sunday afternoon, but I can think of worse situations to be in right now.  Standing behind me in the customer service line was a group going to Sierra Leone on a mission trip.  Turns out they were originally planning on leaving Monday and then decided to leave today so they could get started earlier. Now they aren't going to arrive in Sierra Leone until....you guessed it, Monday.

 

Because I am arriving late, I am going to miss the nice chartered bus the program got for us from the Rome airport to Arezzo, so now I am responsible for my own transportation from Rome to Arezzo.  I figure if this is going to happen to anyone, it might as well be me.  I am comfortable enough with my experience traveling and my Italian language skills that I am positive that I can get myself to Arezzo. I just wish I didn't have to 

 

Maybe you can imagine that I'm not in the best of moods right now, so I'm going to write a list of things to be happy about:

 

1. I am going to Italy.  I might be getting there late, but I'm still going to get there.

 

2.  I am going to get there before my classes start,  I don't have to worry about having to catch up with everyone else.

 

3.  I am only missing a dinner and a city tour.  There will be many other dinners and plenty of time to learn about Arezzo.  It's not like I'm missing a tour of Rome or the day trip to Florence.  I am not missing anything that I would be truly upset about missing.

 

4.  This is a great way to jump right into using my Italian.  If I was traveling to Arezzo with the program I would not have to speak Italian until I was left alone with my host family.

 

5.  This is a pretty sweet hotel they've hooked me up with.

 

6.  I had a sandwich and glass of wine for dinner that would have cost me $20 and I didn't have to pay a cent.

 

7. I have my suitcase with me, so I don't have to wear the same thing for 3 straight days.

 

8. My flight out of Cleveland tomorrow isn't until noon so I don't have to wake up early.

 

9. I have a 3 hour layover until my flight to Rome so, unless my flight out of Cleveland is delayed, I won't have to rush.

 

I'm sure there are many more things I could be happy about, but these nine things are already making me feel a lot better and I'm too tired to think of any more. I'm going to go decide which big, fluffy bed to sleep in tonight.

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Emphasis on the crazy.  

 

This morning I had my last final exam of the semester at 8am.  I was done by 8:30.  And so began my summer!!!!   I have some pretty crazy plans for this summer, mainly, going to Italy.  I'm leaving on May 31st (that's this month!!!) and I will be gone until July 16th.  In the mean time, I've been making plans for what else I want to do, particularly what I want to read and what I want to knit.

I want to finish all of these books plus On the Road, Old Man and the Sea, La Sombra del Viento and maybe an Italian novel.  Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, Festival for Three Thousand Maidens,
The Village of Waiting and Mango Elephants in the Sun are all memoirs written by return Peace Corps volunteers and To Touch the World is a collection of essays about the Peace Corps experience.  I have a list of about 10 more books about the Peace Corps that I want to read at some point but I think I should read the book I have first. It might be a little unrealistic for me to get through all of these books this summer.  It's a good thing I don't usually get too disappointed in myself for not meeting my goals.

I was going to make a list of all the things I want to knit this summer but that would probably end up being even more ridiculously long and impossible than my reading list.  I do know that I want to knit The Old Man and the Sea cardigan by Mel of Single Handed Knits and I would like to knit through as much of the yarn that I already have as possible.

It also sounds like the ISA office on campus will be open for the summer so I will hopefully be working there a bit before and after I go to Italy.

This summer is just going to be full of fun things for me!