Benvenuta Lexi

I can't beleive it! I have been in Bari for 3 days now. It was really sad saying goodbye to my parents last week in New York, but the orientation was wicked fun. Well, the orientation was very exciting but all the people were wicked nice. I roomed with a girl going to France. I met people who were going to France and Russia and Austria. Everyone was very excited!

There were 16 people going to Italy. 15 Girls. 1 Boy. All of them were very nice. We went to the airport on Friday in the evening for we had a 9:00 flight. Getting our bags through was a struggle. Everyone was moving stuff around into different bags in order to meet the weight limits. Then we had to wait 2 hours to board the plain that would take us to Zurich! The flight wasn't so bad. I slept though most of it. Then was the worst part of getting to Italy. We had an 11 hour layover in Zurich because our flight got cancelled due to a strike in Rome. It was SO boring the first few hours. Then it got to be more fun because we all decided to use that time to get to know eachother better. Finally at 9:00 p.m we got onto our plane to Rome! The really frustrating thing was that it was only an hour long flight!

Then we got our luggage and finally walked out into Rome! We rode a bus to our hotel where we were the last to arrive. The volunteers gave us a bag with food in it for dinner and sent us off to our hotel rooms. The next morning we got to meet all the students going to Italy around the world. There was 86 of us in total. There were people from Austrailia, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Brazil, Paraguay, Costa Rica, and Peru. It was so much fun meeting all the people even if we couldn't understand alot of what we said to eachother.

Then I got to take a tour of Rome on Saturday! It was molto bello! I took so many pictures. Rome is soooo beautiful. We walked from the Colosseum to a restaraunt near the old Jewish Ghetto where we had PIZZA! It was probably the best pizza I have ever tasted. I don't know how I could ever go back to american pizza!

The next day we all left for our host families. It was really sad because we had made alot of friends but exciting at the same time. I took a train with 7 others who are staying in the same area as me and soon it was my stop! I was so nervous coming off the train. I couldn't stop shaking but then I saw my host family running towards me holding an Italian flag that said "Benvenuta Lexi". It was a very overwhelming experience at the train station but it was very nice. I was smiling and hugging alot of people as they spoke to me in rapid Italian.

My host family is so nice. I've been in Bari for 3 days and already I feel at home. I still can't really understand anything but with alot of hand gestures I can get the general idea of what they are saying to me. It's so weird to think that I live in Bari. I am making friends in school and meeting my new family and creating a new life. It's so surreal but I love it here!!