my first day.....

Buon Giorno Tutii!!!! : )

Well….let me start you all off with my day before I left!

Feb. 8th, 2006 - Wednesday
As most of you know, I really don’t like my Wednesday’s because it’s my longest day. I have class from 9-5 and only a half hour break from 12:30-1 pm. Well…I had EVERYTHING pretty much planned for what I was going to do before class, and after class. Before class, I needed to stop by Martina’s house, which I did, to drop something off for her. Then I went to class, got there a little late….(its ok Martina…it was great seeing you and talking to you) and after that class...I wanted to go to my car, to meet up with Vikki, so I can give her some of her books that I had. So I walk to where my car was, and couldn’t find it! Then I’m like, ok…I know I was tired, so maybe I parked a little further down….so, I go down a little bit and it still wasn’t there. I started to think that I lost my mind lol like seriously….because I always know where I park my car! So then, I started walking throughout most of the parking lot, and it still was no where to be found. Then Vikki came, and parked her car and I told her that I couldn’t find my car! She thought I was joking…and I just sat in her car, and I seriously started crying! Then she was like, well do you have an extra key…and I’m like yeah, I do...it’s at home! And then she’s like…well maybe Sammy went and got it and is doing a prank on you! I told her that I know Sammy would never do that, or even think of doing that to me! And she kept insisting that he might have done it. But I seriously started panicking, because not only did I not know where my car was, I had everything in there! My purse, camera, laptop, wallet…..EVERYTHING! I had no idea of who to call…what to do, I was in panic mode! I knew Sammy was home, so I called him! (Sammy….I just realized why you had that dream of me crying….maybe because of this! ) Anyways…I told him that I couldn’t find my car and that I looked everywhere. He was being all nice, trying to calm me down and stuff, (thanks by the way) and he’s like are you sure you remember where you parked lol and I’m like, “Sammy, when I am with you…I’m always the one telling you where you parked because you can’t remember….I think I know where I parked.” Lol anyway…while I was on the phone, this guy named Marc from my class was walking towards his car, and same thing happened to him. His car was gone! Thank God for him, because he knew exactly what to do, and who to call! In like 5 minutes he found where our cars were. They got towed and taken to the city of Orange! I would have not known of what to tell my parents if I went home telling them, that my car was missing! So, I was happy that I knew where it was now! So, I went to class….told my teacher that I had to go pick up my car, because it got towed away and she let me go. Vikki drove me there, I felt bad, because I made her miss her class too! Anyway, so I get there….and I had to pay $135!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that! Anyway…I got my car! So….this was definitely something I wasn’t planning on happening to me today, and it kind of messed up my whole entire schedule! Well after that, I went by Sammy’s house for a little bit, so I can say bye to his parents. Then I ran a whole bunch of errands, which was something that I had planned on doing. Then I met up with Eva, went to Jamba Juice and also the new Berean store lol! We had a great time together! Before I left with Eva to Jamba Juice, Cozmo dropped by, and surprised me lol (it was great seeing you Cozmo….we still need to do lunch) Anyway….I stopped by Sonrise, stayed for worship and then said bye to everyone! Oh….and on my way home, I got a phone call from Martina! She had just gotten in her first car accident! (I hope everything’s better now girl) So I get home…and I wanted to start packing! I wasn’t really in the mood of it though. So I took out the cd that my greatest friend Christina made for me! And I started to listen to it! I not only listened to it once, but twice in a row! But before I listened to the cd, I bought my sisters a little something so I gave it to them. And then Nicky’s like I have something for you too! So I go to her room, and she gives me a t-shirt that said FBI – fully blooded Italian. Lol and I thought it was really cute….then she’s like…there’s more….and she pulls out this little painting. OMG!!! I started crying when she gave it to me! BUT CHRISTINA…Omg girl…..thank you so much for the cd! I seriously was laughing, crying, etc throughout the cd! And I want to THANK EVERYONE who was all apart of putting this together too! YOU GUYS ARE ALL AMAZING! : ) As I’m writing this out right now, I’m listening to it again! : ) It’s getting put to great use!!!! I’m listening to my song right now! lol thanks Josh...the Cosa group sounded GREAT!!!!!!! Anyway….so I didn’t pack at all that night….after listening to the cd twice, I just went to sleep!

Feb. 9th, 2006 – Thursday – Feb. 10th, 2006 – Friday
So, today I woke up and I started panicking, because I didn’t know what to pack, I had so much to do, with so little time to get anything finished! I seriously was in such a panic stage, that I couldn’t open my water bottle at one point….lol it was crazy! I texted Eva and Sammy and asked them to pray for me….cuz I couldn’t handle it anymore! I stayed in Lidia’s room for a little bit, before she left to work. I finished packing right when I had to leave my house to go to the airport! Martina stopped by my house around 9 in the morning and stayed for like half an hour...we talked a little, and then she prayed for me (thank you Martina)….So I went to the airport with my mom and Nicky! My dad drove there too by himself! I got to the airport around 12:45 in the afternoon. So I hung out with Vikki and my family and ate some lunch in the airport. My dad left….and I went to go take a picture! Lol I saw something that reminded me of EVA! J yup….girl, YOU ARE ALWAYS ON MY MIND!!!! J I think Josh knows this time….because I was on the phone with him while I was taking this picture! Lol….Josh it was good talking to you before I left! And thank you for your prayers, and you are always in mine too! J Ok…so then not much longer I had to leave. And right before I left, Fane and Evelyn stopped by the airport to say goodbye too! And it was soo funny, because the whole time, Fane thought that Vikki came to say goodbye to me too, and he kept wondering why everyone was hugging Vikki too. Then when he found out that she was coming with me he was amazed lol! It was funny!
So we get on the plane….we moved around so that all of us girls- my 5 room-mates could sit next to each other. As most of the back of the plane had gotten their seats, there were 4 of us together in one row, and then 2 girls behind us. And we all got together, turned around to face the girls behind us, and each one of us prayed for our flight, our whole entire trip and for our family and friends that we were leaving behind! It was very emotional!!! Then we finally took off!!!! And even though I was on the plane, it still didn’t hit me that I was leaving to ROMA!! Ok….little side note…..did you know that ROMA spelled backwards spells AMOR!!! Amor means love for those of you who don’t know! J lol ok….back to while I was on the plane! So the whole time which was like 15 hour flight to Munich, Germany I only slept like 20 minutes. They had 2 movies that played! Haha and it was perfect timing, because when I remembered that I had to read another letter from EVA….she had asked me what movie was playing, right when one was about to start! The first movie was called……I don’t remember, but it wasn’t that great! But the second movie that played it was called GOAL, or Goalie lol it was some movie about soccer! And that movie just reminded me about Pastor Kurt! Pastor Kurt, I am definitely going to go to a soccer game for you, maybe two! J But that movie made me more excited to go watch one!!! Hehe So, not much happened on the plane, we wanted to play Catch Phrase…..Sammy, Eva, Laura and my sisters know that game ( we played it on our trip to AZ) but it didn’t really work out, because we didn’t want to wake people up! So, then we finally landed in Munich, Germany. It was snowing!!!!! We were all excited to see the snow! On our way to go to our next flight, we had a chance to go outside and have little snow ball fights, etc. it was extremely cold, so we didn’t stay out that long! Then to get to our next flight, to go to Rome, we had to take a bus to another part of the airport, and in like the olden day movies where you actually walk up the stairs from outside to go up in the plane….that’s what we had to do! It was pretty cool! This plane was extremely small!! There were 3 people in my row though; I was sitting next to the window a person from my class on the isle and some random Italian guy in between us. This guy took up soooo much room! I was so squished! I fell asleep for about an hour, and the flight was only supposed to be 2 hours. So I was thinking to myself…that there wasn’t much left to go. Then when I woke up and looked at my time, an hour did pass..but we were still at the airport! There was a little snow blizzard and we had to wait it out till we could leave! So for the next two hours I did nothing! Lol listened to my ipod! I was sad that I didn’t have any more movies on there, because I accidentally deleted them…..(sorry jonny…but thanks for taking time to do that for me) and yeah…then we finally arrived in Rome! Yippee!! But it still hasn’t hit me that I was here! It took us almost 2 hours for everyone to get their luggages. Some got left in Munich and were going to arrive the next day. Then we got picked up by a big motor coach bus and taken to a welcome dinner that they had prepared for us at a local restaurant. Vikki and I felt a little more at home, because just like Romanians, Italians serve you like 4 different portions of food! So for appetizer we had this cold eggplant and pepper thing. It was kind of different; I wasn’t fond of it though. Then we had pasta with meat sauce. Then for our main course, it was eggplant lasagna. Finally for dessert…..my favorite…..GELATO (Italian ice cream)!!!! Yeah…..can you say that’s a lot of food?! And just like Romanians….its very impolite to not finish everything off of your plate! We couldn’t finish our soda that they had given us, and so since we payed for it, we took it home with us! We didn’t want to waste a whole bottle of coca-cola!! LOL Then we got to our hotel. Checking in didn’t take that long, which was nice, because I just wanted to go to sleep! Vikki and I shared a bedroom together. We were in room 503 in the Hermitage Hotel. The rest of our room mates were in 603 and 703! Haha it was pretty cool! Anyway…so there was 2 twin sized beds and it was a very very tiny room and we had a bathroom…we had a bathtub with no shower door or curtain, so taking showers in there, were extremely extremely hard! We would get water all over the floors! So the next day, we had a wake up call at 7 am! It was crazy …I wanted to sleep in…..EVERYONE wanted to sleep in. But I guess it was ok…because we were going to go on a city tour of Rome!

Feb. 11th, 2006 – Saturday
Wake up call was at 7 am. It was very hard to really know what time it was, because there wasn’t a clock or anything for us to tell time! We went and had a little breakfast that the hotel provides. It was pretty good. Although I really really miss my orange juice from home! The one here tastes a little watered down! L

………………MORE TO COME LATER……………….WITH MORE PICTURES TOO!!!!!