Let's Go

Today has been eventful.  I finally got to start the trip I have been working towards for so long.  I went to the airport super early this morning to catch my 7:00am flight to NYC.  Sarah, another girl who is going to Italy with me, met me at the airport.  We ended up on the same flight, which made navigating the airport pretty easy.  The flight to New York was very uninteresting, so I slept just about the whole way.  We landed at JFK earlier than expected, so we had a bit of time to kill after we got our bags.  We waited for the shuttle to the hotel along with Emma, who is also going to Italy.  Once we got to the hotel, we hung out with a bunch of new people until the orientation started.  Apparently, only girls go on exchange because I am one of like 4 guys out of the 30 people here. I'm still learning names, but everyone here is fantastic.  We've been hanging in 1 room the whole night playing games, and listening to terrible impersonations.  The actual orientation was pretty boring, but they brought in a woman who went on exchange to Italy way back when, and we had a good conversation.  A lot of our questions were answered, and she was very interesting to talk to.

Right now, I'm sitting in my hotel room trying to fight off the tiredness.  (I'm determined to finish this post). It's becoming more real that I am actually leaving home for 6 months, and I'm starting to get a little homesick already.  Nothing serious, but I think the next few weeks will be tough.  Hopefully I keep myself busy, and not think about home too much.  Tomorrow, we have a bit more orientation, and then we finally get to fly Switzerland, and then to Rome!  I'm literally about to fall asleep, so I'm gonna end it here.  I'll update after the Rome orientation is done, and I'm settled in with my host family.

P.S. - If any orientation kids are reading this, thanks for being awesome.