Bright lights and butterflies. We drink to my demise.

Here it is: my first post about being here and what's been going on, I'll try Not to leave much out. I'll give it to you chronologically I guess. 

got the to airport wayy too early and hung out with parents for a while (they never cried...). I finally met up with amy and jocelyn so that we could say goodbye to our parents together and walk into security. So we did (their parents cried...) and we all walked through the security check together. I was overwhelmed with thoughts like : "I'm not going to see them for a while" "I hope I didn't forget anything" "what if I get homesick?" "i feel like shit"

we got through security and started running around the terminals looking for overpriced food. All of us talked for a long time and killed 3 hours until we were finally boarding. I could only think about sleep at this point so while taking off and listening to all time low I passed out and woke up only 3 times (twice to eat, once to watch the hangover) and slept the rest of the time (9 hours). We arrived in frankfurt and rushed to catch our connection. I slept the whole time on that flight also (1 hour and ten min) until we arrived in florence (finally!)

We all stepped off the plane excited, relieved and dazed. We took our baggage to the bus that transported us to the hotel. The whole bus ride I was in awe of the city : fashion billboards everywhere, beautiful people in designer suites riding bikes and vespas, amazing architecture, leather shoe/jacket shops on every corner, gelato shops everywhere, and tiny italian cars nearly hitting each other. We got to the hotel where i met up with my roommate (thip) who had arrived earlier because she had a different flight schedule. She helped me take my things to the room and was already filled with grappa. 

We all met up in the lobby after getting ready and walked to the restaurant for the welcome dinner. I realized how much I'd have to walk (a lot!) during this first outing. I was amazed at how gorgeous everything was. We were passing cathedrals, statues, theaters, all on our way to a restaurant. I was still ridiculously jet-lagged during the dinner but it was good (except for the salad). We thought about going out but I decided against it in order to sleep in (I ended up being late to the morning meeting anyway). We had the meeting the next morning and went to our apartments. I don't think anything could be any less than gorgeous here. We all went out and explored, went grocery shopping, and thip made dinner and we got a few bottles of wine and enjoyed the apartment for the night. We slept in til 4 pm on saturday and went out later with a few others to a bar where we were treated like celebrities (still not sure why) and they really do love Michael Jackson here hahah. The next day we slept in on sunday again and went out that night to our friends HUge apartment to hang out and toast (three bottles of wine for 10Euros!) 

we walked home and went to school where I had my first italian class. It is such a pretty language (very similar to spanish) and I can't wait to start using it! I also bought internet today which was a hastle but worked out (I guess?) I'm now writing this ridiculously long thing while drinking tea on the balcony. 

side notes:

jet lag is the worst kind of torture. I'm going to have to slowly learn to become more low key as far as maintinence goes because there's only 1 mirror for 4 girls and it's always raining here. the thunderstorms are gorgeous. it's way too easy to get booze here. I don't even like drinking anymore hahah. people drive like maniacs here. My tights ripped at the heal today from walking so much. all they eat are carbs. I still need to have gelato. I still need to do so much. I love this city. Roommates just got home! 

Love all of you, will make smaller updates from now on.