Buongiorno, Italia!

When I was a Junior in high school, I was invited to go on a trip to Europe with youth music abroad. At this point in time, I was balancing trying to figure out College, lots of extracurricular activities, honors choir, finishing my Eagle Scout project, finishing my graduation project, and just right out not having money, so I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this feat. We were able to get discounted price due to our financial situation, from the original price of five and a half thousand dollars, but it still seemed like so much.

Somehow in some way, however, my angel on Earth and shining star, my mother, pulled together the funds, and in the third week of June, 2012, I was on my way to the international airport in DC with a full suitcase of toss away clothes and a carry-on full of odds and ends, and shortly after the packing process, I was sprinting to our plane, a Boeing 747. Here, I would sit for the next 8 hours watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and some movie with Jim Carrey in it. Before long, we landed in Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France.

My first glimpse of European airplane food

Now, at this point in the journey, remember that I am with a night owl and a shut-in, with no real language experience other than 4 years of Spanish. But before I knew it, I was in France, at 6:40 in the morning, waiting for an air taxi to take us to the beautiful city of Rome. I knew about five words of Italian, did not have proper Italian attire at all, and was notably culture shocked as soon as I touched down in Rome.

This was my first time being in a foreign country, and how interesting it was. To see the speed limit signs in kilometers, the traffic lights on the side of the road instead of above the road, seeing every sign in Italian instead of English, seeing the lackluster driving skills of the Italian populist, and of course, seeing the locals dressed up in long dark clothing even though it was 40 degrees celsius outside. I can deal with the 24 hour clock format, but I definitely came across as American when I stepped out of the bus in shorts and immediately proceeded to buy a 2 liter bottle of water.

As jetlagged as we were, we were instructed to stay awake or else we would feel worse the next day. No napping allowed. We went to a private beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea, where I spoke Spanish and broken Italian to some locals. I got my first Italian lesson from a store owner, who was very happy to see a tourist attempting to speak the local language. We enjoyed the waters and the hot Sands for several hours, before stopping in Rome to see the Colosseum and a few huge churches. This would be the first of many crazy and notable experiences on this day.

Hanging out with the locals! (Once upon a time, I had a goatee.)

At night, the hotel hosts put on a huge buffet for us, happy to see so many people occupying their space. They gave us discounts on everything, served us some of the best buffet food I've ever had, came by the tables and talked to all of us, and made our first night one to remember. Dinner was also later, as the culture in Italy is to have dinner later at night. We had dinner around 2100, and then played a few simple games as a tour group together before departing to our rooms and getting the best night's sleep most of us have ever seen.