First Impressions

I know I've been here for more than a month now, but I had planned to write about my traveling and my arrival in Italy, so everyone's going to have to put up with old news.

First I have to say that flying was amazing. I had flown in a small plane before, but never in an airline, so the experience was quite different. I'd never been so high! The clouds were gorgeous and a lot more interesting from above. When we first got up in the air, the atmosphere was so hazy that it looked like a big bowl of blue soup with dollops of sour cream floating on its surface. As we traveled further north, though, and over the ocean, the atmosphere got clearer and the clouds got bigger.

I took probably way too many pictures of the clouds because I love the sky and wanted to share some of the scenery at least with my dad, who may be the only one who appreciates it, and to remember my first flight over the ocean.

When we flew into Frankfurt, the sky was overcast with just enough space between clouds to cast an eerie light on the city. The panorama looked like something out of a science fiction novel, completely with skyscrapers and space ships (well, I imagined we were in a space ship, anyway).

We found our way through the airport to the trains, though we thankfully didn't have the trouble that I'd heard we would have. Keturah (my travel companion who is also now my roommate) and I took a train to a town or suburb called Mainz, about twenty minutes from the airport. Mainz was nice, though the weather was a lot colder than we had expected, considering we had left America in summer heat. We found a little café and settled down with some tea to write letters, or in my case, write in my journal. I felt a bit out of place, really, considering that no spoke much English, and Keturah and I didn't want to be conspicuous as tourists and Americans. However, after sitting for a bit and enjoying the tea, I felt better. This was my first minor experience with culture shock, I suppose.

After we wandered Mainz for several hours, we returned to the airport and boarded another smaller plane for the flight to Florence. I enjoyed this flight nearly as much as my first flight because we flew over a lot of mountains, and I took about another hundred pictures. I first realized we were in Italy when I saw the ocean with tiny snakes of water crawling away from it. I couldn't tell you which cities I saw from the air, but I was too much in awe to pay close attention to the actual layout and geography.

Our plane landed at the Florence airport after 6 pm, and we were met by Liviana, the girls' dean. We climbed into the big ADRA van she had driven to pick us up--she explained the the other van was in use at the time--and I had my first experience with Italian traffic. I wouldn't call the memory traumatic, but I have to admit I was on the edge of my seat a few times when we came within inches of other cars or when people decided to change lanes whether or not there was room for them in the desired lane. To my surprise, we arrived unscathed just in time for dinner.

Speaking of food, it is now time for lunch, so I'll be continuing later. I'm going to have to post pictures later, too.