Buon giorno, ragazzi!

After some twenty-four-odd hours of travel, I have safely arrived at my hotel in Florence. Eight hour flights are just never a good time, but I made it with all my luggage intact, woo! Still slightly deaf in one ear, but that should go away in a day or so, judging by past experience. In four days, we move to our host families' houses, at which point I can furninsh a physical mailing address to those of you who want it. For now, pardon me while I collapse.

(later) Now that I'm slighly more awake, storytime. I met one of the girls from my program (a Carl, actually) in the Florence airport completely by chance. Both of us had somehow missed baggage claim - in our defense, it was not marked/labeled in English or Italian - and exited the terminal without grabbing our suitcases. The helpful lady at the customer service desk directed us both to the Lost & Found office, where we ran into one another. After reentering the terminal through a side door and getting serious patdowns and bag searches, we sheepishly followed the police officer back to the baggage carousel before sharing a taxi to the hotel. Then her room wasn't ready so she hung out in mine and we both fell asleep. When I woke up, she was gone. Haven't seen her since.

I will try to post some pictures about once a week further detailing my adventures. Thank you, everyone, for taking an interest in my little jaunt overseas. Hopefully my fancy new camera and I will not disappoint.

Love you all! Miss you all!

- Kasha

EDIT: My lovely mother pointed out that any and all mail should be sent to the school's address, not the host family's house. So, this one:

Student’s name

Beloit College Florence Program

c/o Linguaviva Scuola d’Italiano

Via Fiume 17

50123 Florence

Italy

Thanks!