So i arrive at JFK, say goodbye to the rents, and sit down in my terminal. Terminal 14 right? Wrong. I redirect myself to terminal 12. Only a minor error, everything is looking bright. Four forty-five rolls around and there is still no sign of a plane, so I check my phone to contact Emma, another student from Trinity in the TC Rome Program. I have three bars of service, but I can't make calls or text. I figure, don't sweat it, I'll just catch her during our two-hour layover so we can discuss catching a cab in Italy to the Rome campus. We'll get to that later.
The plane doesn't arrive at JFK until 5:45 pm, and we don't take off till 6:45-7ish. I'm in the back of the plane (window seat) next to a young spanish boy and his father. After dinner (I was just about the last one served...perks of being the caboose i guess), the boy and his father PASS OUT. Heads together, father holding his son's hand. How sweet, right? Well yeah, until i had to pee. So about 4 1/2 hours into their "nap," I decide my bladder can't take it anymore. I decide to man up and wake the little boy so i can get my butt to the bathroom, which is staring at me about three rows back. I poke him, tap him, nudge him. Nothing. I decide I don't want "sexual harassment of a minor" on my permanent record, so I give up and wait until the pilot announces we will be landing soon and slip out right before the seatbelt light turns on. The thing is, they only wake up once we arrive in Madrid.
About twenty minutes later, I am nearly the last person off the plane and have to HAUL to get to my connecting flight. In other words, my "layover" in Madrid turns into an impromptu cardio workout, complete with an awkward trying-not-to-be-that-person-sprinting-through-the-airport jog so that I don't miss my flight. Yes, i was THAT girl. But before I can get to my terminal, I need to go through another passport scan and security check. Why? not sure, but judging by the lines, I assume they're mandatory. During the security check, I forget to take my mac out of my bag for screening so i have to backtrack. Fortunately, it's 8:30 am and my plane takes off at 8:55 am (yes, that is sarcasm). Then the hefty security lady decides to give me an awkwardly aggressive pat down. I won't go into details, but it was a little too touchy in my opinion...not my finest moment.
...Anyway at 8:30ish--still a little flustered from the unwanted girl-on-girl action--I catch an amtrack deal to my terminal. I get there at 8:45-ish and find a huge line snaking from my terminal. Good sign. It must've been a little backed up. I attempt to dry my sweat by assuming an awkward position that allows for more airflow, and I feel a little dryer and a whole lot more relaxed. I board the plane, and I'm legitimately in the last seat on the entire aircraft: 35F. Mom and Dad, you shouldn't have! ;) Oh, and if you were wondering, I didn't get to the bathroom, but I managed to pee a little during my dramatic (and frankly, a little traumatic) "layover". At about 9:45 am, I finally get to the restroom. Quite possibly the best moment of the day.
Around 11:30 am, i arrive in Rome. The plane ride was extremely smooth (did I mention I tend to get motion sickness?) and just seeing Rome from the airplane was enough to make up for my bathroom/sprinting/sweating debacle(s)...but apparently almost missing my connecting flight wasn't good enough. They had to lose one of my 2 bags too. So Emma (if you remember, the girl who i was supposed to catch a cab with) and another kid from the program leave so they can make it on time to orientation. Completely understandable..I would've wanted to get out of that crazy airport too. However, this means i need to find my own cab and pay for it once i figure out my luggage problem.
After forty-five minutes in the customer service line (apparently a lot of people lose their bags?), a sweet italian lady tells me in broken english that they forgot my bag at Madrid and they are going to send it on the next flight out, which arrives in about an hour. I think okay, not too bad. Could be worse.* So I wait there for the 2:30 pm flight to arrive...my bag is basically the last piece of luggage to fall onto the conveyor belt. THANK GOD. but then i need to bring my claim back to the customer service desk so they can "close" it...it is now 4 pm. I somehow get a taxi by myself without looking like too much of an idiot and pay 40 euro for a ride to the convent/campus. Not bad considering, but by this time I haven't gotten any sleep and haven't eaten since 6:30 am. I feel absolutely horrible.
I finally get to the convent at 4:45-5 pm (missed lunch and the first orientation walk), and find my room - a single in the convent, where most of the kids in the the program live (all the rooms are singles save 2 or 3). I have a weirdly comfortable bed (because it's a brick, but i sleep like a baby on it) and my own bathroom. I have a shower head in the middle of my bathroom, not separated from anything. And--since i know you're wondering--the answer is yes; if i really wanted to, i could go to the bathroom and wash my hair at the same time. i'll let you take that in for a moment. The toilet paper has been a casualty of this "special" shower feature, but I've improved my shower head wielding techniques in the past few days so i hope soggy toilet paper is a thing of the past.
So now that i'm finally settling in, I'll try to catch up on my blog entries this week! Hope all is well back home - Rome is beautiful!
* e.g. I met these two girls in the airport who are also studying abroad in Italy, about three hours from Rome. They needed to catch a bus that was paid for by their program, but they missed it because they lost their bags too. We bonded and were bitter together, and tried for about 30 minutes to use a pay phone using a pre-paid card. Just to give you a glimpse of our ineptitude, it took us nearly ten minutes to change the language from Italian to English and to even know that such a switch was an option. And yes, we are all 20-year-olds and juniors in college. I ended up leaving before they did, so I don't know if they ever made it to their destination. I sure hope they did because i was sure happy to get the hell out of FCO airport.
