ITALY : Introduction

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I spent the day searching for Eggs in my house, attending church, brunching Downtown, and getting homework done. It was a great way to end break (minus the homework!).

After arriving home from one of the most memorable trips of my life, I am full of great memories and hundreds of pictures. I had so much fun, traveling around Italy with some of my closest friends – and I made a few more great friends along the way! I still feel jet-lagged at night, so I am hoping that goes away very soon. Honestly, the 28 other students that were traveling with me were some of the greatest students that made it such a fantastic trip. If there had been any more students, it wouldn’t have been the same.

One of my main goals when getting on that first plane (out of 3, talk about torcher) on my way over, I wanted to leave school in the states and focus solely on my amazing vacation that awaits. This was so. hard. I was constantly thinking about what I was missing (4 days!), what I would have to makeup when arriving home, and the few tests I needed to study for. Leaving all of my school supplies and binders at home helped a lot – the only school related item I brought with me was by novel I had to complete before the end of break. Throughout my days, school definitely was put on the backburner and I focused on being with my greatest friends.

One downside – spending 8 days with the same 28 students can take a toll. Enough said.

As this was my first trip overseas, I didn’t know what to expect. The long (red-eye) flight, customs, countless Passport checks, and total culture shock, I learned so much about such a beautiful country. I was really hesitant going in, but by the end of the trip I didn’t want to come home. (Even my luggage didn’t! It was checked by TSA and came home later. I’d like to think it wanted to stay in Rome!)

I got some great tips from my great friend Kira and a fellow blogger, Ashley. (Check out her “Travel” for some wonderful tips.) I also emailed Carly once to ask about long flight carry-ons and things to do, and reread some of her posts from her recent trip to Scotland!

There is so much I wanted to say about this trip, so many things I thought about on my long 11 hour flight home, but I just can’t remember now as I am writing this post. There are so many great tips that I learned, which I cannot wait to share.

Each post after this will showcase a different day in Italy. I am hoping to share lots of pictures (be prepared for picture overload!) and share some tips along the way. In total, I believe there will be 6 posts.

Happy Monday!

xoxo