Getting There. Wouldn't Think It Would Be That Hard Right?

The adventures I took to get to Italy were surprisingly many ---->

Adventure #1: First flight to JFK - I sat down on my first flight and settled in next to the window seat. Head phones in, magazine out. A nice looking Columbian woman sat down next to me. So I thought everything was normal until she started to cry. There were audible sniffles to my left and while half of me didn't want to disturb her the other half couldn't stop imagining all of the reasons why she could be crying. Maybe her boyfriend dumped her and she got kicked out, or maybe she got fired from her American job or was being deported. It got more creative the longer I stalled. So finally we struck up a conversation and I got to find out the real story. She was from Columbia and came to Utah to be with her boyfriend. However, she owns a natural foods store in Columbia and is a fitness model and had to head back to Columbia for a while to work on her business and visit her 15-year-old son. She was a very interesting person to talk to although her English was broken. At one point we began talking about God and what we each believed. Well, turns out she is basically a Mormon but just doesn't believe in practiced religion. I was shocked to find out how similar our beliefs were on almost every subject. It was such a cool experience to be able to tell her what I believe and find common ground with someone outside of the Utah bubble. As we left the plane she kissed me on both cheeks and said she was happy she met me because it helped her forget how sad she was. I am so glad I finally talked to this woman and got the opportunity to meet someone so different and yet so similar to myself. I told her if she ever brought her business to Utah I would definitely buy. So I got her card. Who knows?! Maybe I will send her a missionary's phone number :).

Adventure #2: Almost missing my connection flight - My first flight landed at 3pm. My connection flight started boarding at 3pm.... yep... I basically ran through the JFK airport which is HUGE and way too confusing for an inexperienced traveler like myself. So I ended up asking for directions from a person on every corner until I finally found my terminal. I reached the international desk and when they saw my flight number the workers made a very unsatisfactory noise that made my stomach hurt. I realized being stuck in the New York airport for hours did not sound like my cup of tea. They ended up escorting me through security with another couple that was late and we raced through the portals until we finally reached our plane 10 minutes before the flight took off. As I walked onto the plane, exhausted, my stress quickly fled as I looked around. There were so many of them! And they were all Italian and spoke the beautiful language and looked so classy and the flight attendants even smelled good, like the perfume Cinzia sprayed around the first day of class claiming that's what the streets of Italy smell like. Yeah. She was right. I was suddenly okay. But then as I went to take my seat I saw that an Asian man and his wife occupied my window seat and the middle seat next to it. I tried to explain to him that he was in my seat but he kept pointing to "A" as the isle seat. Yeah, it wasn't. But I decided to let it slide. I had the window on my first flight after all. Well, as soon as I was finally about to doze off I heard an unpleasantly high voice say, "I go bathroom!" right in my left ear. That little Asian woman literally went 20 times and chose the exact moment I kept almost falling asleep to do it. I got up so many times, fully aware that if I'd battled for my window seat this wouldn't have happened. But oh well. Italy was coming soon :)

Adventure #3: Italian church meeting - So once I got to Italy, one of the guys in my group came and picked me up at the airport, thank goodness! Or else there is probably no way I could have gotten to the hotel by myself. I'm directionally challenged as it is. But on the way to our hotel we stopped at a Roman LDS ward of some people that he knows. Well. This church just happened to be up 3 huge hills and the sun was really coming down on us. Not to mention I wore all of my heavy clothing so as not to take up room in my suitcase. Ya I wasn't feeling too friendly towards church at this point. I showed up, sweaty and lugging my leopard print suitcase behind me that I've had since Jr. High. Let's just say I got a couple of stares. But church turned out to be pretty good! I understood maybe 1/3 of what was said so that's good right? My favorite part was the senile old people. My friend said there is at least one of these in every church in Italy. This little old man not only made hilarious arbitrary comments in Sunday school, but during fast and testimony meeting he stood up to bear his testimony and sat on the stands, waiting his turn. Then in the middle of the person's testimony before him, he decided to stand back up and wander down the isles, talking to people along the way rather than bear his testimony after all. I laughed so hard I almost cried. I think I'm gonna like this place.