i made it to florence, but just barely. getting here was
possibly definitely the most horrendous travel experience of my life:
my flight from st. louis to philadelphia is so delayed that i am going to miss my connection to frankfurt so a nice u.s. airways man put me on a flight from st. louis to charlotte and then charlotte to philadelphia so i can make my connection. but of course my flight to charlotte was in one of those tiny regional jets that is probably smaller than what the wright brothers flew so i can't bring my large carry-on aboard. the attendant gate checks it and assures me that it will be checked through to my final destination. excellent. it's not like i can lift it into the overhead compartment anyway - it's like 40 lbs. but of course on the way to charlotte, i start freaking out: that bag has my laptop and my camera AND my toothbrush. it cannot be lost. when i arrive in charlotte, i ask one of the attendants at gate to make sure the bag is going through to florence and she insists that i will be able to pick it up there at baggage claim.
so i get to philadelphia and make it onto to my connection to frankfurt. about an hour into the flight, a flight attendant asks over the loudspeaker if there is a doctor or anyone with medical experience on board. oh dear. shortly after that the pilot announces that, due to a medical emergency, we will be landing at gander airport. before i can figure out where gander is, we are on the ground. gander, as i learn from the u.s. airways magazine in the seat-back pocket, is in newfoundland, canada where it is currently -20 degrees fahrenheit. emergency vehicles arrive to care for the man who needs attention, but we are stuck on the plane in this artic wasteland for 3 hours as we wait for the fuel trucks to defrost and refuel the plane and for all our luggage to be unloaded, re-scanned, and re-loaded.
when we finally arrive in frankfurt, my connection to florence is long gone, but it's ok because there's another flight in a few hours. when i arrive in florence 5 hours later than i was supposed to, it's raining and then all my worst travel fears are realized: i arrived in florence but none of my bags had. that is 0 out of 3. meaning i arrived in italy with only jetlag and a handbag.
needless to say i'm practically in hysterics when i get to the lost & found counter. fortunately nyu has someone there to assist me and the lovely italian woman is very comforting. she locates all my bags and assures me they will be delivered to nyu florence by tomorrow morning at the latest. ok. i check in at nyu and meet up with rebecca, my lovely roommate who is expecially glad to see me since she's been waiting for me for 5 hours (sorry, medical emergency landing in canada, you know how it is) so we can get a cab to our homestay together. it can only get better from here - that's what i keep telling myself. and it did indeed get much better.
my homestay is on a charming little street not far from the duomo and i love my family. they speak very little english. i can understand her much of the time but sometimes i get completely lost and rebecca has to translate for me. she serves us carbonara with ham, grilled chicken, and salad for dinner. it is delicious, but i make a complete fool of myself as i try to twirl the long spaghetti noodles into some shape that would fit into my mouth without me having to slurp any noodles. it is a total fail. my host mom laughs at me, offers me a spoon and teaches me how the proper twirling technique (apparently the secret is to hold the fork completely vertically). eventually we (rebecca translating) tell the story of how i lost all my luggage. mia mamma italiana shakes her head at me and sighs: la povera.
i think i'm going to love italy :)
ps. my italian family has a cat! her name is luna and she's adoooorable.
