Blogging
From Abroad

Ok… update on EVERYTHING!

Iwona, AnnaMarie (another WVU student going to Paderno!!), and I left Pittsburgh International Airport at 12:20 our time (oh and ps. yes both of my bags were in fact over the weight limit! Ha) and arrived in Chicago O’Hara International Airport 1:10 their time (there’s an hours difference). AnnaMarie left at 2:30 to travel to Frankfurt first, before arriving in Venice- Von (Iwona) and I were leaving at 4:30 and going to Munich first and then to Venice. So first off. We rode Lufthansa a German airline over to Munich. OF COURSE we sat in the two middle seats for our 8 ½ hour flight (there are two on each side of the plane and four in the middle). It really didn’t seem to take that long though. The first 4 hours they were constantly giving you drinks or feeding you. Then there were like two hours of movies- and then the last two hours we got breakfast and prepared to land! I was surprised in how fast the flight seemed to be!! Once we arrived in Munich we had to hurry because we only had 40 minutes to get off our plane and onto another one. If anybody has been to Munich’s airport you can agree with me on this one- its HUGE… and very futuristic looking. All the walls were made of glass- it kind of made it seem that you were being watched the whole time, but none the less it was pretty cool. So we get to our gate (second to last people to get there) and we get on a bus. YES A BUS… it drove about 5-7 minutes onto the tarmac and then we boarded our plane right on the runway. It was fun! Then we took, what seemed to be sooooooooo short, an hour and half plane ride to Venice! It was so cool because we flew right over the Alps. It was real real cloudy and at some parts only the tops of the mountains peaked through the clouds. Honestly- it was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen!! Once we arrived in Venice we waited in the airport for a few hours with a bunch of other students who were coming over to study at CIMBA. We took an hour and 15 minute bus ride to our campus- on the ride over to our campus we passed so many little villas…they were just like the ones that you see in movies. It was sooo cool to see just a whole different country’s landscape. I loved it!!

So now we had orientation and we got our books and unpacked…and IM READY FOR BED!!!!! For the next two weeks our schedule is kind of weird…We have our classes on Mon and Tues but the rest of the week we’re doing leadership activities and team building activities. At this point I’m really not sure what they are- but I’m sure I’ll find out!

<3 Julie!