HOME FROM ROME!!!!!
well, i think all in all, if the trip were to be summed up in only one word, it could be agreed that it was.... INTERESTING...all things considered. from Germany to Paris... Pompeii to the Colosseum, the bus rides, train rides, hotel rooms, rooming arrangements and the wake up calls, the food, the other groups there (Tequila Tiffany), from skipping and playing hopscotch on the streets of Rome to the circus maximus (and the frolicking and flower picking), and the haggling with souvienier shop-people,{DEEP BREATH.. Sigh} the only one consistent word to be used would most definantly be interesting...
day 1 began when we all arrived at the miami international airport (most of us ontime) and then waiting for about an hour or so to get checked in and such... afterwards we had an "interesting" conversation at the gate for about twenty minutes before we boarded... then there was boarding... well that was interesting. Mr. Kandel asked a lady where rows 50 and higher should be standing for the preboarding call... the lady directed us to a line,but since the line was already really long, we figured we'd wait for about twenty minutes or so and then join in. we stood exactly where kandel told us to stand... so happens that we'd be standing there for over 45 minutes waiting there because we were directed to the wrong place to stand... somehow he was able to get into his seat before we did and that he found the right line to wait in and boarded the plane within fifteen minutes from when we first got into the line. But hey, in my oppinion, its only one of the many things to come that made the trip "interesting"...so then the extremely long plane ride to germany... and once we arrived there and realized we only had twenty or so minutes to catch our connecting flight to italy, we all shot off running through the airport terminals. howerever, we were seperated from mr. kandel because one of the students left his passport on the plane...so here you have ten teenage students running after a man who was taking us to our gates, and then mr. kandel, roberto, roberto's mom and his grandma (both very very sweet people) going to the same gate a different (quicker) way. the ten of us reached the gate five minutes before the plane pulled out. we couldnt board the plane without mr. kandel they told us, and figuring he was behind us, we agreed to wait for him and the rest of the group... turns out he thought we were ahead of him and he got on. it was only that after the plane had taken off the attendants came back and told us that they had made a mistake and he had been on the plane with the only other "parental supervisors" of our group... so imagine how "interesting" it could be, ten teenagers stuck in the airport in germany.
after they rescheduled us on the next flight out for italy (the wait was a quick two hours), we made our way to the gate (which was already crowded with people) and being that there were no chairs available found a corner where we all could sit on the floor.... the stares we got from passerby was more then "interesting". apparently ( and i didnt find out about this until we were talking to the woman next to us during our flight to Italy)it is a very odd sight to see and that people there generally dont sit on the floor... such an act was extremley American. either way some people at the airport overheard our dilemma and stopped to talk to us, and one very sweet man even showed us where we could get free food...
and to think thats only the first day... in fact, there really is more to the first day, like our travel on the crowded metro, the "piece-of-meat" stares, the spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain, the introduction to all the walking wed be doing, the geleto's (gellapi), and the life saving fact that every fountain there was sanitary to drink from and therefore you only needed to share one or two bottles of water (because water is expensive over there) ie. why almost everyone on the trip got sick...
day 1 began when we all arrived at the miami international airport (most of us ontime) and then waiting for about an hour or so to get checked in and such... afterwards we had an "interesting" conversation at the gate for about twenty minutes before we boarded... then there was boarding... well that was interesting. Mr. Kandel asked a lady where rows 50 and higher should be standing for the preboarding call... the lady directed us to a line,but since the line was already really long, we figured we'd wait for about twenty minutes or so and then join in. we stood exactly where kandel told us to stand... so happens that we'd be standing there for over 45 minutes waiting there because we were directed to the wrong place to stand... somehow he was able to get into his seat before we did and that he found the right line to wait in and boarded the plane within fifteen minutes from when we first got into the line. But hey, in my oppinion, its only one of the many things to come that made the trip "interesting"...so then the extremely long plane ride to germany... and once we arrived there and realized we only had twenty or so minutes to catch our connecting flight to italy, we all shot off running through the airport terminals. howerever, we were seperated from mr. kandel because one of the students left his passport on the plane...so here you have ten teenage students running after a man who was taking us to our gates, and then mr. kandel, roberto, roberto's mom and his grandma (both very very sweet people) going to the same gate a different (quicker) way. the ten of us reached the gate five minutes before the plane pulled out. we couldnt board the plane without mr. kandel they told us, and figuring he was behind us, we agreed to wait for him and the rest of the group... turns out he thought we were ahead of him and he got on. it was only that after the plane had taken off the attendants came back and told us that they had made a mistake and he had been on the plane with the only other "parental supervisors" of our group... so imagine how "interesting" it could be, ten teenagers stuck in the airport in germany.
after they rescheduled us on the next flight out for italy (the wait was a quick two hours), we made our way to the gate (which was already crowded with people) and being that there were no chairs available found a corner where we all could sit on the floor.... the stares we got from passerby was more then "interesting". apparently ( and i didnt find out about this until we were talking to the woman next to us during our flight to Italy)it is a very odd sight to see and that people there generally dont sit on the floor... such an act was extremley American. either way some people at the airport overheard our dilemma and stopped to talk to us, and one very sweet man even showed us where we could get free food...
and to think thats only the first day... in fact, there really is more to the first day, like our travel on the crowded metro, the "piece-of-meat" stares, the spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain, the introduction to all the walking wed be doing, the geleto's (gellapi), and the life saving fact that every fountain there was sanitary to drink from and therefore you only needed to share one or two bottles of water (because water is expensive over there) ie. why almost everyone on the trip got sick...