gli arrivi

My adventure began early Wednesday, March 4th.I left for the Atlanta airport at 7 am central time. There were three legs to my trip, the first being a flight from Atlanta to Detroit, the second being a flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, and the third being a flight from Amsterdam to Roma.

As I left Atlanta I was very excited to be beginning my adventure to Roma. As we began landing in Detroit, I was very disappointed with what I saw out the window. From the plane you could see the vast urban sprawl, the flat terrain, and brown grass. The city seemed as it lacked
life.

We did not stay long in Detroit, only about 90 minutes. We soon boarded a huge plane to fly across the Atlantic. This is when I felt my trip was becoming more real than an idea. I had never flown across a vast body of water, nor to another country. The flight was long, almost 8 hours, but I watched a couple of movies slept a little. Amy and I had the middle four seats to ourselves so we were able to stretch out a bit, which was very nice. When we landed in Amsterdam, we had a longer layover of 5 hours. The airport in Amsterdam is the largest airport I have ever seen. It took us about 15 minutes to taxi until the gate at the terminal. I did not understand why until we got off the plane. Once in the terminal, I realized the size of the airport. To give you an ideal, terminal D had gates 1-97, and that was only one terminal.The layover gave us time to explore the airport, which seemed more like a mall than an airport, and rest a bit. Most of us took naps while we waited at our terminal. I was disappointed with Amsterdam, mostly because of the time of year Im told, it was very foggy the entire time we were there. We could barely see the building past the airport from the terminal. As we flew out, some of the cloud and fog did break long enough for me to see a vast land of green meadows. The vibrant green grass gave the feeling of life, and made want to return to this place someday.

The flight from Amsterdam to Roma was only about 2 hours long, but seemed much shorter than that. I slept the whole way, but made sure to wake up for the snack. You have to take advantage of the free food options. As we began our desent into Roma, I could see the bright green grass and the togographical changes from my small window. I knew that Roma would be full of life, and that I would grow to love the place I would call home for the next two months.

Pictures: a) The group at the terminal in Atlanta b) Amy reading her Italian Phrase Book on the plane from Detroit to Amsterdam c) Alan and Jonathan talking in the Amsterdam Airport