Day 1

It's been a very long week.  After staying up until 6 am Wednesday morning before my flight, I woke up at 7:30 am and left my house at 8:15 am.  Finally, I arrived at the airport after making a few stops with my mom who drove me.  My flight to Amsterdam left Seattle-Tacoma at 12:55 pm but was delayed nearly an hour due to debris on the taxi way and an error in the crew manifest paperwork.  While on the plane, I tried unsuccessfully to sleep and watched the movie Precious.  The nice flight attendants also welcomed me to some extra snacks in the galley to the aft of the aircraft.  I was lucky enough to have a window seat and took some pictures of the ice bergs in the North Atlantic, Greenland, the snow in Iceland, Scotland, the Straight of Dover, and the North Sea.
Accompanied by Sarah, Yuting, and Erik, we arrived in Amsterdam sleepless and late for our connection to Rome on KLM.  Bryan was also supposed to be on our flight, but, unfortunately he was in an automobile accident on his way to the airport in Seattle.  After rushing through customs and hurrying to our gate, we barely made the flight to Rome. The KLM flight to Rome was short and sweet and the first taste of Europe...the languages were Dutch and English and there were also many Italians on the plane.
We landed in Rome on Thursday around 11:55 am, on time.  After changing currency (for a horrible rate at Travelex) and walking downstairs with the group, we sat waiting for i baggagli until we realized that they were not going to be coming off the carousel.  So, we all lost our bags between Amsterdam and Rome and had a very interesting time at the Alitalia baggage claim service window.  Long story short we walked out of Rome Fiumicino bagless and tired.  We caught a cab together and were able to only pay 10 Euros each on our way to Piazza del Biscione where the Rome Center is located.  Our cab ride was certainly memorable and a very terse yet valuable introduction to the insanity of driving in Italy.  It was quite the experience.
We spent some time trying to figure out how to open the doors of the Rome Center building which were conspicuously Italian and have gigantic bolts on them.  The big door is called the portone and the name really suits it.  After checking in and looking around, we walked over to the apartment and got settled briefly and did the necessary facebook check.  We attended a short introductory meeting, went to the cell phone store, went to the soap store, and went to the grocery store (where I was royally ripped off on a box of Special K "Fruti Rossi" and "Latte Fresco").  I fell asleep around 6 o'clock after arriving back from the store and got up briefly during the night.

Anticipation

I am extremely excited and privileged to have the opportunity to travel to Italy and Turkey this summer with the UW Honors Program.  My trip will begin when I leave for Amsterdam on June 16th and end when I arrive back in Seattle on July 21st.  


In Rome, I will be staying in an apartment with fellow students near the UW Rome Center (http://depts.washington.edu/roma/)  which is located on the Campo de'Fiori, near Piazza Navona.  Campo de'Fiori literally means "field of flowers" in Italian, so named because, during the Middle Ages, it was an empty meadow in between Pompey's Theatre and the Tiber River.


During my last week, I will travel to Istanbul--which is the fifth largest city in the world (fifth only to Shanghai, Mumbai, Karachi, and Delhi) and the only metropolis to be situated on two continents.  Recently, there have been growing tensions between the Islamic government and a group of military leaders who have been implicated in a secularist coup.  I really have no idea of what to expect in Turkey.  


I'm excited and nervous about the trip for ton of reasons (which I think is normal).  Both places are going to be great for taking pictures and I hope to share as much of my trip as possible through film (or I guess, in an unromantically modern way, SD cards and Facebook)!


In the meantime, I have to go finish the last few weeks of Spring Quarter...