Day 23: No lame title name today

Today was a normal class and Italian day. Because I'm still kinda sick and still had work to catch up on, I skipped the gym and just stayed in the library in between classes. After class, a group of us went into town again and I got some tights to go with my dress I bought yesterday and some nail polish. After shopping, I came back and showered and we went to dinner. We had the really good spinach tortellini again, along with the salad with my favorite dressing. After dinner I began packing and we reserved our trains to Venice tomorrow. We're leaving early in the morning, spending the day in Verona, and then taking the train to Venice for the remainder of the weekend. This time I'm traveling with Sheley, her roommate Emily, and 9 other girls (Taylor, Taylor, Morgan, Lindsey, Lindsey, Raleigh, Annie, Mari, and Monica). After booking all our trains I finished up packing, we booked another hostel for upcoming 10-day trip to the UK, did some last minute school stuff and went to bed.

Day 22: Worst day ever to be sick? Possibly.

While I did have the opportunity to sleep in today because class was cancelled, sleep wasn't exactly easy. While I'm hoping it's just a cold, I woke up feeling gross with zero energy. In the morning I worked on my paper and got a rough draft finished. Around lunch time, I went with a group of girls into town to go to the grocery store and H&M. I wanted to try to find some cold medicine, but wasn't successful so I grabbed some tea to try to help. At H&M I found a cute black dress on sale for pretty cheap to wear to Venice this weekend and for other events throughout the trip.
Once we were done, I caught the FuniBus home, which was my first time, but is so much easier than walking up the hill-of-death in town. After shopping, I came back and finished up my paper, and read over the chapters for tomorrow's class discussion. At 6 we had a presentation from a friend of Brinberg's to teach us more about Switzerland. After the presentation, we had dinner which was chicken-nugget type things with rice and my favorite green beans, and a really good apple(ish) type pie for dessert. After dinner, I finished my second paper and planned more of my 10-day trip to the UK with the same group I traveled to Florence with. We didn't get everything booked, but we now have all our flights and our hostel for Dublin booked, so it's a start. I then updated some of my blog and went to bed.

Day 21: Midterm day... :(

Today we had class as normal, but after were assigned our first (of many, I'm sure) midterm papers. We had to pick a social issue that is important to us and apply it to the concepts we have learned so far in class. We had some time before he sent out the assignment after class, so I headed to the gym and then went to the library when I was finished to start on another paper for our Study Abroad class that is due Thursday. Once the midterm was posted, I chose the topic of standardized testing in school systems and begin my project. Once my computer started dying, I headed back to the Montarina and kept working on the paper. At dinner, Brinberg announced that class the next day was cancelled so that we would have sufficient time to work on our papers (and also meant I would get to sleep in for the first time since ever...). Dinner was probably one my favorites so far: baked chicken with sauteed vegetables. You wouldn't think that would be something I missed so much, but it most definitely was. After dinner I had Brinberg look over the start to my paper and then I tweaked what was needed, worked on it some more, and then headed to bed.

Day 20: Oh, Monday, we meet again

Waking up this morning was a struggle to say the absolute least. It was another laundry day so on top of trying to get myself ready for class and Italian, I also had to take care of that. But I made it on time and everything went fine. Class was normal and then Brinberg met with our Italian professor to discuss how the set-up of her class is. So Italian was a little different in the sense that now she understands we have a lot more time off than she thought, but her teaching style continues to be from every direction possible, so I'm still not confident in the end result, but we'll see I guess. After class I came back and went out on a grocery store run, and then did some work before dinner. Dinner was salad and pasta with zucchini, so I was a pretty happy girl. After dinner I just did some work and then headed to bed.

Day 19: Dachau and heading home from Munich

Sunday morning we all woke up and took the train to Dachau to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. While we missed our stop the first train ride, we back tracked and made it. There, we had a few minutes to wait for the bus to take us to the memorial site, so we stopped in the bakery across the street. Once we caught the bus, we purchased the audio tour for memorial site and went through it. It was one of those experiences that you truly cannot explain. Seeing the sites and hearing about the historical details really put into perspective a more realistic view of what happened in Dachau. After we all finished, we headed back to the train station, grabbed some snacks (I, of course, found a BRIE STUFFED PRETZEL), and then took the train back to Lugano around 4pm. This time we just switched train in Zuerich and arrived in Lugano just before midnight. I came home, slightly unpacked my things, and crashed.

Day 18: Pretzels, Palaces, and Pints of Beer

We woke up decently early this morning and went into town to catch an off-and-on bus tour to see Munich. The group got slightly separated at first so the first half of the tour was only six of us, while Michael and Jess were on their own. We first went to Nymphenburg Palace, then to the BMW museum, Olympic Park, and then just rode the bus for the remaining stops. We got off the bus and grabbed lunch, where I just got a simple cheese sandwich and fries. From there, we walked through the main square and got to see more of Munich. We headed back to the hostel, got ready, and went out to dinner at Hofbrauhaus, where I had DELECIOUS spatzle, which was like mac and cheese on German steroids. I also had two pints of beer and a pretzel bigger than my face. Our plan was to go out after Hofbrauhaus, but we were all exhausted so we just went to bed.

Day 17: Off to Munich!

Today we had our normal class in the morning, and were let out early because a couple groups wanted to catch noon(ish) trains. My group was headed to Munich, while others were going to Rome, Berlin, Salzburg, Vienna, and Nice. After class we headed back to the Montarina, grabbed our things, and headed to the train station. We took the train from Lugano to Zuerich to Tuttlingen to Sigmaringen to ULM HBF (whatever that is) to Munich, arriving around 8:30 p.m. We then headed to our hostel... which was an experience. While we can look back and laugh at it now because all went well (with the exception of a tick on Sheley's pillow...), I would most definitely not recommend staying there... to anyone. It was called Hotel Modern, however nothing about the place was hotel-like, nor modern. Upon arrival, the hostel did not have the two rooms we booked and we ended up having to split for the first night with Michael in a room to himself, which was by far the sketchiest room of the "hotel." But we made it through, and that's all that matters.
After checking in and getting ready, we headed to dinner to a recommended place from some of Amy's friend from Munich. We went to a (very) large German beer hall called Augustiner Brau Munchen, where I had some delicious beer and Venison Goulash with bread dumpling and cranberries. We also witnessed Jess order apple strudel, and come to near tears eating it because she fell in love.
After dinner, we went back to the hostel and met up with Amy who went to dinner with her friends. We got ready and then headed out to a bar called Sausalitos. We all had a good time, and witnessed a very intoxicated guy dump an entire beer on the floor and then later on try to undress himself... luckily he did not and then we headed home to our lovely first night in "Hotel" Modern.

Day 16: First (of most likely many) class discussions

Today was not a normal class day for us. Instead of teaching more "consumer behavior," Brinberg had us research the history of conflict in the Middle East prior to class to have an informed discussion and debate during class. Because I had little knowledge of the subject, it was very interesting not only researching for the discussion, but being able to hear all the opinions about it all from my classmates and Brinberg himself. The discussion lasted most of class, until we switched subjects to another article we read about our sheltered generation, which led to discussion on social media and other things, which was also very interesting to hear.
Following class, I headed to the gym and then had my second Italian class. My teacher still is unaware of the schedule of our program and her teaching style is still just as all-over-the-place, but we'll get through it step by step (hopefully...). After returning home, I completed some studying and updated my journals so I could get it checked for our first graded assignment. We had really good spinach tortellini for dinner at the Montarina, and after dinner I packed and got all my stuff together to go to Munich tomorrow!

P.S. - I found my sock!

Day 15: WE GOT TO SLEEP IN… kinda

As a “test” according to Brinberg, for reasons unknown, we got to have class an hour later today, which meant an hour more of sleep.. yay! We headed to class as normal, got back our first set of graded quizzes (eye opener that I might need to put a little more effort into studying..oops), and had class like normal. What was cool, but got quickly annoying, today was that it was the first official snow of Lugano that we were all here for since we arrived. After class we all headed back to the Montarina to get work done, just like another Wednesday. We also looked more into our trip to Munich this weekend and our first 10 day trip to the UK. We are going to plan on a full day tour on Saturday in Munich and then head to Dachau on Sunday. I also got to have my first Montarina laundry experience today… and my mesh bag holding all my socks, bras, and underwear somehow got dumped out, so the search for all those things was fun to say the least. But I found all but the match to one sock, which I’m hoping will come up eventually. We had another nice dinner at the Montarina and then came home and did some school work before bed. Tomorrow we will be discussing conflict in the Middle East, and I am very interested to see how this will go.

Day 14: Just your average Tuesday

Today we just did the normal: go to class, do homework at the Montarina, Montarina for dinner, etc. As I woke up and went to eat breakfast, I realized someone had eaten over half of my bag of granola… and I was not a happy girl. But nonetheless, I went to class and carried on with my day. Today I also went to the gym at Franklin for the first time! (May or may not have been the first time I worked out since we got to Europe…oops). The gym is definitely small, with only a couple treadmills, ellipticals, benches, and hand-weights. It does have a fairly large basketball gym, though, which was nice so we could all do our workout together and not feel like we were taking over too much. After the gym, we planned our trip to Munich for this weekend. My group this time was the same six from Florence, plus Jess and Laura. It took some serious searching, but we eventually found a hostel for all of us and booked it. We then went to dinner and had yummy chicken curry and a desert very similar to apple pie- my favorite! After dinner at the Montarina, about half of the group headed to Over the Rainbow for the “back to school” party they throw annually for the Franklin students. I decided not to go to stay back and get some work done, but those who went say it was very fun and got to meet some Franklin students, which is pretty cool.

Day 13: First Monday after a traveling weekend…

After a long and tiring- but oh so worth it- weekend, it was time to head to class bright and early this morning. While it was a struggle to say the least, I made it on time and awake (somewhat). We had a quiz first thing, which my tired brain struggled with slightly, but it was okay. We shared all our traveling stories after the quiz. We had groups go to Florence, Munich, Interlaken, and the house moms went to Austria. It was very exciting to hear about everyone’s experiences, and to hear Brinberg’s comments about them as well. After class, I stuck around at Franklin because we began our Italian class as well, and mine wasn’t scheduled until 2:30. In between classes, I went to the cafeteria for lunch and got a yummy salad, and then spent some time in the library getting work done. Italian class was… interesting. Our teacher is very nice and seems very knowledgeable, but is only used to teaching Franklin students, so it will be an adjustment for all of us. Brinberg assured us he would have a talk with her about rearranging some of the class to accommodate our program, so we will see how that goes later this week. After Italian, I came home and a group of us took a trip to the grocery store. We went to Coop this time, which was slightly cheaper and smaller than Migros, which we went to the first time. We got all we needed and then came home and got some work done before dinner. Dinner was a normal pasta dish, but with a REALLY good sorbet for dessert. After dinner, we discussed possible plans for the weekend with different groups, but didn’t decide on any specific plans yet.

Day 12: Final sites of Florence & heading home :(

After an exciting and filled day, followed by a night that lasted longer than any of us would have liked, getting up this morning was a struggle. But we all dragged ourselves out of bed and headed into town to see as much of Florence as we had time for. First we headed to the Duomo to climb the bell tower, which was absolutely stunning. The way up was a bit of a struggle because of the never-ending, rocky stairs, but in the end, it was all worth it. We spent a good time enjoying the view, and then headed down to see the Baptistery of Saint John.

After those two areas, we headed across Florence to grab some lunch and try and tour the Michelangelo Gardens. We stopped at a super cute café where I got a sandwich with yummy, thick bread, prosciutto, brie (the only reason I ordered it…) and tomato. After lunch, we walked over towards the gardens, but because we were so limited on time, we decided to skip the gardens to have adequate time to see everything at the Duomo. On the way back to the other side of town, we stopped at the gelato place from Saturday and I got my Italian gelato, which was no shy of amazing. I chose chocolate chip in a chocolate dipped cone, and was in no way, shape, or form, disappointed. 

When we got to the Duomo, we walked around the sanctuary and then headed up to the top, which was a scarier trip up than the bell tower, but an even more amazing view. We spent some time reflecting on all our Florence experiences, and then headed back down and then back to our apartment to check out. We gathered all our stuff, headed back to the train station, and after what felt like just the blink of an eye, we had arrived back in Lugano. We arrived around 8 p.m. and headed back to the Montarina and got all our things together to start our next week of classes.

Day 11: Florence. Is. Amazing.

After a super fun Friday night out, we were all ready to see what else Florence would bring us. We got up decently early and first headed to Uffizi, which was an experience to say the least. I am not typically a museum girl, but all of the old artwork, sculptures, and just the building itself was absolutely breathtaking. We spent a couple hours there and then headed to a recommendation from Sheley’s friend for lunch: Gusta Pizza. And let me tell you, it was worth every cent, calorie, step it took to get there, and everything in between. Hands down, best pizza I’ve ever had in my life, which I’m sure I’ll be dreaming about for the rest of my life. After lunch, we headed to a recommended gelato place. My stomach was a little uneasy from eating every bite at Gusta Pizza, so I sadly didn’t get any.

After gelato, we headed over to the Academia where we saw The David, which was beyond words. You hear all the time how stunning it is, but it truly is one of those pieces of art that you cannot appreciate unless you’re actually there. Among the David, we also saw many other magnificent sculptures and pieces of art. After that, we decided to save the rest of the sightseeing until the next day and headed home to get ready for dinner. For dinner that evening, we headed to a recommendation from the other group of girls that went to Florence this same weekend called Il Gatto e la Volpe. There, I ordered some yummy wine, and a very interesting, but tasty mixed seafood dish. I struggled a tad on how to eat some parts of it, but had no problem finishing almost every bite. Along with our meal, we also had some yummy bread with olive oil and balbalsamic dressing, and a hilarious waiter.

After dinner, we went back to the apartment for about an hour before we headed out again for the night. We went to Uncle Jimmy’s again to meet up with the second group in Florence, and it was a great time. I decided to give the Alabama Slammer 2 a try, but stuck with my Captain Morgan shots, of course.

Around 2 a.m., the other group headed home, but as we were leaving, some people our group had met that evening wanted to head to a club called Space Electronica. This was a club Sheley’s friends had recommended her to not go to due to some bad reputations, but our group wanted to go scope it out anyway… bad decision. We got to the club and while we were discussing whether or not to go in, one of our girls headed in without any of us noticing. Unfortunately, that meant we had to go find her, but in the end, we got her home safely and without losing anything but some Euros to the ridiculous bouncers.

Day 10: Traveling to and our first night in Florence!

Waking up this morning was super exciting. While we still had to go sit through three hours of class, before we knew it, it was time to head to the train station and make our first weekend venture to Florence. First rookie mistake of the day: bringing our hiking backpacks to class. We needed to catch the 12:30 train so logically it made sense, but was so not worth it. Brinberg let us out early so we had plenty of time to come back to the Montarina, grab something quick to eat, and still have plenty of time to get to the station before the train left. But after doing all that, we all boarded the train smoothly and were super excited to go. We all got seats together besides Rachel, who luckily sat next to a nice Italian guy who she could talk music with the entire ride.

 After arriving to Milan, we switched trains smoothly and Sheley and I found our seats across from a business man who appeared to be watching an amusing show on his iPad during the ride, based on all the chuckles we heard from him. Before Sheley and I knew it, we were arriving into Florence. We met with the rest of the group and it was time to try and navigate our way through Florence. We struggled finding a map because the tourist info desk in the station was under construction, but after wandering around and stopping for some pictures, we found our way to an atm and the apartment we stayed at.
We were slightly earlier than planned, so were unable check in quite yet, so we decided to stop into Bar Michelangelo just up the street. There we all checked in with our parents (thanks to free wifi) and grabbed something to drink (I got a nice cold beer, of course). I then emailed the owner of the apartment and let him know we had arrived. Shortly after, we headed back to the apartment and met Emilio, a super sweet guy maybe 5-10 years older than us. While English wasn’t his strongest ability, he was very helpful with restaurant and other recommendations. He also greeted us with a yummy bottle of Chianti wine and almond biscuits. The apartment was super cute, clean, and perfect for our size group.

 After Emilio left, we all settled into the apartment, drank our wine, and freshened up for dinner. For dinner we decided to try a recommendation from both Emilio and Beth: Yellow Bar. As we walked in, we met the owner who showed us the kitchen and told us about their fresh pasta and homeade olive oil they are known for. As a group, we ordered a bottle of wine, and then ordered our own meals. I had a really yummy vegetable pasta dish. After dinner, we were given free shots of limoncella from the owner, and then headed to another Beth recommendation: Uncle Jimmy’s.
 Uncle Jimmy’s is basically an American college student bar. As you walk in, there are signatures, shirts, flags, underwear, and everything in between all over the walls and ceilings from college all across America. We got there decently early, so it wasn’t very crowded, which made it easy for all of us to walk around and see everything. I quickly found the big VT Beth’s group drew on the ceiling, and we all added our own touches throughout the night. We met some people from all different schools, and even some of Michael’s friends who are studying abroad in Florence. Not long after arriving, the bar tenders told us of their drink specials, which had us buy a wristband for 1 Euro and then get a drink + shot combo for 5 or 6 euros. I tried “Sex with an Alligator” (also suggested by Beth), and of course, Captain Morgan as a shot. 

 After some fun conversations with the other students (and a round or two more of drinks), we decided to head to another club with Michael’s friends: Club 21. It was a smaller club, but packed and a fun environment. We stayed for just a little while and then headed home after some slightly instances happened. While we got partially lost along the way, we met some other American students along the way who (sorta) helped us. And it hit me, I was in Florence, just the streets we were wandering around were absolutely stunning, and I was so excited to see what the next day had in store.

Day 9: Preparing for the Weekend

Today was another class day in the morning and then came home for the afternoon. After eating some lunch, my first travel group headed to the train station to activate our Eurail passes and reserve our trains to head to Florence on Friday. Activating the passes was a breeze, but the reservations became tricky because of some miscommunication with the staff. We left the train station without reserving because of a high cost we were not expecting. As we got back to the Montarina, we spoke with another group traveling to Florence and realized what the miscommunication was. Thanks to Michael, we figured out how to do the reservations online. For the first train to Milan, our group would travel together as a whole, and then from Milan to Florence, Sheley and I would have to be on a separate car. We had our normal meal at the Montarina for dinner, and ended the evening packing for Florence and studying for class the next day.

Days 7 & 8: Just school

Both days were just typical class and dinner at the Montarina days. On Day 7 we had our first quiz, which was less than pleasant to say the least. Day 8 a group of girls traveled to Milan for the after noon, but I decided to stay back and visit there another day. The afternoon and dinner were much quieter around the Montarina, which allowed me some time to relax, which felt like a first since I had arrived. That evening we had a yummy dinner, followed by an even better tiramisu for desert.

Day 6: First day of classes!

After a fun and exciting first couple days in Switzerland it was time for my least favorite part of this journey: school. We attend classes at Franklin University, just a 20-25 minute walk up the hill from the Montarina. For the first day, we did the typical introduction to class and first assignment. After class, Sheley and I ventured into town again to grab some things from the grocery store we wish we had bought the first time, and so that I could buy pencils and paper (because somehow my mom sent me to Europe without any school supplies...). After our grocery store run and wandering around Lugano, we came back and completed our assignments for class and ate dinner at the Montarina. This night we began our randomized table settings, so I got to meet and talk with girls I had not yet on the trip. After dinner, our group (Myself, Sheley, Loren, Michael, Amy and Rachel) planned our upcoming weekend trip to Florence and then headed to bed.

Day 5: Chocolate Factory!

After a good night's rest from our long hike and night out at over the Rainbow, a group of fourteen of us decided to head to the chocolate factory in Lugano. We took the small train over to the other side of town, and while the factory was not functioning, we still got to sample some yummy chocolate made by the factory (and of course purchase some, as well.) After returning from the chocolate factory, we stayed in for dinner and prepared to start classes the next day.

Day 4: Hike of a Lifetime

After a fun night out, we all woke up to hike Monte San Salvatore. The group headed out around 10 a.m. Sheley and I started out leading the group, getting to chat with Brinberg on the walk (about a mile) to the beginning of the hike. As we began the hike, Sheley and I made our way slightly further to the back to not feel rushed, and quickly realized what we had gotten ourselves into. The hike continued and groups separated, including Sheley and myself. I was with a group at the very rear for a while, but then ventured off on my own pace, until some of the members in the group behind me caught up to me. I finished the hike with Kate (a girl I met freshman year through a mentor group) and Michael (our sole boy on the trip). While the 3 mile hike up was a struggle, the view at the top was all worth it. Although I thought Lugano was beautiful before, seeing it all from the Swiss Alps was absolutely breathtaking.

After some time, we made our way down, and started with the middle group of hikers. We quickly caught up with the front group, but then realized the back group was nowhere behind us. The entire group took a pit stop in a small city on our hike down to wait for the back end of the group, who were nowhere to be found. After some waiting, Brinberg decided to take us down and hope that the back end found their way. The hike down was a different, much longer route, but beautiful to say the least. We got to see many different small towns and structures, until we finally hit mile number ten: the bus to take us back to the Montarina. Needless to say, we were all exhausted and ready for our beds. We arrived back to the hostile around 5 p.m. (where, no worries, the back end had ended up), showered, and then headed out to dinner with Sheley's roommate (Emily, also) and a group of her friends. We enjoyed yummy pizza and pasta at Tango, located beside Argentino's, where Sheley and I ate lunch the day before.

 After dinner, we came back and relaxed, and then Michael invited Sheley and I to head to a local bar to try and watch the Patriots v. Ravens playoff game. We headed to a recommended Irish Pub just down the road from the college we will be taking classes at called Over the Rainbow. While the bar unfortunately could not stream the game, we got to have a fun, chill night out. This evening I met Loren and Amy, two of Michael's friends on the trip, as well as the owner of the bar. His name was Kadeem and he was born in Africa, but grew up in Switzerland. He has also traveled to America several times, where he picked up his TexMex themed menu that had everything from burritos to what he called the "Obama Burger." We enjoyed some beers, and free shots and nachos from Kadeem, and even got to hear some American music while we were there, my favorite being Wagon Wheel. We then headed home, and got shushed by some nice locals for being a little too loud ;)

Day 3: First full day in Switzerland!

After getting mostly settled and a long night's rest, it was time to get our day started (around noon...). Sheley and I ventured our way into town, and our first stop: the atm. We found a bank which seemed the least intimidating and made our way in. Both of us easily got out some Swiss Francs, and it was then time to find our lunch location. After walking around and looking at lots of different menus, we chose Argentino's (mostly because a nice server came out and spoke to us in English). We ordered bottled water (rookie mistake) and each got a pizza... DELICIOUS. We both (of course) ate everything they served to us, and then it was time to make our first grocery store run. We ran into some of our other groups members on the way, who helped us find the grocery store, which for Sheley and I, was the easy part. We first went to the second floor of the store and found all the beauty products and purchased what we needed, but finding the food section was (for some odd reason) a struggle for both of us. We took every elevator and escalator we could find, until finally after nearly thirty minutes of wandering, we found it.

In the grocery store, it was quite overwhelming not being able to read any labels, but we made it through pretty successfully (minus me grabbing the squeakiest cart possible). We then took our walk back to the Montarina and unpacked all our things. For the rest of the evening, we just stayed at the hostile getting to know everyone and eating dinner from the items we bought. That evening we decided to try out our first bar in Lugano: Coyote Ugly, We all went as smaller groups, but the entire study abroad group ended up at the bar during the night. We all had a blast dancing together, and with some locals, until we headed in to get some sleep for our hike the next morning.

Day 2: Arriving in Switzerland

As we finished breakfast and the pilot announced we needed to prepare for landing, I had the biggest mix of emotions ever. I had completed my first flight, and was about to step foot in a country I had dreamed of being in for so long, and I couldn't wait to get out the airport. Leaving the plane was a breeze, and after getting my passport stamped for the first time (by a very handsome Swiss man, I must add), it was time to get my luggage. With the help of my other group members, I was able to navigate through Zurich airport to find all of my luggage, and soon find my instructor, David Brinberg. After the group gathered all their belongings (with unfortunately one girl's luggage being lost), we navigated our way to the bus which would take us all from Zurich to Lugano.


The bus ride was for about three hours, and while my plan was to stay awake to see all of our first travels through Switzerland, I quickly realized the jet lag was catching up to me too quickly, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep with the rest of the bus. As we neared Lugano, Brinberg woke us all up, and the excitement between all of us took over. We unloaded the bus, and took our first trip up the hill to the Montarina (which was a struggle to say the least), our home for the next 106 days. We all made our way up, and then it was time to find out our room assignments. My room, Room 3, was located on the first floor, which meant I didn't have to drag all my stuff up any stairs (thank goodness!). I was the first of my roomates(s) to my room and quickly chose the bed near the window. Within a few minutes, I met my roommate Emily and my (temporary) roommate Haley. We all agreed on our beds, and then Haley was offered a room with one of her close friends, and decided to move upstairs (more room for us!).

After beginning to unpack, it was time for our first European meal, lunch provided by the Montarina. We were served some yummy tortellini, which some of us struggled to eat because with the time change, we felt like it was 6am, and pasta that early in the morning is fairly strange for most of us. At lunch I sat with Sheley and Emily, and some of the girls Emily already knew before the trip. After lunch, we came back and met more people and continued to unpack. We then all met for a quick mini tour around Lugano from Brinberg and our "house moms." The tour was fun, and then Brinberg told us to explore wherever we wanted, just as long as we were back in time for dinner. Sheley, Jess, and I began exploring, and explored a little too far, quickly realizing we were already lost on day 1 of being in Europe. But, we eventually retraced our steps and found our way back with time to spare. Dinner that evening was another meal served by the Montarina, and after dinner we all just basically went straight to sleep from being so exhausted from traveling.

Day 1: Leaving 'merica

After preparing for what felt like a century, and the struggle of fitting my life for 107 days in just a suitcase and two backpacks, it was finally time to begin my journey to Europe. With this being my first flight (ever), nerves were most definitely taking over, but with the help of Sheley and another friend Jess who I met at the airport, I was more than ready to go. As we went through security, I also got to meet another girl (another Morgan, in fact) who would be joining us on our trip, as well. The four of us all made it through security with a breeze and quickly found the rest of the group waiting to board. Upon boarding, I grabbed snacks (as suggested by my grandfather) and anxiously waited until 5:45 came around and it was time to get on the plane. First sight of a plane was overwhelming, but I soon found my seat, the middle of the middle, between two girls joining me on my trip abroad: Colleen and Jackie. With the help of some other girls, I found room for my carry-on and got settled in my seat. The flight was slightly delayed to some plane maintenance check issues (which didn't help the nerves), but before we knew it, we were off, and the nerves quickly disappeared and the excitement settled in. I was on my way to Europe, and that was a pretty amazing feeling. While the limited leg room and somewhat flavorless airplane food wasn't my most glorious of life experiences, I was able to pass the time on the flight watching movies and napping as I could. Before I knew it, the flight attendants were serving us breakfast and I realized in the blink of an eye, day 1 of my trip had already passed, and I was getting closer and closer to Switzerland with every passing second.