Travel days and Assisi

Sorry this took me forever and a day to post. I didn't have internet in Assisi and there was so much to put in. Enjoy!

Travel days 1&2 (Tuesday and Wednesday):  I left my house with my dad Tuesday morning with a sense of nervousness. I didn’t know what to expect with flying by myself and on top of it all I had never been in an airport by myself.  We left Tuesday morning a little before 9 AM Indiana time (8 Chicago time or 3 PM Rome time) and made it to O’Hare international airport at around 11 AM Indiana time (10 Chicago or 5 PM Rome).  Saying goodbye to my family was so hard just thinking about saying goodbye to my dad once I got there was horrible.  He helped me get my two suitcases and two carryon bags out of the car and then sad goodbye and watched me enter the airport.  Once I walked into the airport a sudden sense of anxiety fell on me.  I just wanted to skip ahead to being in Assisi so I wouldn’t have to deal with the security, the layover, or even the flying. I knew I would be better when I got to Newark New Jersey where I would meet up with my roommate, Alex.  Once I got through security and to my gate I got myself some lunch and settled in for the 2 hour wait for boarding my 1 PM (Chicago time) flight.  While I was sitting at the gate I saw that my flight was delayed 10 minutes. No big deal I thought, but this 10 minute delay turned into a 2 hour delay. It wasn’t even for weather in Chicago, the weather was fantastic! The delay was for Weather in Newark. I texted Alex and my mom and called my dad to see what I would do. They suggested talking to the lady at the desk at the terminal to see if she could let Newark know that was coming to my flight and that I would be there as soon as humanly possible.  Alex also said that she would let as the people in the gate our flight was taking off from that I was on my way.  The big issue that I had was the fact that I only had an hour layover in Newark so I was most likely not going to make the flight.  When my flight from Chicago finally took off it was already after 3PM (Chicago time).  I was pretty sure that I was either going to make everyone from our flight have to wait on the plane or I was going to miss the flight.  The pilot said that he was going to try to fly as fast as he could so we could make it to Newark and hopefully make our flights.  We flew so fast that we made it to Newark by 5:40. My flight was supposed to leave at 5:25 so I was hoping that they waited a little for me.  With the fantastic texts I received from Alex’s boyfriend, Andrew, I knew exactly where I was supposed to go to get to the terminal and the gate.  When we got off the plane there was a lady that checked our tickets to see if the flight already left or if it was still at the gate.  Unfortunately my flight had already left.  It was all I could do not to breakdown from exhaustion of the day already and from all of the added stress I had.  She told me to go to terminal C gate 99 to see what flight I could get on to take me to Rome.  The weird thing about Newark is that you have to go outside and take a bus from terminal to terminal.  I was not looking forward to that bus ride.  When I got on the bus my dad called me and said that he and my mom called Dr. Checca and asked him what I was supposed to do.  He said that I had to be firm but nice and tell them that I had to be on the next flight to Tome and that I had to be there before 11 Am the next day Rome time (6 Am Indiana time).  When I told this to the lady at the desk helping me all she said was that that was not going to happen.  She put me on the next flight that was going to go to Rome.  The catch was that it wasn’t a direct flight to Rome and it didn’t get in until 2 PM in Rome (8AM in Indiana).  This was terrible to hear.  I needed to be in Rome before 11 AM so I could make it to the group and get on our bus to Assisi.  I took the tickets and had to rush over to the gate because the plane was leaving in 20 minutes.  When I texted my parents and told them that I wasn’t going to be there in time for the bus to Assisi they freaked out.  I told them to call Checca and email me what I was supposed to do.  I then turned off my phone for the last time until I return to the states in December.  The flight I was now on was going from Newark to Zurich, Switzerland. In Zurich I would have a delay for a few hours before I would finally fly to Rome.  On this flight I sat next to the most adorable old man.  He was flying to Cairo to visit some people.  The best thing about the old man was that he reminded me of my granddad.  He was so sweet to me and it was just like he was taking care of me.  He was afraid that he was going to miss his flight to Cairo because the flight to Zurich was a little delayed taking off because something had to be looked at on the plane and they needed to make sure we would be ok flying to Zurich.  The other highlight of this flight was the fact that the headrest in front of your seat had your own personal TV screen so you could watch whatever you wanted that they had showing.  I took full advantage of this watching The Big Bang Theory and The Hangover both twice.  It was fantastic.  I even got a few hours of sleep.  When we landed in Zurich, I had to go through and get my passport stamped for entering the EU.  This is always intimidating to me.  The man that did mine didn’t say anything to me which I took as a good thing.  They just intimidate me so much.  Everything was fine and I made it through with nothing wrong and went to the part of the airport for flights that went from Zurich to other cities within Europe.  The next bad thing was that they didn’t tell you where your gate was until an hour before your flight.  This was very frustrating to me.  I just wanted to get to my gate, check my email, and write everything I needing to know down in my IPod so I would know how to make it to wherever everyone else was in Assisi.  I decided to check my email. This was 5 euros down the drain already fro internet, but it was needed. I needed to know where I was supposed to go and what I needed to do.  I go on my email with about 10 emails from my parents.  I read each one with different facts, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.  One of the email addresses included was for one of my dad’s friends who was also a doctor. Dr. Borelli had a cousin who was a travel agent in Rome.  All I could think was that maybe Alex and I could use her to find hostels for where we were going to travel to and maybe a cheap flight to London.  I finally made it to the email from my mom which gave instructions about what to do if my suitcases do not make it to Rome and how I was supposed to make it to Assisi.  There was also a note in it that said someone from the Rome Program might be there to help my when I get into Rome.  I wrote down the phone number and the address to Hotel Tiziano, the name of where we were staying in Assisi, and the directions on how to make it to Assisi.  With all the stress I had built up I was not hungry even though I knew that I needed to eat something because I needed the energy.  I ended up eating some fruit and drinking a bottle of water.  When I was done eating I window shopped a little to pass the time.  Finally they said what gate I had to go to for my flight and I booked it over to it.  I had to go through more security when I got close to the gate but that was nothing.  I ended up being the first one to the gate and I settled in with my laptop for the next 30 minutes checking my email and looking at facebook to pass the time.  Finally it was time to get on the plane.  It was almost like a free for all on who got on the plane first which really annoyed me.  I figured that they would have some form of system to getting everyone on the plane but there wasn’t.  This flight was only about 2 and a half hours.  We landed a little after 2 PM (Rome time) and I headed off to see if my bags were here.  I stood at the place to get your bags for about 45 minutes to an hour hoping that my suitcases were here.  Surprise, Surprise they didn’t show up.  When I saw a worker talking to another woman from USA about her missing bag i asked him where I needed to go to tell them where to send my bags.  When I got there I had to wait in a huge line for about 2 hours and 45 minutes before it was my turn to find out where my bags were and tell them where to send them.  It turned out that they were still in Newark.  This did not surprise me at all.  I told them to send them to Hotel Tiziano and gave them the phone number so they could call them and find out what to do with my bags.  When I was finally done there I went through customs and looked to see if there was anyone with a sign that said anything about Saint Mary’s, the Rome Program, or Regina Mauck.  Sadly there was no one there to help me out.  So I headed to the train by myself and hoped that I could handle the trains alone.  I had to buy two train tickets when I made it to the train in the airport.  One took me from the airport to the main train station while the other took me to Assisi.  The first train only took about 30 minutes so it wasn’t too bad.  When I finally found the platform where I had to get on the next train I found out that I needed to validate my ticket by putting it in a yellow machine attached to the wall.  When I tried to do it the machine decided not to work.  Some lady tried her ticket too and tried to help me but when it didn’t work for either on us we went to a conductor who just signed the ticket and got on the train.  I hoped that this train wouldn’t take very long but I knew that it would.  When 2 hours went by and I hadn’t seen the Assisi stop I asked a man who just got on the train if the Assisi stop had already passed.  Luckily he spoke some English and had a list of all of the train stops.  He told me that it was the next train stop and I was slightly relieved that I hadn’t missed my stop.  When I got off at the Assisi stop the man told me to be careful and have a fun time in Assisi and I thanked him for the help.  Once I was in Assisi I had to take a taxi to La Cittadella which was where we were staying until Sunday.  I found a taxi and he said he could take me but when I asked him if he took credit card he said no and I had to use the rest of the euros with me for the cab.   It took about 15 minutes on twisting and turning Italian roads before we were there.  I thanked him graciously and gave him the money and made my way into La Cittadella.  When I got to the front desk I told the man working there that I was with the Saint Mary’s Rome Program and asked him where I was supposed to go.  He asked if I was Regina and when I said yes he gave me my room number and the extra set of keys to it.  He then took me down to the basement where the dining room was and they were eating supper.  It was about 8:15 and when I made it down there I was greeted not only by Dr. Prebys and Miss McHugh but also by Alex.  The day was so draining but I was finally hungry and Dr. Prebys gave me a seat and told the people serving dinner to start me on the first course.  Through dinner I told everyone at my table about the traumatic past 2 days and herd so many I’m so sorry’s and I wish we could have done something.  When dinner was done Alex showed me the way to where the sleeping area of La Cittadella was. Outside, up two huge staircases and one very steep hill was the building where our rooms were. I basically died walking up to the building carrying just my carryon I couldn’t have imagined doing it with any more than what I had.  When we got in the building I was so excited that my room was number 136 and I thought I was on the first floor.  I then found out that I was actually on the third floor but luckily there was an elevator because I was not looking forward to climbing 4 flights of stairs up to the third floor.  When I finally got to my room I couldn’t get it unlocked so I had to fine one of the other girls to do it for me.  I was so excited to finally be in a room with a bed I just couldn’t take it.  I unpacked a few of my things before my roommates for Assisi came in the room.  I was in a triple with one girl from Saint Mary’s and one girl from Villanova.  I told them my story of my draining 2 days and they told me what I missed while traveling. It didn’t seem like I missed too much and they said if there was any day to miss it was today which made me feel better.  I ended my night with getting to know the girls a little and taking a much needed shower before falling asleep at 10:30 and sleeping until 7:30 the next morning. 

Assisi day 1 (Thursday): Today we went to La Rocca in Assisi. La Rocca is a castle on the highest point of Assisi. You literally have to climb up a mountain to get to it. The view from it was completely worth it though. The views were completely breathtaking! The climb was totally worth it when we could see all of Assisi down the hills. After La Rocca we had orientation for the Rome Program. This was the longest time of just sitting in one room listening to someone talk I think I have ever been to. After about 2 hours I was ready to be done. This lasted until 1PM (Rome time) and then we had dinner (aka lunch in America). After dinner we had a lot of free time to just explore Assisi. Alex and I ended up going with the boys from Villanova to see the church of San Rufinio (I think that was the saint). It was really cool. Part of the floor was see through so you could see into the crypt under the church. You could go into the crypt but that cost some money and I'm trying to save as much money as I can so I can travel as much as possible. After that Alex and I walked around and looked into some of the little shops that were between La Cittadella (our hotel) and San Rufinio. We left the boys alone for some “guy time” so they could bond some because they are rooming together for the next 3 months. After walking around some and talking a lot it was time for our half of the alphabet to go to registration for our classes and to find out when our finals will be. This was with Dr. Prebys, the lady in charge of the Rome Program, and she is very intimidating. She makes me a little nervous when I talk to her because she has such a high position in the staff of Saint Mary’s. I was the first one to go with the second half of the alphabet which was good because I got it out of the way fast. I ended up taking philosophy 110, anthropology 142, art history 251, religious studies 233, Italian 111, and lectures and tours. My class schedule is very uneven though. I have class from 11:10-7:00 on Monday with a break for lunch from 12:42-2:15, from 9:35-11:35 on Tuesday, from 8:00-9:30 and 2:20-5:25 on Wednesday, and from 8:00-11:35 on Thursday. One of the best things is no class on Friday. Yes that is correct we do not have class on Friday here in good old Roma! The first 4 weeks we will though because we need to make up a week of class that we cannot fit in without getting visas for everyone going even one semester. After registration I went up to Casa Franchi (the building where our rooms were) to get my laptop and be able to email my family and tell them that I was in Assisi with the rest of the Rome program. The only downside to getting wifi in Europe is that none of it is free. I had to pay 5 euros for 24 hours of wifi just to be able to email my family and check my facebook. Totally a rip off.  After that I just sat in the lobby of Cittadella for a few hours talking with a bunch of the other girls about everything that had happened to me over the past few days. I don’t know how many times I have said what happened to me. The story is almost getting old. Then we had supper at about 8 PM (Rome time). After supper I went with Alex and some other girls up to the piazza to talk and see some of the sights at night. It was a really fun night hanging out with the girls and getting to know some of them more.

Assisi day 2 (Friday): Today we split up in the two halves of the alphabet and went on 2 different tours. The first half went to the basilica of San Francisco and my half went to San Damiano. San Damiano is a small church that St. Francis rebuilt when he herd God telling him to rebuild his church. It was also the place where St. Clair died. It was part way down in the valley outside of Assisi. The walk was really difficult too. It was straight down hill on cobblestone and the way back up was almost worse. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it wasn’t so hot out. After we had dinner we had a few more hours of free time and I wondered around Assisi with Alex. We ended up finding a little shop that had a sign advertising for free wifi so we totally used it. How could we pass up a chance to check our facebooks and email? At 5 PM we had room selection and that didn’t end up as Alex and I wanted but its going to be good. Alex and I wanted to be in a double together but since our room pick numbers were so close to the end all the doubled were gone before we ended up in a quad with 2 girls that also wanted to be in a double together. One of the girls was one of my roommates I Assisi and she was really nice and Alex knew the other girl from her Italian class and she said she was really nice. The room will be good and if not its only for 3 months so that’s not really a problem. Then we wondered more until we had supper. After supper I went with a bunch of girls and got some gelato then we wondered to a random part of Assisi and just talked for like 3 hours. It was great to just have some time to chill out and talk to some girls for a while. Unlike some of the other girls and the guys Alex and I really didn’t want to go out and waste all of our money on drinking and everything. I would rather save up my money to travel.

Assisi day 3 (Saturday): After breakfast I went with my half of the alphabet to the basilica of San Francisco while the other half went to San Damiano. The basilica was so amazing. It was one of the biggest churches I had ever seen. The frescoes were huge and so pretty. The frescoes told the life of St. Francis. It was just too beautiful to comprehend and to explain. After we were done there we were led to the main piazza and we talked a little about the main piazza. When the tour was done we had about an hour of free time before dinner. Alex and I decided to go in a little church we found in the main piazza. It was so beautiful! I know I keep saying everything was beautiful but it’s so true. I even took a picture of the pipe organ there for my mom to see. After dinner we had a 7 hour break. This was the longest amount of free time I have ever had in my life. Over this free time Alex and I walked up through all of the little shops in Assisi and walked all over. We also took the time to budget out our money. This was both good and bad. By doing this I had to decide that I can’t go to London but I also figured out that I can survive here on my own her which was good. There also was a peace festival going on this weekend in Assisi. Because of this there was a band that was going through the streets of Assisi. This band was so cool. It just came out of nowhere and they met up in the main piazza. It was amazing! After 7 hours of nothing it was finally time for supper. At supper Miss McHugh told us that it was the guy who served us our dinner birthday so we invited him to go out with us to celebrate his birthday. We even got Miss McHugh to go out with us. It was so much fun even though Alex and I stayed just for a little bit then we walked part of the way up to the castle to see the city at night one last time before we left. After that we talked in the courtyard for a little bit then went back to our rooms for bed. One of my roommates and I actually ended up talking in our room for like 2 hours after we turned the light off. It was nice because she is one of my roommates in Rome so it was good to get to know her a little before.

Assisi day 4 (Sunday): Today was our last morning in Assisi. We had to be out of our building with all of our stuff ready to go to the bus by 8:15 this morning. We took all of our stuff to the bus then had about 45 minutes to kill before a special mass just for the Rome program. The mass was in a small chapel by our hotel. It was nice because it was in English for us. It was said by one of the priests we will have with the Rome program. After mass we found out that we weren’t leaving until after dinner at 1 PM so we had like 3 hours to kill. This time instead of going up to any of the shops we just stayed by La Cittadella. I went inside with some of my new friends and we all ended up falling asleep on the couches in the lobby. We slept for about a half hour then just sat there and talked. We were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to leave Assisi because of the peace march. During dinner Dr. Prebys went around to every table and told us that we had to leave right at 2 so we could get out of Assisi before the peace march get there. We ate as quickly as possible, thanked the workers and rushed out the door. When we got outside there were a bunch of taxis around and they were trying to get us in them. We didn’t know that we were supposed to do, but when Miss McHugh came outside she told us to get in the taxis and said that they were taking us to the bus because it had to move to the bus station. On our way to the bus station one of the girls in my taxi said she felt like the Vontraps escaping from the Nazis in The Sound of Music. It was hilarious. Once we made it to the bus station and on the bus we set off to Rome. We got one final look at Assisi as we drove by and couldn’t believe that we actually made it up to La Rocca. It was literally on top of the mountain. Almost everyone fell asleep on the bus except for me, 2 of the boys and 2 other girls. We told the boys about Saint Mary’s and they told us about Villanova. It was nice to get to know more about Villanova because I never knew anything about it. After 2 and a half hours on the bus we finally made it to the outskirts of Rome. We saw the old Olympic building they built when the Olympics were there last and the Tiber River. When we were almost to our hotel Dr. Prebys told us to look to the right and we would see St. Peters square. Where we saw it the whole bus gasped in unison. It was the perfect reaction to the fabulous sight. When we got to the hotel we were supposed to take our carry on up to our room and come back down to get our suitcases. When I came down to get my suitcases I couldn’t find them. It turns out that they still hadn’t delivered them to Hotel TIziano. I talked to the man at the desk and he said that he would call the airport for me. So I went back up to my room and started to wash my clothes that I wore in Assisi so I had something to wear for the next couple days. A little later Miss McHugh took us on a tour to where Pascucci’s, the school, the offices, and the library so we would know for class tomorrow. After that she took us down a few more blocks to where the Pantheon actually was. It is legit in our back yard! It was so amazing to see it again. Then she told us this fantastic place to get some square pizza for cheap. I also told her that my suitcases hadn’t come yet and she told me to keep her updated. After we got pizza and went to a grocery store so I would have a toothbrush until my stuff got here we went back to our room. Alex, Caitlin, and Lindsey finished unpacking and I paid for 24 hours of internet so I could skype my family. I skyped my family at 10 PM (4 PM eastern time). It was so good to see my mom, dad and little sister. I was a little mad that my brothers didn’t come over to talk to me. We didn’t talk for too long because I’m trying to conserve internet to see how long it lasts me.

Ciao bella!