After finally getting a little time to sit down and allow myself to figure out this whole blog situation, I am finally here to tell you all about my experiences so far!! Now, where do I begin? I am going to break this entry up with some pictures so I don’t totally kill you with words J After what seems like months of packing, and lots of yelling from my mom, I finally got my suitcases all packed and SOME HOW both under 50 pounds. Which is a smalllll miracle considering I bring home a 50 pound suitcase for Thanksgiving Break at Tech and I am hands down the world’s worst packer EVER. But after all the packing torture, I was on my way to the airport! So on January 5^th, with my crew in tow (Mom, Maggie, Patrick, Jacob and AJ), we carried all my bags (which in total weigh more than me) to check in and get me to my flight! After 30 minutes waiting in the never ending line and the very friendly flight attendant (who complimented me on everything from my last name to my mom’s credit card colors….), I made some teary goodbyes and I was on my way…. How scary!

                With around 45 us on board, we flew (in a very, VERY cramped plane) across the Atlantic for what seemed like days but was really about 8 hours. After arriving in Zurich, we started our 2 hour bus ride to Lugano! And usually I can sleep just about anywhere (literally whenever and WHERE EVER- example- in the middle of tests at school), some even joke about me having a sleeping disorder (and for the record, I do not), BUT for some reason, I could not manage to doze off for more than maybe 45 minutes! So as you can imagine by the time I arrived in Lugano at around 11 AM (Jan 6) I was exhausted!! The rest of the day was filled with getting my room assignment, unpacking all my bags and going on a walk with the rest of the group to find our school (USI- Università della Svizzera italiana). I posted pictures below of our walk and the beautiful city we are so lucky to be staying in! After dinner (btw- everyone has dinner SO late here… its terrible), taking a semi- warm shower (btw- the showers are a nightmare! They are literally 2 x 2 cells… they remind me of the showers in the Berklee College of Music dorms in Boston, MA- @Anjelica Bueno, @Jacob Lawrence @Brandon Prosser) I was finally able to get some sleep (kind of)!!