the first 48

in front of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi

They say to plan your carry on with items you would need if you lose your luggage.

Please listen to “them” and do that.

Sydney, Anna, Maura, and I had a flight out of Mississippi at 9:00am Tuesday morning. Once we got past security and everything, we found that it was delayed about one hour and thirty minutes because Houston, our first connection, was experiencing bad thunderstorms. We finally got to Houston a little after 11am, where we taxied for a little while, said goodbye to Maura and Anna until we reached Rome (they had different connecting flights), and literally ran to our next flight that was supposed to take off at 11:20am. Hashtag blessed for that flight to be delayed a good 20 minutes so we could grab some Starbucks, breathe for two seconds, and board our second flight to Newark.

Once we landed in Newark (didn't even know this was an actual place, however it is and it is HUGE) we had 30 minutes to make our gate for our third and final flight to Rome. (Sidenote: our boarding passes said we would land in Newark at 4:15 and our Rome flight would begin boarding at 4:15... aka impossible from day one without the help of the thunderstorms). Thanks to our one hour and thirty minute delay in Jackson our twenty minute delay in Houston, taxing before getting off the airplane for a good 20 minutes, and being aboard an airplane with the slowest people in the entire world, we sprinted and found our terminal at 5:08 when our flight was supposed to take off at 5:05, therefore unsuccessfully making our flight to Rome.

After about 30 minutes, United Airlines had rerouted Sydney and I to Milan, Italy and we boarded our “new third but not final” flight around 6:45pm with an 8 hour flight ahead of us. We landed in Milan around 9am their time, 2am Mississippi time, and headed straight to the United Airlines station to figure out how to get to Rome. Within 5 minutes, we were booked to fly Alitalia, an Italian airline, for our fourth and final one hour flight to Rome. I'm not kidding when I say this flight was the smoothest, most laid back, best flight I've ever been on. I knew I loved Italy and everything would somehow workout from then on.

After arriving in Rome, Syd and I had one goal: find our luggage.

Long story short: we didn't achieve our goal.

With that being said, our luggage should be arriving in Rome any day now (we located it in Houston – you know, a good 3 flights ago) and shipped it to our apartment here in Rome. If you know nothing about Italians, please understand that things happen on their time and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. I have two outfits, one I wore for about 30 hours and one I wore today, no razor, shampoo or conditioner, face soap, or other shoes besides chacos. Sydney basically doesn't have anything: no makeup, no outfits (she wore pajamas the second day), no converters to charge anything, and no other shoes besides high top converses.

We traded Maura and Anna wine for shampoo and conditioner last night. Times are tough.

With an exception for the clueless, lonely, confused numerous flights, I have loved Rome ever since I finally landed a few (24+ hours) after leaving Mississippi. The locals are crazy nice, the food is crazy good, and our apartment is crazy legit. We live in the Trastevere area, a super local area that's absolutely beautiful, in a corner apartment overlooking one of the main plazzas with a top ranked pizza restaurant and a local coffee bar. What more could you ask for? We have five window/doors that fully open to enjoy all Italy has to offer and Anna, Maura, Sydney, and I live a good thirty steps from the high society of Rome. We have already met our awesome professors, seen the Rome Center where we will be taking classes, (when I say taking classes, I can't even explain how different they are from classes in America. I mean neither are located in a classroom and one is based strictly on visiting the art in Rome), seen several churches, the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, and probably walked 200 miles (no typo). Everywhere you turn here is a new place waiting to be discovered.

Our front door

View from our "balcony"

dessert Wednesday night

lunch Tuesday afternoon

dinner Wednesday night

selfie with the Pantheon 

inside the Pantheon - pictures don't do it justice!

Although the first 24 weren't as planned or the best hours of my life, the second were absolutely fantastic – making the first 48 hours leaving Mississippi some of the most memorable hours of my life.