Tag Archives: Airplane

Arrival

I arrived at Narita Airport yesterday. This whole week is supposed to be dedicated to orientation–which is necessary–but like every other orientation I usually drift off and get frustrated that before I begin my actual education abroad experience that I must wait a week listening to the dribbling of rules but…whatever. One thing I will make note of before I end this pathetic entry is the weather. The weather near Tokyo longitude is bloody hot! The worst part is that I have no shorts. Well I’m bored now and will go back to chipping away at my fog of war.


Location: Unknown

Ciao, Florence!

Here I am, in a hotel in the center of a city full of life, history, and beauty. It is strange to finally personally encounter something that I’ve imagined for many months now, but Florence is every bit as beautiful as I’d foreseen. I am here a day early, because I was careless enough to book my flight a day before the scheduled arrival, making my first international experience all the more interesting. Because of my early arrival, I wasn’t picked up at the airport, and my apartment is not available until tomorrow. So, after never leaving the state of Pennsylvania without friends or family by my side, today I navigated a foreign language speaking country on my own in order to find my hotel for the night, and I made myself proud.

But first, I had to take an airplane from Philly to Frankfurt to Florence, which was an experience in itself. I must say, I was pretty nervous to travel alone, but after getting on my first flight in Philly, I loosened up and was able to relax a bit. The flight was long and I didn’t get to sleep, but the food wasn’t bad and they had a good selection of movies. I really enjoyed my second flight from Frankfurt to Florence, and I recommend that if you take that trip you get a window seat! I got to see several small towns along the way, but the best part was flying over the Alps, where there was still snow all over and it was amazing how they jutted up through the clouds! Upon landing in Florence, it was extremely easy to get my bags and go, and then the fun began. I grabbed a taxi with an older Italian driver who was very helpful. I was in total shock by the way people drive here though: I was anticipating an accident at literally every turn. After the roller coaster to my hotel, I became even more confused. You see, in America, all hotels front desks are located on the first floor. My hotel wanted to mess with me, so the first 3 floors of the building is comprised of a stairwell and a few signless wooden doors. I’m pretty sure the man at the front desk saw a dude with luggage being confused on camera though so he came down and told me that the hotel was on the 4th floor. This was about 5 minutes after I paid a man outside 5 euro for an umbrella in hopes that he would help me find the hotel, but I’m pretty sure the only english he knew was “yes”.

However, once I found my hotel, I was in the clear. I got to walk around the Piazza della Repubblica and its surrounding areas, all of which are beautiful. A few hours ago, I treated myself to an incredible dinner. I had a few glasses or red wine, AWESOME lasagna (like seriously awesome), roast beef and potatoes, a salad, and some bread. Afterwards, I came back up to my hotel, and here I am. It was certainly an exciting first day, but I am excited for tomorrow. I have an appointment at my hotel at 10:30 and then after that I’m going to do some more exploring.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck! 


Location: Piazza della Repubblica, Florence, Italy

I’m In PRAGUE!!!

I’M IN PRAGUE!!!!!!

Much to my liking, after months of anticipation, over 9 hours on an airplanes, and what felt like miles of dragging luggage through the bumpy streets of the Czech Republic, we have finally arrived and settled down in Prague! Overall, the trip here couldn’t have gone much smoother. In all of our travels, no one in our group encountered any problems with security or customs and our flights both departed and arrived on time!

We left Newark around 9:00pm on Monday night and arrived in Heathrow, England at about 9:00am. Because this was my first time visiting Europe and I was very excited, I found myself unable to sleep much during the flight. I watched a few movies and ate lots of interesting airplane food. I never knew that mango cheesecake came in a liquid form… I must admit I prefer the solid. From my view in the sky over Eastern Europe, the characteristic which surprised me most was the abundance of flat land with very little hills and mountains. I also noticed that almost all of the houses and businesses had brown roofs as opposed to the United States’ traditional grey/black roofing. When we arrived in Heathrow, we were five hours ahead of the time back home and my lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with me. But, I was so excited to be in Europe, and because we had a 6 hour layover, a group of us decided to take a bus out to Windsor!

Windsor, England is home to the Windsor Castle, which is one of the residences of the English Royal Family. On our bus ride over, we were discussing which stops we would need to use when a woman sitting behind us joined our conversation and began to help us with directions. She lived in Windsor and was kind enough to let us know when we needed to get off the bus, give us some advice on what to do while we were there for our brief time, and even recommended a cheap but delicious caf� where we could grab a quick lunch. When we arrived outside the castle, there was a large crowd of people gathered in the street. Within 10 minutes, we were able to see the “changing of the guard” where a group of soldiers marched to the castle to switch guards within the castle. We then took a Top-Bus tour around Windsor and finally ate lunch at the caf�.

After Windsor, we were back to the airport and soon on our second flight from Heathrow to Prague. Before the plane even left the ground I was asleep and I woke up to the plane landing in Prague. After a few hours of gathering the group together, collecting baggage, exchanging currency, and buying cell phones, we were on the bus to our guest house.

The guest house is a small bed and breakfast owned by a woman who is friends with Professor Elavsky. She only recently began to learn English, so our conversation with her is mostly interpreted through Elavsky. After lugging baggage up the stairs and taking a chance to freshen up, we went out for dinner at a restaurant down the street from our house. We were all beyond exhausted and called it an early night to catch some sleep before our travels on Wednesday.

That’s all for now! Can’t wait to travel! Loving life in Prague!