Another day, another panini

I am sitting in the library of Molly's school here in Florence. Molly is a friend of mine from VT. She is studying art and italian here for the semester. We met in the dorms our first year. We are sharing our conflicted feelings about being so far from Blacksburg right now.

On the traveling saga: The Virgin Atlantic flight left the ground at about 8:15pm and I had one last chance to talk with some friends from Tech. Thomas is glad that I decided to go: all my friends in Blacksburg are. They're all leaving town too.

In my daydreams, this 6.5-hour flight was going to be a perfect opportunity to learn the entire italian language. I even brought a heavy folder filled with worksheets to help me attain my goal. When the time came for my flight, I was feeling little like studying, and more like turning off my brain. I watched two movies. Surprisingly enough, I had a great selection of films to choose from. I watched Little Children with Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connely (for the second time), and part of Emilio Estevez' Bobby. Bobby put me to sleep. Thanks, Emilio. I needed a nap.

The plane landed in London at around 8am (woah time warp!) and I disembarked.

I walked along the storefronts with my guitar on my back and I was feeling pretty stable. I saw a man reading the kind of newspaper with big pictures on the front, cartoonish font, and stories about 'Anna Nicole's secret beauty mark: the full story' that also had pictures of VT on it. I then become strangely obsessed with finding a newstand. I guess I just wanted to make sure it was true in London, or see what kind of world news this is. Then I started crying a little bit - nothing too crazy, just a few tears as images ran through my head. I sat down, collected myself, and got a boarding pass for a flight headed to Milan.

The flight to Milano was pretty uneventful except for the clogging of my left ear. For about 4 hours after the flight, it sounded as if I was still on a plane.

From the Malpensa airport, I took the Malpensa Express to the Cadorna train station in Milan. "Yes," I thought, "although I've been anxious about this part of my trip, I know that I am at the train station and all I have to do is purchase a ticket to Florence. Whew!" When I got to the ticket counter and asked (in perfect italian) for one ticket to Florence, I quickly interjected "in inglese, per favore!" so that I could understand what she was saying to me and why she wasn't printing me a ticket.

I was at the wrong station so I got on the green subway for five stops and got off at Centrale (thank goodness I've had all that subway practice in New York!!). I went up the beautiful stone staircase of the Stazione Centrale and, after only minor troubles, purchased a ticket for Firenze at 17:00. I bought a first class ticket. This was a good idea. At this time it was about 15:30. I had an hour and a half to try to get in touch with Molly to tell her when I was getting in. This part made me kind of nervous.

Either I couldn't get the public telephones to work, or Molly's cell phone was off. So I went up more beautiful stone stairs and sat down next to two young women on the floor. I asked them if they knew about the telephones. They shook their heads. I then spun around and asked the young man next to me if I could use his cell phone. He said it wasn't working. He asked me where I was from. I said Virginia. He said, "oh where all the shooting is." I told him I go to school there. He looked at me with that oh-shit-i-had-no-idea kind of look. I don't know if it was the act of admitting that I go to school at Tech, the fact that I hadn't talked to Molly yet, or the sounds of 3,000 ft above sea level ringing in my ear that did it, but I really started crying.

It wasn't long after the tears started falling and the snot started running that the young man gave me his phone and offered to do anything he could for me. I asked for tissues. After I could blow my nose and try to breath again, I asked Paoli to look after my stuff as I searched for a bathroom. When I was walking out of the bathroom I was feeling like I could really do it again. I realized that even if I didn't talk to Molly, I had her address and I could find a hostel of need be. I got back to Paoli and asked if I wanted to try Molly one more time. I said OK. And yay! I got a Molly! As sure as I was that I could do it without her, it was so nice to know that she was going to be at the train station waiting for me.

I slept for an hour or two on the train (which is kind of too bad because the parts that I could keep my eyes open for were really beautiful: rolling hills, green mountains, goats, and olive trees...). Molly met me at the station, as promised, at 19:45 and we walked to her apartment. I was so distracted by the beauty of Florence that I could not feel the weight of my pack. Maybe I brought too much stuff. It's heavy. (when i was on the subway, i considered sitting on the floor, but decided not to for fear of getting up...or not getting up in time for my stop).

So now I'm in Florence. I made it. I really made it. Last night we ate some pasta and had a glass or two of red wine. The wine helped to calm me down. Who would've known? I had been feeling similarly to how I felt the first time I went to camp. I was scared to be alone and I had no idea what to expect. I don't want what happened in the Milan Central Train station to happen again. That was nuts. Luckily, it worked out and Paoli was willing to let me try his cell phone many, many times. This was probably because I cried like a little baby.

Well I'm dry-eyed now and looking out on the beautiful Firenze sun. The weather is perfect here. I might go to a couple of Molly's classes with her and I think I will go on a field trip with her to Lucca tomorrow. That will be lovely.

I am feelin' good and I just finished a vegetarian panini. It is going to be a good day.

Love.