Day One

Hello Everyone,

I started this blog in order to stay in touch and inform those who are interested in what is going on with me and my trip.  So, I hope that you'll all follow my posts so that we can have this little adventure together. I won't have photos initially up, but as time passes I will be sure to post those as well.  Finally, at the top, you can enter your e-mail address, and it will e-mail my blog to you if that is your preferred method of reception.

Now to the fun stuff...It was not so crazy a first day as I thought it might be traveling from Denver to London followed by London to Milan, but it was very long.  24 hours to be exact, but it was worth the time.  I learned a few interesting things about myself and Europe.  First, you live and die by the train, and if you aren't able to quickly figure out and navigate their rail system, well...I'll let you complete the image.  Fortunately, whatever image you concocted was not me, I was able to figure out the train system that got me around Heathrow and of which I was pretty proud (unlike the hamburger I bought in the pub, which was one of the worst meals I have ever had, and if you know my Mom's cooking, you know that is saying something).  But then came Italy, and o boy if you think figuring out a rail system in London is hard, try doing it in a foreign language that you don't know.  And as it turns out, I'm about as proficient at Italian as I am with organic chemistry, which is to say not.  But here I was, the stupid American thinking that learning Italian would be a waste of time because, let's be honest, who speaks it anymore?  Well apparently the Italians didn't get that particular memo, and most find it quite frustrating when you cannot speak their language.  Now, I dont necessarily blame them, but being on the other side of things, it's no cakewalk for me either.   However, I'm getting ahead of myself because initially things were going well after passing through the Italian border without so much as a question directed at me and then passing through what I suppose most people call "customs" but in Milan is called the honor system, which is to say "nonexistent."  So, as I walked out of the airport I thought I was home free.  Unfortunately, I found out I had to take several trains to several stops, which required talking to several ticket agents to arrive where I needed to be.  And let me tell you there is nothing quite so intimidating as trying to get somewhere in a country where you cannot even pronounce the names of your stops correctly (and I only know I was pronouncing them incorrectly because I was told repeatedly, yes I was told many, many times).  However, I somehow managed to make it to my stops and take the correct connections, and my night ended coming up from the subway and staring up at this absolutely monstrous and gorgeous cathedral, while a hoard people were dancing and mulling around in the courtyard of the great church.  I then arrived at my friend's room, where he told me that, "living in Italy is like living in the late 90s." A statement that the next day I found largely to be true, and I went to bed after a mere 36 hours of being awake.            

I hope you all enjoyed the first post, I hope for them to grow more funny and entertaining in the future.

AJ