6:15am ABQ to Houston, TX
Houston to Newark, NJ
Newark to Rome, Italy
Rome to Trieste, Italy 10:45
There were a couple of my 2nd years in the airport waiting to greet me when I arrived, along with a number of 1st years who had arrived the day before.
Everyone was really nice, Lucy (2nd year from Durango, CO) was there and was really helpful and welcoming - I have to say it was nice to see a fellow American and a little familiarity!
I came in on the same flight with Zoe (Japan) and Heidi (USA), and I didn't realize it!
Apparently I had been on the same flight with Heidi all the way from New Jersey!
Here's a few notes I jotted down while in the plane part of traveling:
"I'm on the plane from Newark to Rome, and I can, for the most art, tell who the Italias are. They are much more personal and shameles than the Americans. Very nice though, sort of that take-it-slow-and-savor-life attitude. I can already see it. I have just been loking at Italian books and listening to the Cd's, and I can understand if it's spoken slowly. I can feel like I'm catching on to the speaking part a little too even after just an hour of sort of studyng it. It's past midnight (2 or 3 o'clock) by Italy time now, and I'm not tired. I dn't think it has hit me yet that I'm going to UWC."
Anyway, got to the College by bus with two bags checked, a violin/viola case and a messenger bag with my computer and cameras (my bike arrived a few days later). I didn't see any adult who was in charge at the college for the first two days or so! The second years had things under control, checked me in with the office, showed me my room, I unpacked, had dinner, met people, and got a tour with Lucy, by night, of the 7 residences at the college.
My residence is foresteria which is perched (literally) on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Adriatic Sea. We are pretty much in the center of Duino (you can see the town center - the piazza), and are in the same building as the cafeteria for the college (called the Mensa) and our dayroom hosts most of any of the big meetings/presentations that are done (waiting for the inauguration of a school hall/auditorium soon). There are 54 students in fore, more boys than girls - boys on the first floor, girls on the second. We have internet access by plug-in ethernet in the dayroom. I love fore's beautiful view, central location, and the fact that we are about 12 seconds away from Mensa at any given time. We are also right next to a very pretty lawn and the art/music building with a practice room and piano (although it's usually occupied).
Anyway, we all just got settled in out rooms and the town for the first couple of days. We made a trip to Emisfero, a supermarket/mall in the closest town - Monfalcone, where we bought school supplies, our own cutlery and silverware for our dayroom, and anything else we needed.
My roomates are Nicolas (Argentina) and Jay (Mongolia) - both very cool guys, we get along great. I met what I thought was the whole school (of course I couldn't remember many names) and then at the first entire 1st year class gathering, I realized that I didn't recognize at least half of them! You kind of have to make an effort to meet people in other residences if you don't have any activities in common! But I think it gets easier when school actually starts.
Everyone says hello and "have I met you?" to everyone else, all the time. People couldn't be nicer.
Here are a few thoughts I jotted down on my second night here (August 26th):
"Yesterday and this morning I had this strange feeling like I wasn't excited about being where I was. this was pretty much temporary, but I felt that way ever once and a while. Now, I still have few thoughts of any kind about the future, but I am very glad to be here. I think my highlight today was meeting and speaking with people. Especially meeting Lilly (Holland), Ludavika (Italy) and Marta (Italy) -met them in the Duino Odyssey scavenger hunt around Duino set up by the second years- and talking to the N. Americans and ARgentinians/Latinos. Rodriguez (Chile) said he considered me a latino now because I speak spanish, play futbol, and like matte! I spoke spanish for a while! Lowlights - waking up at 11:00 and not playing any music all day. I feel like I ahven't been doing/accomplishing that much because I've bee considering time spent not talking to people wasted time. Funny how your priorities change!
I did need sleep though - even after 11 hrs. sleep or so, I was falling asleep sitting up durring the head master's welcome meeting - it was interesting too! Anyway, have to be somewhere at 8am domani. It's about 1:00am!"
Starting that first day (Monday, August 27th) we started to get schedules and everything for the week of trying out different physical activities. I started meeting people and getting to be very busy...
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