Off we go...

Hello All,
Well it was one long day of traveling. We started off meeting two people in Dallas that were going to Paderno as well. The plane ride was very nice. Rachel, Kyle, and I sat together in the middle row of the plane with one of the new people we had met, Bethany. A man traded her spots because he wanted to sit with his friend and his seat just happened to be with us. Jacob, our new friend, sat in the row above us. It was a long plane ride. Rachel and I both only got about an hour of sleep on the plane even though we had stayed up late the night before so we would be able to sleep more on the plane. Needless to say, our plan failed. Kyle on the other hand got a good couple of hours. We arrived in Frankfort about 35 minutes early than scheduled and walked around trying to get to our next flight. The problem was that they didn’t have a gate scheduled for it yet but they at least narrowed it down somewhere on “A”. So we waited around, ate, got the gate changed 3 times, and the flight delayed 40 minutes before we took off for Venice. Oh, did I mention that there were about 40 people on that flight that were going to the program as well. We met another good friend, Claire, when we were getting our baggage in Venice. Everyone’s baggage had arrived safe and sound. It took us a while, but we figured out how to work the ticket machine and get the bus to take us the train station. Because of our delayed plane and the bus ride that took longer than expected, we were rushing to get to onto the train. A Cimba RI, like a resident assistant, was there to help us. While we were getting on the train, the door started to close on me, Kyle, Rachel, Jacob, and Clare still outside of it. The director held it open which was not easy. He had all his strength pushing against both doors in order for it not to shut. Kyle jumped through and we were throwing our luggage at him through the small opening and jumping on ourselves. Finally, after a panicked moment, all of us and our luggage were on the train. Getting out was a lot easier. After that, we hopped on a bus that took us on about a 20 minute ride to our campus. We picked up our phones, welcome packets, and schedules, dropped off our stuff in our rooms and then went to dinner. After dinner, we had a small orientation then, being exhausted, went to bed.