#tessarmy

[keepin-it-surreal]

TRAVELING

HELLO TESS ARMY!!!

I think i only gave this to like 3 people who will probably never check tumblr on their own volition so I don't think this will be read by many but.

I have been very busy and its been hard to write anything, but typing is much quicker than writing by hand, so Ive decided that this blog will be like a journal with material that’s not my personal secrets. Thus, there will be a lot of little details that are mostly just for me to remember, and most likely nobody else will give a fuck about them. So if you’re curious about any specific aspect of whatever, scan or wait for me to post specific things about the experience… ie. a post about the food, school, whatever. Otherwise, I’ll put TLDRs and many pictures at the end of all my posts. 

Also, it’s very late here so this is not really proofread. Without further ado–

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Woke up and dressed a wonderful courage bagel and iced oat milk pumpkin spice latte before saying goodbye to my mother, brother, and Lauri. Josh and I headed off to LAX for my 10:15am flight to Chicago O’hare Airport. We slowly said goodbye (after paying a hefty overweight fee for my checked bag) and I caught my 4hr flight to Chi City. 

I was sat next to quite a funny older guy with diamond stud earrings and a taste for biscoff cookies, there for some kind of music festival I believe, who was quite nice to me, but yelled at people for not following directions and complained about how long we taxi’d for to me as well as three separate people on the phone, retelling the same joke to each one of us. “They shouldn’t call it O’Hare, they should call it Wisconsin International Airport because it feels like we fuckin dropped down in Wisconsin and drove to Chicago.” At the end of the flight he handed my overhead bag to me and told me that he does one nice thing a day so he can be a jerk the rest of the time; then he pulled down four other people’s bags. 

I met an AFS volunteer in Chicago and went to the hotel I was booked for. He kinda irked me and I had a bit of that “what have I gotten myself into” lonely moment, but then I faceted Olivia for a while and had food and was all good. 

Thursday, September 8 (Partially 9) , 2022

I woke up, got breckie, went back to sleep, then hit the pool for a brief swim, reminiscing on the horribly dazzling brightness of the Polytechnic Aquatic Center and my buddy’s company during agonizing goalie sets. Packed and went back into the airport, meeting up with Madeleine Schuckman, who I have been on a Groupchat with for a bit, and her mother. We went through security and linked with Hazel and Caroline. 

The “Italians” group chat, now IRL, then hit an Airport Starbucks for our final corn syrup and pumpkin flavored coffees, got a few extra souvenirs, and then took our places in the very back two rows of the plane and got comfy– as comfy as you can be with 6 inches of legroom– for our nine-and-a-half hour flight to Roma!

The actual flight was mid. Not horrible, but I could not sleep for the life of me despite my wax earplugs, new noise-cancelling headphones, an eye mask, hoodie, and relatively comfortable seating arrangement. Also I had the same tampon in that I put in like 6 hours before our flight because I didn’t want to wake up the two people in between me and an aisle. Hazel and Caroline got the flight attendants to wish me a happy birthday so got a few birthday wishes haha. 

Friday, September 9, 2022

In Rome, we deplaned and I had to lug my EXTREMELY heavy backpack and tote bag through the passport check to baggage claim, where I could finally move everything to an airport trolley and relieve my poor body. From there, Hazel and I went to the bathroom and I swear to god it was the most beautiful bathroom I have ever seen. Like, LAX’s bathrooms are literally Alcatraz compared to this mf. 

We ran into the AFSers from D.C. on the way out, and all together we skipped customs and met up with Intercultural volunteers outside, moving to a meetup point where the folks from Newark were waiting. For the next hour or so groups from France, Austria, Argentina, etc. showed up. At a certain point we all went to the bus stop and boarded a bus that took us a half hour to our hotel right outside of Rome. Here, we checked in and I was placed in a room with two other people: Eva, who’s from Virginia and is headed with me on a train down to Puglia; and Natalia, who is from Georgia and headed to Sicily tomorrow!

We changed, hung out, and ate lunch (twas mid), and hung around some more, either napping in the room or talking to people from wherever. There was a super hot Canadian guy. Nothing else super notable other than the cappuccino I had at the hotel’s cafe that hit hard as fuck. 

OH. I convinced Hazel and Caroline to walk around a little, and after wandering down a road we probably shouldn't've, we found this cool giant abandoned house and warehouse thing with these little caves next to it. None of us really wanted to go in, but we went back a little later with a whole crew of the Frenchies and Madi and Eva, and explored inside. It was really cool.

We hit dinner then had this welcome ceremony type thing where we all went into an auditorium and got briefed by different volunteer leaders. One of the ladies was american, had come here through AFS for only 3 months, met the love of her life, moved back here, and had lived in Italy for 30 years. I got sung happy birthday :). It was really nice because I hadn’t really been around anyone I knew well, so it didn’t really feel like my birthday. 

I didn’t really feel like going to bed yet, so Caroline, Hazel, Eva, and I along with Esther, Margot, and Mia (French) hung around, briefly with a funny Greek fellow Krzysztof or Sepp. We played a little soccer with a deflated ball and tried to hit the bar, but it was closed :(. We said goodnight. 

Saturday, September 9, 2022

The next morning Mia, Eva, and I hit the bus to Roma Station. Cool views on the way there. We met two Turkish kids who were really nice and good at English. Forgot where they’re headed. The three of us were all on the same train, and we were running late, so we had to lug our bags up stairs to the platform and immediately board a train car completely full of like a tour group of old people. There was like no room for our bags, so, while the people ahead of us sorted out their stowage, Mia and I in the back had to stand in the aisle for like 15 minutes while old Italian people tried to talk to us and we didn’t understand anything. 

I ended up alone sat across a couple with an Italian boyfriend and Chinese girlfriend. They spoke a little English and a little Italian. The guy slept, and like put his head on the girlfriends lap. Lookin childish as fuck imo, but I digress. When most of the AFSers had de-trained, I sat at a table with Maria, a Portuguese girl headed to Lecce with Mia and I, and another two girls who I don’t remember that much about, to play cards. The woman who had been sitting across from me took off her shoes and put them up on the chair I had been sitting in lmao. Anyways. 

Lecce was the very last stop for the train that had come all the way from Milano. We had watched everyone, (Eva got off in Bari) get off the train except for the final 3 of us. At the station, we got out and met our families. I’ll end this post here and you’ll have to stay tuned for the next post I guess…. 

TLDR…

From Wednesday through Saturday I was traveling slowly from Los Angeles, California, USA to Lecce, Puglia, Italy, via a car, two planes, a van, a bus, another bus, and a train. I met lots of new people including two other young women who are attending my school in Lecce, Mia and Maria, and many others in my region, Puglia. I still have to write about my first week, and believe me there is a shit ton to write about, but I gotta go 2 bed. Goodnight from here haha.