Homeward Bound

12/14 - Friday

I finished my finals! My Philosophy oral exam was fine and I officially finished all my classes! I spent a solid 2-3 hours shopping around the city for Christmas gifts! I did it by myself because I wanted to take in the last afternoon I'll ever have - at least for my semester - in the city of Roma. After all my shopping, I went back to my apartment to drop everything off and got ready for dinner.

I went to the restaurant, Le Fate (The Fates), with some girl friends again in Trastevere. It was a nice, last dinner in Rome. After dinner, we met up with the rest of the gang from CUA for drinks at Abbey Theater. I stuck around until maybe 12.15am and left by myself because I had to head home. I needed to wake up early for my flight on Saturday morning.

12/15 - Saturday

I had to finish packing up everything. I bought a book for my host mom, Rosa, and gave her a Christmas card. Thankfully, she loved both of them. I moved out early Saturday and headed to St. John's to double check my email and such before getting on the bus to head to the airport. Since I got up earlier than I needed to, I caught up on my email, filled out last minute evaluations, checked Facebook, and read up on the news. It was then that I unfortunately learned about the horrible event in Connecticut. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this traumatic event. I teared up while reading the numerous articles and seeing pictures of family members and such outside of the school. But the country, as a whole, needs to make smart decisions to make sure this does not happen again since it has been happening much too often lately.

No one should have to experience such trauma.

I left St. John's for Piazza Cavour, where the bus shuttle was stopping to take me to the Fiumicino Airport in Rome. After an hour on the road, I walked into Fiumicino and got down to business. I took the EasyJet flight to Milan, though it was delayed about half an hour. I landed safely in Milan, but had a hard time getting to the hotel I was staying at. If you ever need a place to stay that's near the Malpensa Airport in Milan, stay at the Holiday Inn or the Sheraton Hotels because the Idea Hotel is way too difficult to find.

I took a free bus from the airport to an area near the airport called Case Nuove (New Houses). The first time, I missed my stop. Then when I got off at my stop, I got off with a very attractive young Italian man who worked at the airport. I asked him for help finding the Idea Hotel. He told me he parks for work in the Holiday Inn lot so he walked me to the Holiday Inn so I could ask the people working there where on earth this hotel was. It was awkward, but he was very sweet.

By the way, there was 2 feet of snow in Milan. So there I was, in the Milan airport area, walking around in 2ft of snow with all my stuff. And a random map. Trying to find this hotel.

Don't do it. Just don't.

I finally found the hotel, got the key to my room, got upstairs, and threw down my luggage on the extra bed in my room. I washed up, changed into PJs, and took a long nap. Later, I went to dinner in the hotel restaurant which was nice. Funny enough, the Italian game show I watched every night during dinner was on. So I had a great time eating dinner and watching Avanti Un'Altro!

Then the news came on about the shooting in Connecticut.

12/16 - Sunday

I woke up early to head back to the airport. While at the airport, I waited for my flight. And waited and waited. Since my ticket was standby, and there were open seats in first class, I ended up getting placed in first class and flying home in luxury. 

Thank you LORD.

I landed safely in NY at JFK Airport around 1.30pm, went through customs and more security. Then found my dad, holding a sign, waiting for me at the airport.

Welcome to America.