A walkway in Italy.

The story begins in Chicago with about twelve excited Purdue and IU students. We were headed to Florence to begin our study abroad experience. From Chicago to Paris, and Paris to Florence; our plans couldn't have been clearer. Well, with all of us hanging out in the airport due to a delay, we really got to know each other pretty well.

Finally, about two hours later, we were able to board our plane and start the journey. Due to the delay in Chicago, we missed our connecting flight from Paris to Florence. We managed to meet up with some other Purdue students while waiting in the Paris airport trying to decide what we were going to do. They had a longer layover, so they were in the clear as far as getting to Florence. However, the twelve of us were out of luck. We tracked down the airline and they were able to provide us a connecting flight to Rimini and then from there, they would provide us an hour long bus ride to Florence&.or so they said!!

So, with that sounding like a better option, we were surely going to beat the other Purdue students to Florence and start our adventure first. We climbed onto a tiny plane and before we knew it, we were in Rimini. We found the tiny bus they provided, loaded our enormous bags on with the help of our hearty and very Italian bus driver, and headed to Florence. After about four hours of driving through mountains and farmland, we were FINALLY in Florence, more frustrated than ever!!

The airline had guaranteed that the bus would take us to our school, however; they also guaranteed us an hour bus ride, and that didn't happened!!! We were all stuck at the Florence airport not knowing how to get a cab, who to call, or where to go. After about an hour or messing with payphones, calling our families, and tracking down the school, we finally got things squared away. We had an amusing time at the airport making friends with Italian Cops and laughing so hard about how we finally made it to Florence.
At about 10:30pm, we finally arrived at our school, got the keys to our apartments, and went our own ways. My roommate Nikki and I made it to our apartment around 11:15pm; we had been traveling for over 24 hours. After being frustrated about spending our first Euros on a cab ride, we eventually made it up to our amazing apartment to be welcomed by our other two roommates; the ones with the smarter and longer layovers!!

We were then welcomed by the landlord as she handed us a very well deserved bottle Champaign. We did it!! We finally made it to Florence through so many obstacles. We can do nothing but laugh about the situation now and reminisce about those many hours the twelve of us spent with each other. It really set the tone for our very random, exciting, frustrating, and spontaneous experiences we ended up having that unforgettable summer in Florence.

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