I made it to Rome safe and sound! Everything actually went more without a hitch than I could have imagined. I got to the airport early even though I said lengthy farewells to my grandma and mom, the lady at the bag check just waived my 2lbs overweight on my luggage, I got to chat with a couple of people to pass the 2 hour wait more quickly, I got in and off the plane in Chicago quickly enough to find the other gate and a girl from the program on the same flight and chat with her for a minute or so before boarding, got to watch 3 awesome movies (2 in Italian: evidently the other channel would have been english, but I didn't know that til afterwards, so I was accustoming myself to the language a little early) slept a little, got off the plane to find my fellow student waiting for me, went through the passport line, got my baggage, and went through customs in about 30 minutes and then found our professor rather quickly. All in all, I cannot complain about any of it. I didn't lose any luggage, I wasn't accosted by anyone in a foreign language, I found everyone I needed to in a timely manner, and I definitely was not pick-pocketed.

There were however small things that make for good stories: including a few of the people I chatted with at various points. The first people I chatted with at the terminal was a family with three little kids. they had all gotten little rubber airplanes, so I was just chatting it up asking them where and why they had gotten those and what their favorite colors were based on the colors they chose for their airplanes. As children are wont to do, one of the little girls asked me my name, so I told it. Then, thinking no harm because their mom was sitting right there and we were chatting across her I asked what the girls name was. She didn't seem to know, and her mom said she had recently had her name changed. I thought, "that's pretty cool. she's about 6 or 7, so I feel like that's young to change the name and get her mixed up, but whatever floats your train" But then it got better. the mom said it was a long story and then they both stopped talking for a little, so I teasingly said "well we have a while til the plane gets here, it won't fit in that time?" and the mom said "no". I left it at that, since she obviously didn't want to go into it. But the two other kids wanted to tell me their names, since their sister had told me her name already. The other daughter said her name, I don't remember now, and then her sister tried to add that she had another name for her, but the mom cut them off. Just the secretness of it made me thing they were in the witness protection program or something, and it was especially difficult to keep it a secret with kids blabbing to people. I decided not to talk to them any more, but the eldest daughter was excited to see me later on and waved huge.

The other lady I talked to before getting on the plane to Chicago was a doctor with a service dog. it wasn't a seeing eye dog, or eve a comfort dog, because I asked. It was just a dog in a vest who was supposed to be a service dog. I could, however, pet it as much as I wanted and hug it and all the things you aren't supposed to do with seeing eye dogs. She told me she couldn't tell me what the dog was for because she was "on duty." I still have absolutely no clue what that dog was for, but it went on the plane, without a cage or anything, and when I walked by to my seat it had it's own seat even, although I don't know if that's how it was going to stay.

Man, coming back to this after going to dinner (which was just gellato) and walking down to St Peter's Church leaves me exhausted and not really ready to write more at the moment. however, when I do get around to it again (and it will probably be soon) I'll upload some pictures as well. all I can think about now is the fact that, although I like all of my clothing very much and try to keep it in top condition as long as possible, my shoes are my biggest worry. While we were walking in the rain tonight I worried much more about what the water could do to my shoes than what it could do to my purse or my shirt or my pants. I guess I really love my shoes (and it doesn't matter what pair I'm wearing I would have done the same worrying).