Trip to Florence/1st Day Here

Hey guys, just wanted to give y'all an update on what's happened in the past 24 + hours. After a short 4 hour drive to the Houston airport we got through the 10 lines pretty quickly and waved goodbye to America for 6 weeks. The flight to Paris was long and grueling as h***. When we landed everyone was happy only to come to the realization that we had a 3 hour wait in the airport until our hour and thirty minute flight to Florence. The Paris airport was pretty legit being they served coffee and beer in the same place. Needless to say for once in my life I stuck to coffee and saved the beer till after the flight, but for the record some of the guys in our group did have a beer or a few at 8:30 in the morning, meaning I found my new friends. When we arrived in Florence we were greeted by the AIFS staff as they shoved us into a taxi after we found out who our roommates were, who btw are Rob and Lee. The drive to the apartment was full of looking at each other trying to figure out who was going to die first, us or a pedestrian. I have never experienced driving like that and will stick to walking most of the trip avoiding the taxis as much as possible. We were greeted by another AIFS staff member who showed us to our room, which I must say, are again, pretty legit. We seem to have one of the best apartments out of the group. After unpacking we met up with some friends in the group of walked around Florence. Finally after grabbing something to eat, taking hundreds of pictures, almost getting run over, getting called a (blank) American, buying wine, and just taking it all in we are finally going get some rest for tomorrows long day. Hope y'all doing good back in ole Louisiana. Goodnight

P.S., you can find my photos updated hopefully daily starting tomorrow at flickr.com. Search nicktoonsitaly

The Journey Begins

Finally, after 5 months of planning and preparing it is finally here. In the matter of 14 hours I will be departing Lafayette on (hopefully) a coach bus headed to Houston leaving all the stress of preparing behind. Our group will be leaving the Houston airport at 4:30 p.m.. We will then fly from Houston to Paris, then an hour and a half layover, and then we depart Paris and fly directly into Florence. We are going to arrive at about 2:05 P.M. Italian time and I am hoping for no jet lag. I will be constantly updating my blog with, hopefully, at least one post a day but we all know how that can go. Please keep up with me and I promise I will post a lot of pictures. I will have an Italian number that I will post so you guys can text or call as much as your heart desires. See you guys in a month. Let's do this!