Almost time to leave!!!!

I don't know how many times I have tried to sit down and write this! I just deleted a bunch of drafts that I started, but never finished. With work, work at home, Christmas, New Years, and very little down time, I have finally found the time to write while waiting on the banana pineapple bread I just put in the oven and everybody is upstairs asleep.

So, I'm not a big fan of this whole packing thing. When I left for college in August, I literally packed the night before. When I left college for home, again, I packed the night before. Nothing has changed as I pack for another four month trip away from home. It's the day before I leave, and my suitcase still sits in my room, empty, and with the tags still on it from Christmas. Whoops! Timer is going off, hold on. Okay, I'm back. I don't know if it's me and how I hate to pick out clothes and I have to pick out four months of clothes, or whether it might be I find better things to do than pack. As excited as I am to go to Italy, I'm surprised I wasn't packed last month!

(Not my actual suitcase)

I ran all over Columbus today getting last minute things, and I have a funny feeling I'll be doing that again tomorrow and Saturday morning. I got my Euros, cell phone, black socks, 4G memory card for my camera, and then made a delicious dinner consisting of pork chops and scalloped potatoes. Speaking of cooking, I found an amazing cooking class in Florence that I'm dying to take while I'm there. Chef Giovanni takes you shopping at a market and teaches you how to pick the best produce. He then takes you back to his apartment and you make a four course meal! I know what I'm doing the first weekend I'm in Florence!

As you can see, I'm not that excited.

After I get all that packing done, all I have to do is wait until Saturday afternoon. My flight leaves Port Columbus at 3:35 and arrives in Philly at 5:06. My transatlantic flight leaves at 6:30 for Munich, Germany and arrives at 8:45 the next morning, local time. I only have a little bit of time in Germany until my flight leaves at 11:45 for Florence. I'll arrive at my final destination, Florence, Italy at 1:05 pm and step out of the plane to a wonderful 58 degrees. That will leave me plenty of time to roam the narrow streets of my new city in search of a Catholic church where I can go to mass since it will be a Sunday. (I'm sure this won't be too hard to find!) I did find out that my plane to Munich has individual screens for everyone to pick their own shows and movies! So much better than watching "Lost in Translation" in Italian like I did the first time I flew to Italy!

Okay, so this is First Class with the lay flat beds, but it's not where I'm sitting :(

The Beginning

So, what am I supposed to say? I mean, I haven't left yet, so should I talk about how excited I am? I guess the purpose of this blog will come out as I write it. I'm mainly starting it so I don't have to tell everyone, every single one of my stories over and over again. Then I can just say, "just read my blog!" I think it'll also become a travel journal for me that I'll always have, as long as the internet is in existence!

So what do I plan on posting here? I'll be gone for almost four months, January 15th - April 30th. Eh, I guess I'll post pictures and videos of each trip I take, my reflections on the week, and even polls on the side of the page. I think that's kind of cool. I might be indecisive about what to do one weekend and I'll just ask my readers. Not a bad idea for something that just popped into my head!

Since my faith is very important to me and has really blossomed over the past year, I'll frequently reflect on my faith journey and what it's like to be a Catholic in a "Catholic" country. Something like 90% of Italy is Catholic, but only 30% are practicing. The divorce rate is climbing past 12%. Big Italian families are a thing of the past, as more and more couples are having only one or two children. Actually only 1.32 children per woman according to the CIA World Factbook. How is it that the country that the head of the Catholic Church resides in, (I know, he technically lives in Vatican City, but you know what I mean) only one third are practicing Catholics?

Throughout this trip I'll miss so many wonderful people that are so close to me. I'll miss my whole CCM community at Mason, especially my discipler Andy Norton and all the awesome guys in my bible study. And sure, I guess I'll miss my family too. :) Of course I'll miss them! Michael will have nobody to play video games with! Most of all, I'll miss my grandma, obviously. Without her, I probably wouldn't be the person I am right now.

I probably won't update this until it gets closer to my trip, but be sure to stay updated!

Arrivederci!