Pre-Italy Jitters!!

Well getting ready for 2.5 months in Europe was not what I expected.  I’ll be studying in Asolo, Italy at the CIMBA Campus for a total of four weeks, ending on June 16^th.  I’ll be taking two different classes that will be direct elective transfers back to my MBA program at Texas Tech for a total of six hours.  The first class is a Seminar in Lean Practices, and the other is Management of Technology and Innovation.  Should be interesting and hopefully not too intense haha.  After classes I will be meeting my fellow European Adventure dreamer sister-in-law, Magen, for about six weeks of travel around Europe, that’s what I’m really excited about!  We are going to hit the train system and see where it takes us!  I wouldn’t have let a solo mission stop me but I’m super excited about the security of a travel buddy and having someone to share it with that will appreciate it as much as I do.

Packing for Europe was pretty difficult and I probably brought more than I will need but I tried to be conservative.  They tell you to pack your suitcase like you normally would in the states, then take half of it away.  So . . . not sure it’s quite half empty but it will do.  I ended up with a medium size luggage bag, a North Face day pack, and an Osprey Aether 60 that was quite empty on the ride over actually.  I think I ended up doing pretty good.  The Aether 60 will be my luggage during the after school train travel, with a day pack for city adventures! 

The travel half way across the world was quite the experience.  A total of 22 hours of travel and losing seven hours actually wasn’t as bad as I might have expected.  From Midland, to Dallas, to Orlando, to London, to Venice.  The overseas trip was a little under eight hours I believe with British Airways and probably the most comfortable and rewarding air travel I’ve ever experienced.  The seats were spacious, one meal of lasagna with wine and sides, a breakfast meal with yogurt and biscotti’s, a large library of videos on demand and music cd’s, all with a pillow and blanket.  Kind of fun actually.  Ended up watching No Strings Attached (kind of lame), The Tourist (pretty good performance from Jolie and Depp), and most of but not all of The Rite (creepy).  Listened to some of Adele’s new CD and Taylor Swift a little, I was hoping for some Frank Sinatra to prepare me but that was a failure. 

After a long delay in Dallas b/c of weather, almost missing my flight in Orlando due to the prior delay and switching airliners, and them losing my two checked luggage bags in Venice I have arrived.  Hopefully they will find them and deliver them before too long.  I ended up emailing a girl doing the same program and met her in the Venice airport.  We couldn’t check in for another day so she booked a hotel in Paderno del Grappa, Hotel San Giacomo.  We took a bus to the mestre train station, the train to Castelfranco, and an expensive cab to Paderno.  The hotel was extremely nice for catching up on rest, spacious, very friendly, and a cheaper option than staying by the campus in Asolo.  We actually ended up meeting another guy at the hotel who is going to be doing the undergraduate program in Paderno for the summer.  Tami and I did a little walk around the first stop in Italy.  She’s a world traveler who has been to over 30 countries and she knew the best way to get to know your surroundings is to explore, so that’s what we did.  An extremely quiet, quaint, and picturesque town in the countryside of Italy, turned out to be very welcoming.  We went to dinner with Tom, the undergrad student, to a local Pizzeria and had some pizza of course with beer and wine.  Nice little dinner but a bit pricey.  Pretty much anything you buy over here just multiply it by 1.5 to get the amount of dollars you are spending.  Dinner was 20 euros, so really $30.  It was worth it thought after a long day of travel.  Usually I don’t sleep well the first night in new places, but last night I’m pretty sure a bomb couldn’t have altered my consciousness!  The time change really isn’t that bad as long as naps are taken on the plane but not too many, and just staying up with the sun to readjust.  This morning the hotel provided a breakfast with several options, we saw a large group of vespas (scooter) I guess touring, and then we were ready to come to campus.  A much more reasonable cab ride through a short six miles and we arrived in Asolo.  This town is much more authentic of what you picture when you think of the typical Italian town, narrow cobblestone streets, hilly, lots of bike riders, walkers, little cafes, inviting plant life, rustic houses with shutters that look like they were purposefully antiqued, etc.  The Treviso Region really feels like a countryside experience with lots of crops and grape vines surrounding the area.  We are fixing to go eat and explore the new place!!!  The CIMBA campus is small but welcoming and looks like a perfect study abroad setting for the next four weeks.  Orientation is later, we are the first to arrive, with a welcome BBQ this evening.  I look forward to this afternoon and classes start tomorrow!  Grazie for reading and hope to update again soon!  Buon Giorno (Good Day)!   Italy: 12:30 pm, 5/22/2011; Texas: 5:23 am

http://cimbaitaly.com/Graduate-192/Index.htm