Travel to Florence: Atlanta, Paris (for way too long), and Florence

The first leg of the trip begins! Dad, mom, and I set off for the Atlanta airport around 1:30 on Tuesday after a delicious last American feast (Watkinsville Zaxbys). Passed through Social Circle (bye Ren :( ). Upon arrival, we rolled all three of my bags to the Delta counter in an attempt for a swift and efficient check in for my 4:30 pm flight. But alas, what better words to come out of the Delta attendant's mouth than "Ma'am, we don't see you booked on this flight." After about an hour and a half of hubub at the desk, we concluded that Air France removed me from the flight due to their own personal overbooking of the flight. Cannot say I called that one or that it gave me a good feeling for the rest of the trip (foreshadowing).  Glancing at my watch, it was 4:00 pm. Boarding in 30 minutes in the biggest airport in the world. Had an extremely rushed and emotional goodbye with my parents to then barrel through Atlanta security with a backpack on my back and on the front (pregnant turtle style). 

Despite my odds, I made it to my gate 10 minutes before boarding and safely boarded the plane after running into Maddie at the gate! Got settled in my seat and promptly was served my dinner for the night: shredded pork, mashed potatoes, and apples? Assorted cheese? And a ginger ale that made me think of my grandma (hi Mum if you're reading this)! I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens through dinner & tried to sleep for the remaining four hours (maybe got 2 hours of deep sleep). 

Landing at Charles de-Gaul in Paris at 7 am was already a fever dream but walking out in a snowstorm was not on my expected feats for the morning. Easily cleared security there and arrived to the wonderful Grace Kirk in her knee high kitten heeled boots at the gate. This is when doomsday began. In unison every person at our gate's phone dinged with the same message: flight cancelled out to Florence do to snow. Immediately, people began rushing to the Air France service desk to try anything to get on the next flight out. Thats when the worst news came: all flights cancelled till tomorrow. What began as a 24 hour travel day was expended to an all night layover in Paris with 0 of our checked bags. At least I made 6 new friends on our program! I fought my way on to a flight out the next afternoon and checked myself in with Maddie to an airport hotel to sleep off our jetlag for what was to come tomorrow. Got to room service french onion soup in France which lightened the mood tremendously & we watched Creed in full French before sleeping. 

The next morning, I arrived to the airport 3 hours early to ensure surely nothing could go wrong now (boy was I wrong). Secured my first croissant and cappuccino of my European semester and boarded the plane. I watched every suitcase be loaded onto the plane and to my detriment, did not see either of my bags get on the plane. I shook it off and hoped I could cash in my luck at the baggage claim. Upon arrival, I stood at the carousel until there were no bags left. The Italian man who worked at baggage claim gave me a single pat on the shoulder and without a word pointed to the lost and found office. Defeated, I rose to the challenge of Italian procedural paperwork and verbally was abused by the Italian baggage man who was clearly fed up at the amount of people in line. It was then my time to descend into Florence, 28 hours later than anticipated. 

I was greeted by my program and moved into my apartment where my wonderful roomies were waiting (including Grace still in her boots)! We checked out a little pizza place called i'Pizzavendolo with all ten of our roomies where Diana, Makinley, and I split a pizza with prosciutto, yellow tomato, arugula, and olive oil. Diana, Coco, and I then split a sausage pizza because we failed to realize they were personal sized. Crushed our first real meal in Italy and moved in the three items I had in my bag. Then time for sleep after all this travel chaos for a good start tomorrow! Safe to say I now hold mildly resentful feelings towards the city of Paris.