The trip

Sunday 6/22/08
After about 2.5 hours of sleep I woke up around 5:00am to get ready. My dad and I left around 5:50 after saying goodbye to my mom who had already left for work.
We arrived at the airport in Cincinnati before 7:30 and I was through security and at my gate by about 7:35. So much for arriving 2.5-3 hours early for international flights (unless you're in Atlanta, in which case you'll want to arrive about seven hours early). I had to do some last second rearranging with my bags in order to get my two checked bags under 50 pounds each.
Of all the people on the flight from Cincinnati to Chicago O'Hare, guess which one got the worst seat on the plane. Give up? It was me. I had a wall in front of me allowing for no leg stretching, I had an aisle seat while all the window seat people around me had their windows closed and weren't watching the wonderful view, and I was seated next to a woman who was taking up entirely too much room. I had to sit at an angle and hang out into the asile. Of Course, the flight attendant bumped into me every time he walked by. Sarah, I think that he looked like a Ramon. Plus, the woman sitting next to me was wearing a shirt that said "This is what a feminist looks like." Good to know. At least it was a short flight.
So, do you remember my complaints from four hours ago (two seconds ago in your time)? Well, forget them. On the flight to Frankfurt in a big ol' 777 I had a window seat and an empty seat next to me! I think that it was the only empty seat on the big ol' jet airliner. Sarah, I think that the main flight attendant in my sector was probably named either Todd or Dmitri, I couldn't tell. Wow. Eight hours with an empty seat next to me, could it get any better? To answer your question, yes it could. I think that the other flight attendant working my area was probably named Olga or Helga or maybe Brunhilda. Also, one of the Germans at the ticket counter looked like Jens Lehmann, for all you Arsenal and Germany soccer fans. Nobody? Oh well. Also, he said, "Now boarding blue-eyed, green-eyed, and dark-haired people" twice in the span of about five minutes. There was a good deal of laughter on both occassions. Also, he kind of looked like a curly-haired David Hasselhoff. Sexy.
There weren't any really good movies available on the plane so I watched Vantage Point, which was okay. Unfortunately, even with all that room to myself, I couldn't sleep or get comfortable except for a few ten minute naps. Oh well, the views of the Netherlands and Germany were spectacular.
My final flight was a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Florence. Luckily, I just happened to ask a random German about my flight because they had changed the gate and I had no way of knowing. Actually, the first Lufthansa person I asked just told me to wait by the original gate and someone would come by eventually. What a liar. I saw highlights of last night's Spain-Italy game from Euro 2008. Italy is not going to be a happy place when I get there. On a good note, Cesc Fabregas (an Arsenal player) scored the winning penalty kick in the shootout that beat the Italians.
A team of blind Chinese athletes just walked by. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just stating a fact.
While checking in for the flight a guy noticed my shirt and told me that he went to U.D. I talked to his wife on the bus to the plane and found out that she was a librarian (apparently at a rich, private school in New Jersey) and that she had a grant to go visit libraries in Florence, including I Tatti.
Now I'm squished into this little plane and I am quite uncomfortable. I have never thought of myself as xenophobic, but it does feel pretty wierd being surrounded by German-speakers. Of course, I'm going to be surrounded by Italian-speakers soon.
When I finally got off the plane in Florence and retrieved my luggage I saw a beautiful and familiar face running my way. I hadn't seen Sarah in almost six months and she looked so pretty. I, on the other hand, was exhausted, disheveled, and probably smelled a little bit. Or maybe a lot. We walked around town most of the day. She said I had to stay up until 10, which would mean being awake for pretty much 35 straight hours after only sleeping 2.5 hours the night before. I did take a little nap back at her (or our) place.
We walked all around the city. We saw her school, a lot of the historic town center, and crossed the Arno to see more over there including an amazing old church called San Miniato al Monte. It was amazing. We had a little picnic up in the hills with some wine, pasta, fruit, cheese, and prosciutto. It was great, but I was exhausted. So we went back home and I started to unpack. It was tough because there's not much storage space. Luckily, Sarah made a lot of room for me. By the time I got to bed it was almost midnight. So, even though Sarah's tired of hearing about it, I'm going to describe my lack of sleep one more time. From the time I woke up Saturday morning around 9 to the time I went to bed in Italy around midnight, I had spent 57 hours running around, sitting around, and flying with only about four hours of sleep. Thus ends the whining. Maybe.
Thus also ends what will probably be my longest posting. We'll see.