Macerata!

This is day three in MACERATA!!!! So much has happened since I left NYC, it's almost unbelievable. I took my first ever flight by myself, sipped wine and ate bread and cheese and coffee. It was delightful! Even Italian Airline food is molto bene! Excuse my exclamation points but, it is, after all, really exciting. When I landed in Rome I had a layover for 5 hours until my flight to Ancona, which is much closer to Macerata. This does not get an exclamation point. Because the Roman airport looks like...an airport. With probably more stores. It was boring and I was super duper tired from five days of travel. But luckily, while exchanging American money for Euros I was behind a girl who spoke English, and had an Ancona ticket. I got up the nerve to talk to her and she said, "But I'm not staying in Ancona, I'm going to Macerata for the AHA program there." No joke. Out of fifteen students total, the rest of whom had gotten to orientation on time, I just happened to run into her. Which was lucky because our trip to Macerata was quite an adventure. We arrived in Ancona at 6:45pm, spent a fortune (40euro split) to get to the Ancona train station because all the busses were gone for the evening. I was able to talk to the taxi driver in Spanish, which was very funny. What we could gather from each other his travel tips for me were, "Macerata es muy pequeno...Roma es muy antiqua." This means, Macerata is very small, Rome is very old. Thanks, dude. From there we got the 2nd to last train to Cittanova where we would connect to Macerata, which left five minutes after we purchased our tickets. But we had to run through an underpass to get to the other side of the tracks. It was a lot easier for me than Ashley, the girl I traveled with, because she had brought two huge suitcases. I, on the other hand, packed army style. I didn't even pack socks. We caught the train just in time . When we got to the Cittanova station everything was dark and we had no idea where we were supposed to go. I left Ashley with our luggage and scampered across the tracks to see if I could find someone to help me. A nice woman and a weird-toothed old man were able to help me. Apparently our next connection was not a train, but a bus. The weird-toothed man tried to give me directions but ended up offering to escort me. (This was all in Italian by the way. So it took a lot of pointing at my ticket and saying "Macerata?!") I ran back, and through epic stealth and skill we dangerously crossed the track with our luggage. We followed the old man, stopped and asked policemen to make sure this old man wasn't leading us to our deaths and finally arrived at the bus station. HOORAY! We barely caught the last bus to Macerata until 5 am the next day. The bus took over an hour and by the time we got to the Macerata station, (with the help of an English speaking man on our bus, telling us when to get off) all the taxis and busses had left for the night. After a while of trying to figure out how we were going to find the Hostel we were supposed to be staying in, in the dark without a map or the ability to read and understand the street signs, we noticed a man in a car marked something I can only assume said, "Security Escort," sitting and watching us. I asked for walking directions. He didn't understand. He offered me a ride with my luggage, but he only had one seat. Eventually he said he could take one of us and come back for the other. At 10pm in a strange city without a lick of Italian between the two of us, this really seemed like our only option, though it went against all my kindergarten teachings. Needless to say, we arrived safe and sound (I waited outside for her after he dropped me off...) Instead of going straight to bed, we dropped off our things and ran into some other people from the program heading out to a festival! Macerata is celebrating an anniversary and something about the Virgin Mary, so the main streets were lit up and a band was playing to a dancing/singing audience. Vendors were open and people were bustling. I was starving because we had missed dinner, so I bought a piece of foccacia (my first in Italy!) and a glass of red wine, and four of us danced, and listened to music. On the way into the festival I saw Vanessa and there was a reunion with much squealing on my part, and hugging and excited hand gestures. She was on her way to bed, but told me to explore a little bit. After that we went back in to bed at around 1. The past two days have been huge walking tours all around the city, smal intros to our excursion dates, class schedules, etc, and of course, delicious cousine. Last night was my first big Italian meal out with the rest of the group. They serve huge portions (and have so far been really accomodating to my small queries for 'vegetariano.') The first course was soup, which I ravaged, then realized there was plenty more to come. Eggplant, (YES!) lots of vegetables, huge things of Mozerella e Parmeggione, bread, fruit, dessert, and, of course, plenty of Italian wine as well as the traditional "toasting" glass of liqeour. And let me tell you, if you do not eat all your food, the old men either get offended or tease you mercilessly in their silly, grandpa, Italian way. It was truly wonderful, and all covered by AHA. Unfortunately, money is really tight right now. I'm going to the supermarket later because I have to buy small, raw ingredients to prepare at home, and after my apartment deposit, until my financial aid comes through I am living on very very very very very very very limited means. The added stress of that is pretty overwhelming on top of being in a new country and not speaking a word of the language. Although, I have not, actually, been too homesick. I am loving the group of people I am with, and am going to have a grand time with the three other girls I share an apartment with (including Vanessa, who I am SOOOOOO happy is here, quadruple YAY!) I wish I had the money for an international phone call right now, because I would love to hear my mom's voice, but I just don't, and they blocked Collect calls. Other than that is GORGEOUS here, the city is surrounded by walls that have been there since about the 7th century. It is beautiful, warm, and tiring here. I'll describe more later. Love and kisses. Ciao, ciao!