Well, this is the first entry of my blog (obviously.) For those of you who don't know, I am about to embark on the ultimate in adventuring. I'm heading to Macerata, Italy for a semester abroad. I'm a junior at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA but I'm originally from Tacoma, WA. Tacoma is located along the Puget Sound in the Northwest United States. It's nestled between the state capital (Olympia) and the cultural hub of the Northwest (Seattle) and is the third most populated/largest city in Washington. Contrary to common belief it is not smelly (except for on really hot days near the pulp mill) so the "Aroma of Tacoma" is not nearly the "note-worthy" thing that people seem to think it is. The popular film "10 Things I Hate About You" was filmed here. Tacoma is also the home to the high school, Tacoma School of the Arts, of which I am a proud graduate. Unfortunately, this little tangent about my hometown has little to no relevance to most anybody who will be reading this, because a great percentage will be from there.

Anyway, I am due in Macerata (a city in central Italy in the Marche region) on Monday for orientation. It is currently Wednesday. My dad, who is in the military, and I are attempting to fly over using the Space-A (Space Available) method, where we hop-on flights with extra seats in an attempt to reach our destination. Last night we were supposed to depart for Oceana, Virginia on a midnight flight. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication and the flight had no seats at all, being some sort of Army-Secret-Mission-Thingy. This has put a damper on the whole "try-to-get-to-Europe-quickly-and-maybe-explore-a-little-pre-orientation" plan. There is a flight to Norfolk, VA tomorrow morning, but I think we are waiting for an early flight to Dover, DE on Friday, since Dover is apparently a central hub for military flights to Europe. This is probably the one and only interesting thing about Delaware. Hopefully the five people there greet us with their charming Delawarian accents and homemade pie. Perhaps that is too optimistic. From Delaware, we're trying to fly over to Rammstein, Germany (or directly to Italy, but that seems less likely,) and take a train to Macerata, while doing some sight-seeing along the way. I'll let you know more about this plan as time elapses, since the Army seems to have little-to-no-inclination to even inform us before the last possible second.
Cheers and Ciao,
Kaylie