Monday, September 10, 2012

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

We traveled more than 1,000 miles, of course. It's a bit mind-boggling to think that we're halfway around the world. I spent a good deal of the transatlantic flight watching the big screen at the front of the cabin to see where our little plane icon was on the trip trajectory. Totally boring, yes, but also kind of mindlessly fascinating. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Quick recap - movers came on the 31st to haul all our stuff out of the house, into a truck (which broke down and needed a jump-haha) and presumably off to a storage facility. By the time they were three-quarters done, I was totally done, and all my belongings could have burned in a fire, for all I cared. I suppose that's not actually true, but I was glad when we finally packed up and drove to Providence to stay with Rachel for a few days.

Which...was lovely. Living with Rachel again, even for such a brief time, was wonderful, and reminded me of the golden Montebello days. We didn't throw any crazy dance parties this time 'round, but we did see a number of folks who stopped by to spend time with us before we were set to flee the country.

And we nearly didn't get beyond that first step. US Airlines almost didn't let Indigo and I fly, because our return tickets were for 10 months in the future, and we didn't have visas - so we could technically only stay in Italy for 3 months. So they refused to let us check in. Sure, they had a point - it is actually illegal to stay in the country for 10 months without a visa. But I honestly don't think that the Italians care. Nor have any Academy fellows run into this problem before. Josh called the Academy immediately and someone tried to get in touch with the NY Consulate to get everything straightened out. We never did hear back from the Consulate, because if we waited around, we'd miss our flight (which was so helpfully delayed an hour - actually good luck, because of this other problem). Instead we just changed the return date for our flights to November. Which we'll have to change back to June. Which incur a $250 change fee, per change, per ticket. That's - yup - you guessed it! $1,000 in fees. Thanks, US Air.

Anyway, after that, the flights went as well as they could have. We had a short flight to Charlotte, which was not as crazy busy as I'd feared, so that was a big plus. Indigo fussed a bit on that flight and then slept, so she was fairly wide awake for the second 9-hour flight. Despite being exhausted, she was as good as gold on the long flight. Really. Minimal fussing or wriggling.  After about 3 hours she slept, fitfully, and I had to soothe her back to sleep a few times. Only at the end of the flight did she begin to demand to get out of her seat, and by then, we were only about a half hour from our destination.

Getting through the airport was actually fairly easy, although there was a long wait for our bags. A driver from the Academy had been sent to meet us (he had Josh's name on a sign in the lobby - how cool is that?) and my first glimpse of Rome included palm trees and strange spiky foliage partially obscured by a concrete parking garage. The sound of whistles being blown, car horns honking. A strange sweetish smell, which I later identified as diesel fumes. We got in the car and drove breakneck down a highway and through some part of Rome, and then, suddenly, we were at our new home.

My memories of those first few hours are a little fuzzy, since I was running on perhaps 4 hours of sleep. I think I put Indigo down for a nap, unpacked a little, then slept myself.

Next up: our first few days, our apartment, the Academy, and other adventures.





2 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you all made it safe and sound! :-) Much love!

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  2. Oh, the joys of international travel with a toddler! Glad you guys made it through and are starting to get acclimated. Can't wait to hear more about your adventures!
    Love!

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