Well, I’m here! It’s 9 p.m. here, 12 p.m. for all you at home. The flights went well, pretty uneventful. As we went in to land in Newark, the plane flew alongside New York city, so I got a nice view of the skyline and even got to see the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. 

The flight out of Newark left late, but it wasn’t that bad waiting. I just read. The seat next to me was empty so I had lots of space to spread out. I slept as much as I could between the two flights but it was hard to get comfortable. It was really cool flying over Ireland, England, and France and trying to figure out which cities I was seeing out the window. The sun was just coming up so they were just giant clusters of light down below. The coolest one was probably Cardiff. 

As we landed, the airline played this video that told the passengers to take the Malpensa Express train to get into Milan. So that’s what I did. (getting my luggage was easy and there was no customs) Only partway there, I realized it was taking me to the wrong station! I found my way to the subway but couldn’t figure out which train to take from there to get to Milano Centrale (where I could catch a train to Piacenza) or how much I needed to put on a ticket. Luckily, Hugo had been chatting with Lauren on Facebook when he and I were on the phone in Newark, and she’d given him her cell phone number to give me. So I was able to call her and go “HELP!” I figured it out (yeah, it was 1 euro haha) and made it to Milano Centrale, where I then bought the earliest and fastest ticket to Piacenza. The plane had gotten in at like 8:20 and it was already 11!

Made it to Piacenza around 12. Lauren and her aunts came to pick me up and brought me back to their apartment. It’s quite charming, but there’s 2 bedrooms for 8 people, including me. Lauren was nice enough to offer me her bed in the girls’ room for the next few nights. Her cousins are 12, 9, and the little boy cousin is 6.

I took a shower cuz I felt gross, ate some lunch, and then Lauren took me to walk around Piacenza. She says it’s basically a place where people don’t have anything to do so they shop and spend money. What, like Danville!? It’s pretty small but so cool to see all the really old buildings and architecture. We got some gelato then headed back to the apartment. I attempted to watch Nacho Libre with her but kept nodding off. I finally broke down and lay down for a nap at 4:30. I woke up in total darkness at 8 to the cat meowing. I was just in time for dinner!

So here I am. Over dinner, we mapped out our plans for Milan tomorrow. I still kind of can’t believe I’m here. Lauren’s family is really nice and speaks in a mixture of Italian and Spanish. They were impressed that I can understand Spanish but now they’re speaking to me in it! Most of the time it’s ok but sometimes they talk really fast. Lauren interprets lol. 

I think I’m ready for bed again. Hope you’re all having a good day!