After a very very long plane ride I arrived in Zurich yesterday afternoon at about noon, Swiss time, and the wee small hours, Philadelphia time. After taking a rather amusing tram ride to my gate (the train inexplicably played a "Swiss mountain" themed soundtrack, complete with birdsong and yodeling, and showed a weird flip-book like movie of a Heidi girl on the windows) I hopped on my plane to Florence and managed to arrive at Peretola Firenze in one piece. My luggage was actually there waiting for me, strangely enough, and after wandering around wondering if I had to go through customs I realized that I could just leave.
I took a zippy little taxi to Via Sant'Antonino, where SACI's main building and classrooms are located. I got my key and nice orientation packet -- complete with a list of all the things you really should have done before you got here and haven't done yet -- and a tiny, illegible map that was supposed to direct me to my apartment.
Because I had a backpack, a little suitcase, and a huge suitcase, I decided to leave my largest bag at SACI and find my apartment dragging only my lighter burdens. I felt like a tourist idiot glued to my map as I tried to navigate the 15 minute walk to my new home. It was very frustrating. At one point, I looked up to get my bearings, and saw Il Duomo at the far end of the street.
Wasn't really expecting that.
So it turns out that I'm quite a short walk from Il Duomo, il Ponte Vecchio, the David statue, the Uffizi...basically Florence in all its glory.
I've been here for a day now, and so far I am the only one of my flatmates who can reliably walk from our apartment to the school (it's really quite simple and I'm confused by their inability to navigate -- you know it's bad when I'm criticizing someone for getting lost). That's okay though, because in order to get to school I will have to walk through the plaza of the Duomo, every morning of every day.
Oh yeah, I can definitely get used to this.
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