I am FINALLY in Ferrara, and finally have somewhere to plug in the computer. It was NOT fun getting here lol…My flight from Paris to Bologna got delayed, and after sitting for forever, they took us downstairs to a shuttle, where we stood for another half-hour, and then finally got onto the plane to sit for another hour (I used this to sleep, since someone kept whistling through the night during the overnight Toronto to Paris flight. I’m with Sheldon here on the anti-whistling campaign). I was supposed to get to Bologna at 4, and we landed right then, then waited half an hour for baggage. I figured no on e from CIEE would still be at the airport, so I tried to find some way of calling and letting them know I had arrived and was stuck in Bologna. My US phone didn’t work at all. The pay phones didn’t accept American credit cards or my calling cards, and the place to buy international calling cards in the airport was closed. My Italian phone had no money loaded onto it, and when I went to go add money, I was told it was “invalido.” Stuck. I figured I just had to get to Ferrara on my own, so I asked the woman at the info desk what bus I needed to take to get to the train station, and she told me (in English, thank goodness!) Got on the bus, and was probably the most scared I’ve ever been in my life, because I was alone in a foreign country, with no means of contacting anyone, and no one knew where I was. Fortunately though, there was a nice woman on the train who told me when to get off for the train station and showed me how to get my ticket there. Let me point out that only experience with train stations is reading about platform 9 ¾. I had a ticket and didn’t know where to go with it, so I asked someone else who pointed out my city on the departures schedule. I tried my best to find the platform (which I quickly learned is called a ‘binario’) and ended up missing the train because I didn’t understand the number system. Back up and down stairs to buy a new ticket—I can’t imagine if I HAD had 2 checked bags—and found out I could just use the one I had for a different train of the same genre. This time success. Found the right platform, got on the train, sat next to someone who just happened to be going to Ferrara, and she even took me to where I could pick up a taxi. Taxi to the hotel, dropped the bags in my room, and we left for pizza.
Halfway through the meal, 2 more people arrived—there HAD been someone at the airport but I had missed him. However, they left their bags at the airport and only just got them back yesterday, so I’m kinda glad I didn’t see Ricardo there waiting. Pizza was amazing…and I ate the whole thing! Then I went back to the hotel to crash because I was EXHAUSTED. The next few days all run together at this point. We’ve gotten to see our classrooms, done a scavenger hunt of the city, gone out to eat a couple more times, taken a real tour of the city, and got to move in with our host families!
Mine is AMAZING :) I’m sharing a family with another girl from the program who was here last semester too (Theresa). I am SOOOO glad she’s here. We’re very similar and get along well…and while I can speak Italian well, I have a lot of trouble understanding our host family and she can help translate. I live with a couple who’s in their 60s—Clara and Paolo—and their son is around a lot too (Alessandro). They are the sweetest people! I have my own bedroom with a beautiful view, and Theresa and I share our own bathroom. Their house is outside the city walls so we have to ride a bike about a half an hour to get to the center of Ferrara, but once I get comfortable on a bike, it won’t be bad at all. The first night we rode to town, we rode on the main road and I couldn’t go in a straight line…which is bad when you have a sidewalk on one side, and cars on the other. When we got back and told Clara how terrible I was, she recommended another path, which was a billion times better. I can’t wait until I’m used to this though, because the learning process is painful in more ways than one. Plus I’m the only person in Ferrara who wears a helmet.