Well, I made it!! I'm here in Rome in my little apartment. It's not exactly what I imagined, but it's decent and has the necessities. The past 24 hours have been ... interesting. I'll try to break it down into the most important points:
-Made it to the airport gate with plenty of time to spare
-Had "pasta" on the plane for dinner. typical airplane food. yuck.
-Strategically took tylenol pms to try to sleep, yet found myself repeatedly awakened by small rat children that let out shrills of deafening noise and tantrum. it was awful. lesson learned: NEVER take children who still scream for no reason onto a 9 hour plane ride.
-FINALLY landed. got luggage. somehow manuevered it around. waited on friends.
-Found friends. got money. got shuttle cab. finally found apartments.
-Put away some things. went in search of atm and food.
-ATM issues for Amy. found a small place to eat. no one there. sat down.
-900 school kids arrive the instant after we sat down and filled up the restuarant.
-Took forever to eat. didn't know what the words meant nor what the waitress meant.
-Settled for ravioli. Almost fell asleep at the table.
-Came back to apartment. Fell asleep.
-Woke up (not happy about it) to go to the market.
-Bought random things to last a few days.
-Noticed: Beggers with dogs that lay there and sleep. Graffiti. Insane traffic.
-Went back to apartment. Blogging. Soon to sleep for a very long time.

Well, that's the recap. Traveling is exhausting.