Last Day Before I Leave

So, today is Friday, and that means that this is my last full day before I get on that plane and travel thousands of miles to a foreign country where I barely speak the language. But surprisingly, I am very excited! I talked to the girl whose apartment I'll be staying in today via email. Her name is Arianna, and she seems incredibly nice! Better yet, she told me that she has wireless internet in her apartment, and a washer! Sweet deal! I was really worried about how to get onto the internet, and a washer will make my life sooooooo much easier!
So, for whoever wants to get in touch with me while I'm over there without spending a small fortune on international roaming fees, I suggest you download Skype at www.skype.com. If you have a webcam or a built-in one on your computer, we can talk for free via the internet! Sweet deal, huh? Or, if you don't have one, many computers will have built in microphones. This will work just fine, too. It'll be more like a regular phone conversation, you know, without video. :) Otherwise, if you try to call my cell, it will cost $1.29 a minute! :O When I get over there, I'll find out if she has a land line phone in her apartment that I can use, and if so, I'll let everyone know. If you use international calling cards and call from a land line to a land line, it a ton cheaper. With the cards I bought the other day, it was 50 cents a minute for me to call from Italy to the US, and only 34 cents for someone in the US to call me in Italy! :) So, I will keep you all posted on the phone # thing.
So, my flight leaves KC tomorrow at 12:30, so we're going to get there around 10:00 just to be safe, which means we are leaving around 8ish. From KC, I fly to Philadelphia, and from there, I fly straight to Venice's Marco Polo Airport (cute name, huh?). Then I have to wait 2 hrs for the guy to come pick me up to take me to my apartment. The airport is on the mainland, and this guy from the college is going to take me to the actual city, which is located a few miles away in the lagoon. It's hard to imagine that an actual city exists on 118 different islands in the middle of a huge lagoon. Boggles the mind!
Thankfully, I am all packed up with everything I could ever need. Better yet, my bag is actually under the weight limit of 50 lbs! (but only by 2.8 lbs! :D) I'm also carrying on my backpack with 2 days worth of clothes (in case my luggage is lost), my laptop, travel books, basic stuff like makeup and toothbrush, and all the important docs I could ever need. If all goes as planned, I will have window seats the whole way, so I'll be able to see Europe as I'm flying in! :)
Since I'm all packed, I'm taking it easy today and just relaxing. When TJ gets off work, we're heading into Manhattan to double check on the apartment we want to rent. Yes, in the midst of all of this, we are moving the week I return! We originally moved to St. Marys b/c it was halfway in between Manhattan (school for me) and Topeka (work for TJ). Well, when the job in Topeka fell through cuz of the economy, he got a new job in Manhattan at Mead Lumber. So, its really dumb for us to be living in St. Marys when we are both centered in Manhattan. We will pay way less in rent and gas by living there, so we decided to do it! The place we want is 3 blocks from campus, so I won't have to use any gas to get to school, and all of my sub. teacher positions are around Manhattan, too. I think it will work out really nice. :D
Well, I just realized that I have been writing forever, and the washer just dinged, so I'm off! I won't write again today, and most likely won't get to write tomorrow morning, so I'll write you all again from the sunny and wet city of Venice! :) Take care, and keep in touch!

Warmest Wishes,

Becky