6 in 50 9-2-10

The marathon began on Tuesday. I woke up at 6am and went to work as usual. My last day working for Mn/DOT was good and not too eventful. We had time sheet Tuesday treats in the morning and for lunch we had a salad swap. I think that those that tried my cucumber salad really liked it. There were lots of good and interesting salads to try, including a snickers and apple salad. Anyways, after work I went home to finish getting things in order for my year away and to pack! At about 9pm I went out to dinner with my family at Applebees and it was wonderful. I continued to pack throughout the night. I have no idea how all of that stuff fit in my large suitcase, backpack, and laptop bag but it did. There were a few things that I just left out and figured that I would just have to buy them when I got to Italy. I didn’t pack big bottles of shampoo, condition, soap, etc. I knew I would just have to buy them later anyways and they are really heavy. I did weigh my big suitcase and it was exactly 50 pounds! I’m glad I will only have to lug it around a couple of times. We departed for the airport around 4:30am and I got a quick nap on the way (maybe an hour). On my first flight to New York I got about 2 hours of sleep but it was sort of interrupted when they came around with beverages, etc. As described in the post below about my adventures in NYC, I didn’t get any sleep there.

On my flight over the pond I didn’t want to miss out on getting to watch movie for free so I watched two movies. I watched “Date Night” and “The Backup Plan”. I had to stay awake to get the evening meal, which wasn’t until about an hour and a half into the flight, anyways. After the second movie I did get about 3 hours of sleep. I woke up when they were coming around with the breakfast sandwiches. After we arrived in VCE, Venice, Italy, I headed through customs, got my luggage (yay it came through!), found the place to buy a ticket for the bus to Padova, and waited for the bus. The bus comes every half hour to hour depending on the time. I got the 11:35 bus and it arrived about 12:45 at the bus station in Padova. I think I did manage a few winks on the bus ride but not much. At the bus station in Padova I grabbed a taxi to the SASSA accommodation office, which is right next to my dorm building. I got checked in just in time at the accommodation office before they closed for lunch (they were supposed to close at 1pm). I went right next door to the dorm with my paper work where they gave me the key to my room. After filling out the form for room condition in the room and unpacking minimally I finally got to sleep around 3pm. Thus, 6 hours of sleep in about 50 hours.