Italia: Day 1 (and 2)

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."
~Jawaharial Nehru

In-flight map; arriving in Rome.

Well, we have arrived in beautiful Cagliari on the island of Sardinia, which is southwest of mainland Italy in Mediterranean Sea. Wow, that just sounded exotic. Interestingly, I believe Cagliari is closer to Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, and even Libya) than it is to mainland Italy. That's what someone told me today (or was it yesterday... yeah, my time is all messed up.)

Good morning, Italy!

It really is amazing that I'm here. Leading up to my arrival at the Salt Lake airport, the idea that I was flying to Italy felt completely surreal. Now I'm here, and to be truthful, it still feels a bit surreal, probably because we haven't seen very much except the airport in Rome, the airport in Cagliari, a few uninhabited islands in the Mediterranean, and the inside of the hotel. However, it's nice to be here after 25 hours of travelling door to door.

Ashley and Emery on layover at the Rome airport. Not too bad after about 20 hours of airport-ness.

For those who may not know, I'm on tour with The Salt Lake Vocal Artists for a choral festival in Cagliari and a choral competition in Arezzo next week. We were invited to participate, as the only choir from the United States, so it's a real honor. We'll be able to hear and sing with several other choirs from around the world. I'm looking forward to that.

Cagliari Airport

 Right now, I'm just trying to fight my jet lag, which has been creeping up on my steadily but slowly all day. Day one melted into day two and I'm feeling it, though it's not nearly the worst "to-Europe jet lag" I've ever had. Not by a long shot. I think I did it well this time. I got about three hours of sleep on Tuesday night, then stayed awake on the SLC to Atlanta leg, allowing myself to fall asleep only on the Atlanta to Rome leg. With the help of a little Tylenol PM, I did pretty darn well in the sleeping department on that flight. It's helped me feel pretty good today on Italy time, though I can hardly wait for our 8pm dinner to be over so I can come back to my room and crash.

Swimming in the pool simultaneously helped to wake me up and make me feel more nauseated. I guess the far too many attempts at synchronized swimming tricks may have made me a bit dizzy. Since Marina wasn't here to do them with me, I enlisted Joseph. He was a wonderful willing participant. I'll have to pull a picture from Lisa's camera to put up here.

Um, hello luxurious pool. :)

Okay, that's it for now because we're about to meet for dinner. And the view out my window is better than staring at the computer screen...

Buona sera!
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