Saturday May 15 - Bus Ride to Arezzo...

I just got on a bus by myself to Arrezo. What was I thinking? Not going to lie, I have never been so intimidated in my life. I basically have my North Face backpack, Kavu slingback, my Columbia rain jacket layered over my black Patagonia and my chacos on…if I wanted to blend, I failed miserably. Plus I have my hair in a messy ponytail. Being a convinving Italian was a huge fail. I basically packed my backpack with my computer and a quick change of clothes and a Coke zero and cliff bar, and hopped on a blue bus that said Arezzo. Thank God for Caroline who waited with me at the bus stop. I might have died. I literally loaded the bus with like 25 Italian kids. They’re all sitting in a group behind me laughing. Kinda oonvinced I must be a part of their conversation. Probably thinking who actually wears that stuff…but right back at you girl with white skinny jeans and a baby pink hello kitty packpack and bright purple cropped jacket….

Our bus just stopped at this small loop through and luckily most of them got off. Now I say luckily because I was feeling really intimidated, but I sure hope that wasn’t where I was supposed to get off or switch buses. For the mean time, I’m thinking not.

It’s been such a damper that it has rained every day since we arrived in Cortona. And there really is not such thing as a rain jacket to these people, so they walk through their small alleys with these big umbrellas, and I feel like I have to dodge a poke to my eye every time I walk by someone.

But the ride to Arezzo has been doable. I saw what looked to be a water park down the hill. We’d seen lights of a Ferris Wheel at night when Caroline and I are sitting outside of Tonino’s (the restaurant that cooks dinner for UGA at night) drinking a bottle of wine and reliving our favorite memories of the day or questioning people with “have you ever been in love…?” to get in deep with some of the others on the trip with us (it’s such a great conversation starter….you’d be surprised where the conversation ends). But I would have to pass on the fair after my bad experience on the fast spinning, center gravity force thing that nearly destroyed my stomach last year at camp. The sight of a Ferris wheel might make me lose it.

But I’m starting to pick up on the people on the bus. I really think they’re like normal high schoolers who took the day to spend in Cortona. They must have not had school and they travel in little groups on a day trip. It’s actually really fun sounding. It would be like asking someone if they wanted to go to Lenox for the day….only you’re in Italy, and it’s much cooler. And we’ve maybe stopped like 5 times on the way, and all but one of the kids got off. She’s sitting at the front of the bus occasionally glancing back at me. And now there’s two older people on the front of the bus too….and that’s it. But the lady at the tourist office told me it would take about an hour to get to Arezzo, so I’m just chilling until I get there. The last girl just got off. They all kinda live within one or two bus stops from each other and must meet up and take the bus to wherever they want to go.

I had to buy a bus ticket for 3 euros. But I still don’t exactly know how the bus system works, and I didn’t show it to anyone. I think that you’re supposed to “validate’ the ticket when you get on, and from what I heard, you can get fined 50 euros for traveling without a validated ticket. So let’s hope that doesn’t happen…but I’m totally going to play dumb American if it does. I think I could be pretty successful at that.

I’m pretty excited about finally meeting my parents’ friend Joyce. She’s the reason I’m making this solo journey to Arezzo on a rainy Saturday, when in any other circumstance, I would have stayed in bed all day. My parents met her years ago when they rented her house to stay in when they were visiting Italy. She and I have emailed since I arrived in Cortona, and we made a game plan for the day. She was going to pick me up from the train station, but because she was at her coastal home finishing up some renovations, she said she wouldn’t be back til maybe around 5. This was the last bus out of Cortona, so I’m flying solo in Arezzo when I get there. She recommended some rain shelter locations for me, and then I’ve got to meet her at a café at the Piazza san Francesco. I’ve really only been on one blind date, and this feels so much more intimidating.

I got 8 miles to Arezzo…definitely about to do a major Italian cram sessh....

Wish me luck and let’s hope my Italian doesn’t make me an even more dead give away.