Pre- Departure

Hello everybody.  My name is Jake Barnes, and the purpose of this blog is to show you what I have been doing in Italy.  I am in Italy with a program called AFS (or in Italy Interultura).  AFS is a company that sends students abroad to study.  There are many options to choose from.  You can go to 55 countries, and you have the choice to go for the summer, 5 months, or a whole year.  When you sign up for AFS, you choose 3 countries that you would like to go to.  My top 3 were (in order):
1) Italy
2) Spain
3) Costa Rica

I got accepted to Italy only a little while later, and thats when the real adventure began.  I had to fill out about 100 sheets of paper, but of course my mom being the amazing mom she is, I only ended up filling out about 10 of them.  Then, I had to get my visa.  The visa required about another 100 pieces of paper, and once again, my mom was my hero!  I got the visa about 2 weeks before I left, even though I knew where I was going about 4 months before.  At this point (after I got my visa) I was pretty much ready to leave... Physically. 

I tried not to think that I was going to be gone for the whole year, but when school started and I was only there for 4 days, it was kind of the first thing in my mind.  I cant remember much about those days though, because for me, they were not the most important.  I remember packing everything that I needed (weighing my suitcase 10 times).  And then going to sleep and getting up the next morning.  I said goodbye to my sister and then drove with my dad and mom to Milwaukee Airport.  Then, I got checked in, passed security, said goodbye, and got on the plane to NYC.  The adventure begins...