Friday, June 15, 2007

My Arrival

I left Thursday evening from Washington DC to fly to Milan. It was a 7 hour flight which arrived in London. Then 4 hours later, I took another 2 hour flight to Milan. When I arrived at the airport, my older sister told me she couldn't pick me up so to take the train into the city. I took the train. Then she said that she couldn't pick me up at the train station, that I needed to take the Metro into her neighborhood. Ok. I found the Metro and I walked in.

And talk about lost and confused! I looked at the machines and I had no clue how to make them work. I looked at the maps and I had no clue where I was. I looked at all the signs around me and I didn't even know what the basic little stick figures were doing!

At last, I decide to ask for help. Now, I don't speak Italian except for the basic Ciao and Prego (Hi/Bye and OK). Oh, and of course, Mange! (Eat!). But at that time even those words were completely forgotten (I blame exhaustion). I tried using my Spanish because so many people told me it would help. Well, the funny looks people were giving me said that wasn't working. I tried English, body language (aka: waving my arms), even FRENCH, a dead language for me since high school (and I think the French would probably agree it should remain dead- it was horrible). No good. Nada.

At last, after 1/2 hour of trying, with only 2 hours of sleep in 48 hours, carrying heavy luggage, lost, dazed and confused, I couldn't take it. I called my sister and said, "PICK ME UP RIGHT NOW!" She said, "Take the Metro!" and I said "I CAN'T! I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET A TICKET!" She said "Oh, brother."

She picked me up. Home. Relief.

I slept great that night.

Later, my sister's boyfriend said, "All tourist have the exact same problem when they first try to use this Metro. Welcome to Milan."

...

@#$%@ Metro.

.....
........

YEY! I'm in Milan! :-D



(Ps. This is Il Duomo found in Milan)

2 comments:

Sean said...

I sort of guessed that was going to happen, because when we went together you had no clue what stop to get off at.

Capp_Gal said...

:-P~~~~~~