Expectations-Leaving for Europe

Ok, so it has officially begun, four months of studying in Rome! I have waited for this for quite some time and now that it is here I don't know what to do? Too many questions have run through my head: What will it be like? What will I see? Where will I go? Who will I meet? What clothes should I bring? Did I pack enough? Did I pack too much? And of course the question every girl has in the back of her mind when she leaves for another country, Will I meet him? Though when it came to the actual moment of me leaving the house all those questions were pushed aside for goodbyes that took forever yet seemed too short.
I left for the airport right on top of Magnuson schedule, about twenty minutes behind the planned time to leave; though we ended up having an hour to kill before I had to go through security. The ride to the airport with the rents was quiet and full of mixed emotions running through my head. I was thinking to myself that it is a little late to turn back now. I am leaving for a country that I have only been to twice, recall some of it's history from AP Euro and taken an elementary coarse in the Italian language and the only words in the Italian language that I could actually recall were names like Gucci, Prada, and Fendi....not good! Is this something that I really should be doing, four months in another country?
When I got to the airport and went to check in with Lufthansa, they were unable to find my reservation...not a good sign. They ended up finding me under one of their sister companies, but the shear fact that for about five minutes I had no flight to Europe was not something that made me comfortable about leaving. My parents of course where about to have a stroke but tried to turn their tension into excitement for me. My parents were great with me leaving. My mother was clearly excited for me but sad to see me go. She gave me the typical mother/parent lecture about not talking to strangers, wear your coat when its cold, etc. My father on the other hand only said a few words, he was constantly gazing off into space, like in a typical movie sequence where the father drifts off and visualizes how his little girls has become a young woman (You gotta love dads). We said our goodbyes and I replied, "See ya in Rome!"
The flight was very smooth except for this HUGE hick up which only added to my trepidation of the trip. One of the emergency alarms for the door went off and was going off for about 20 minutes! It scared the heck out of me! I landed in Copenhagen where I had a 7 hour layover-strongly recommend to NEVER have a layover that long, and then got my connection flight to Hamburg Germany where I was visiting my German friend Sarah for the New Year!
All that I can hope from this New Year and experience in Rome is how much I will have to look back on in my architectural career and see how far I can push myself in my major and how far I will go at the end of it!