First night: I'm in Queens.

Buona sera from the Hilton of Queens, just in spitting distance of JFK International Airport. As I sit here typing this, I am watching airplanes come and go, just waiting until tomorrow evening when I will be on one. It still hasn't sank in that this is actually happening, and it's happening tomorrow.

Today, I woke up at 5:30 and drove up to JFK, which took an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to, due to stupid miniature accidents before we had even got to Philadelphia. We only stopped once for a bathroom stop, and got to the NYC area around 11:30. Just for kicks, we stopped at Coney Island to get lunch. I've never been to Coney Island, and I was way too nervous to eat anything fried, greasy, or fatty without chancing vomit. So we stopped at the oh-so famous Nathan's Hot Dog Stand, and got a little lunch before going to the hotel.

The hotel is really difficult to find, take it that it's right out of a lower suburb of Queens and the roads are ridiculously confusing to maneuver and it took us 45 minutes to get through it. Long story short, we said our goodbyes, I loaded up and pack-muled it to the dining room, where there were a maximum of 20 kids sitting and talking. Being a socially awkward butterfly, I sat my butt down and just kinda listened while other people talked, who weren't going to Italy (most were going to France). As I sat, kids going to Italy kept funneling in and it got more and more exciting. One thing I learned today is that no one even comes close to looking like what their facebook profile picture portrays. Anyways, our table became filled with so many kids going to Italy it became more of a small party of hyped-on-only-adrenaline (and obnoxious if you're me) kids talking about where they're from and finally uniting. It was amazing to look around at my table at all of the kids going to Italy, where we didn't have enough seats, let alone room, to fit even a quarter of them; but to look at where they all have come from. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Colorado, Washington, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Alaska..... and we were all joined for our passion to learn and achieve; to get out! It's like a big family already. I honestly can't wait for the rest of the adventures to come over the next 4 days with these kids, let alone all of the international kids I get to meet in the near future. Ciao!