day 1 - august 5th

i'm going to put up a day-by-day with pictures here. day 1 right now. i left on a crazy day: got back from sociology conference in boston sunday night, got up monday and packed, finished grading (barely!), ran to a meeting and then to class where i on-the-spot graded some presentations and assigned final grades, and handed off my 2nd class to a sub. missed seeing nichole off, but she kindly procured a plug adaptor for me. helen drove me to the airport with all my belongings:
i weighed the bag when leaving italy at 5.8 kg (12.8 lbs)! go me! in retrospect i did an awesome job packing - i used everything, only wanted 1 or 2 things, which i bought as souvenirs.

the alitalia flight was ... fine. my seat had lost its cushioning, so i filled the hole with my pillow. all the italians got up and stood around chatting the whole flight (!); all the americans slept. i had an amazing vegetarian meal that was 2 or 3 kinds of indian curries. did you know the alitalia flight attendants are all men, and they all wear these kelly green jackets, and they mostly have very 70s retro sideburns? i was exhausted & slept most of the flight, which is just as well because the plane was so old it didn't have tvs so no inflight entertainment at all.

i didn't get my passport stamped in rome, but did get to board the next flight through the rear which was cool. short hop to cagliari, a small little airport where barbie & vince picked me up.

we went to the square for lunch, and then they dropped me off at the boat for a nap while they went to the store. here's the boat:
and restocking the necessary supplies:

we stayed in port that night; here's my first day on the boat: