I feel like this isn't really happening. I'm sitting in my hotel room just thinking about my life how it was and how it's now going to be. The nerves are setting in. My stomach is in knots, my hands are shaky, and I'm weak in the knees. The gateway orientation is really helping though.

The goodbyes today were hard. This is going to sound bad but I bawled my eyes out when I left my dog and only shed like two tears when I left my parents. I'm going to miss them too but my dog is like my best friend. My mom broke down as she was hugging me but my dad kept it together. Ill start to really miss them in a few weeks maybe even days. I feel like it will be easier if we don't talk but I feel like they'll want to.

I'm meeting a lot of people at the orientation who are really nice even though they're not going to be with me in Italy. I can't believe tomorrow I fly to Zurich and then Rome and my adventure begins. Hopefully then I won't be such a nervous wreck.