Goodbye Florence!

Last night was a bit of a disappointment because, despite leaving at 2 in the morning, the promised secret bakeries near our apartment were not open. Some of the roommates had been there before, so they supposedly do exist, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I woke up at 6 this morning, got dressed, did the remaining packing, and then got stressed out when the roommates sharing the taxi with me (there are four of us all together) weren't ready when the taxi arrived.

After about fifteen minutes, all the suitcases were downstairs and the roommates all went around the corner to throw out the remaining trash. The taxi driver pulled a face and said all the luggage wouldn't fit in his taxi, but thankfully he called another one for us.  That's when I did something stupid (as I am wont to do) and I accidentally stepped too far forward, letting the front door to the apartment close behind me, and locking everyone's luggage inside.

This led to a mad scramble to figure out how to get back into the apartment. Some of the roommates had their phones on the other side of the door, so one tried calling a friend in other apartment room and I tried calling the SACI emergency number, listed on a key chain the school gave us at the beginning of the year. Upon calling the number and explaining my problem to the woman on the other end, she informed me that she was in fact a private number in New York. Well then. A couple things about that: one, the emergency number the school gives you should probably connect you to someone who can help you in an emergency. Two, I wonder what sorts of bizarre phone calls this woman has gotten in the middle of the night, and I feel a little bad for her.

Anyway, someone eventually had the bright idea of hitting all the apartment doorbells. After a minute, some magical, blessed person decided to open the door for us, and the crisis was resolved. We will never know who our savior was.

I took the taxi with USC Carina, and we got to the airport alright. Upon checking in our luggage, the check in woman took one look at my carry on bag, went all wide-eyed, and proclaimed that I would have to pay for the bag because it was much too heavy. Saying that it worked coming one way didn't get me anywhere, so I went and paid for it... I hope the pocket coffee will be OK.

We had an hour and a half after that until our flight, so we went to the cafe and I got a last cappuccino and chocolate pastry and then set up shop at the charging station.

At 9:15 or so, we went to the gate, took the bus to the plane, and boarded. The flight was fairly uneventful, and we got a drink, a chocolate Swiss bun, and a square of chocolate. After landing, we got out into the cold Zurich air. I still had 12 euros left, so I got a bar of chocolate at duty-free, and now I'm at the gate waiting for the plane home. I'll see all you there!