June 13

After classes Abby, Ashton, Gaelyn and Kathy went to the Bila to get food for our trip to Venice.l WE decided we wanted to eat out at the Chinese restaurant I had gone to before. We went up the stairs and were seated at a round table. The food wasn’t as good as it had been before; but it had also been sitting out longer this time. We return to the school and get tready for our trip to Venice. The girls played Uno while I packed. I joined them when I had finished. I checked my email after a few rounds, and glanced at the clock afterward. It was 11pm, and our bus left a 11:10 for the train station. The other girls frantically ran around trying to pack. By the time they were finished we had missed the bus. We called a taxi, but failed to remember there were five of us, and taxi drivers will only take four in a car. Leah and I hopped in the taxi and took off. While we waited for the girls, they were walking down the street. Finally they called a taxi, and arrived at the train station about an hour later. Luckily, our train did not leave until 1:20. It was so cold outside, and I only had a light sweatshirt on. I was miserable. There was a salsa club inside the station so I stood in the foyer with Abby and Leah for a while. The train came while we were in there, and we came out to board. Ashton and Gaelyn were already out there. They said it wasn’t our train. I didn’t think to ask how they knew, and went back to the foyer. I looked up at the clock and saw it was 1:15. This had to be our train, Gaelyn went to ask the dude that had been standing outside the train the entire time. It turned out to be our train and we boarded not a moment too late. We were barely on the train and getting to our seats before it started to pull out of the station. We had a little cabin-like seating area to ourselves. 3 seats on each wall facing each other, a large viewing window between. We tried to sleep, but it was crowded with five girls and only two couches. I slept on the floor, and the girls doubled up on the couches. The floor was tile, no carpet. The air kept blowing in my face. After a while we discovered the seats pulled all the way out to create a large bed taking up the entire cabin area. It was still tight sleeping, but it was much better.