Benvenuti a Italia

I have Internet access now for the first time and I am going to post a couple entries that I wrote offline over the past couple days:

Thursday from Newark, NJ

I am now sitting at the airport in Newark, NJ and I am attempting to type on this Asus netbook computer. it’s a little more difficult than on a normal keyboard but it is definitely doable. I am leaving the States later than I originally planned because my first flight was delayed but the rest of my flights should not be affected by this.  

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Paestum, Italy

 After an initial hiccup in my flight plans, I made it to Naples in time to meet Oreste, my guide and host for the weekend and the excitement hasn’t let up any from there. The International DX Convention is being held at a five star hotel near the beach in Paestum but myself and the other guests of the event are staying at Oreste’s beautiful three-story summer home. In total, there were about 19 of us eating pizza and buffalo mozzarella together last night but I believe only about 8 stayed here at his home. I was the first to disappear off to bed since I had been up for at least 35 of the previous 40 hours. And boy did I sleep well! Airplanes and I just don’t get along well enough to sleep.
 To this point the group I have met is broad and far reaching around the world but I know once the actual convention gets underway today that I will be even more amazed at how far hams will come to get together. There were folks from Italy, Poland, Venezuela, and the US here last night alone. Even though I came for the fun and the adventure of other cultures it was definitely nice this time having other Americans around to communicate with get to know.