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Taking a break from studying to be stupid and make things completely up:
(Some adapted from hilarious comments on the Seattle Times article about a WA outbreak)
1. You become OCD: must wash hands, must wash hands, must wash hands
2. You have an unspeakable urge to roll around in the mud to "cool down"
3. A little sneeze or a polite cough causes a minor evacuation around your perimeter
4. Suddenly, you have no desire for bacon, pork, ham ... even bacon salt. I mean, that's carnivorous right?
5. If you have symptoms and board an airplane, does that mean swine can fly?
6. Pink is now your favorite color
7. You decide to change your name to Wilbur or Piglet.
8. AND your bff's are a spider named Charlotte/a bear who has a dangerous attachment to honey.
I'm trying to make light of the situation. Pandemics and wild global panic are not my cuppa tea. =(
Attention! The tone of this blog is about to have a "face"lift (har dee har har). Since I'm back in the good old rainy dreary city of endless coffee, it's not much of a travel blog anymore. Albeit my life in Seattle isn't as action-packed or stimulating as Europa, this will be a place to broadcast my thoughts on pretty much anything and everything. So one day, I might be ranting about a ridiculous new fashion trend (a MC Hammerpants revival people? Really?) or a restaurant that have tantalized my tastebuds recently or simple blurbs about the current going-ons about my hectic life. Take Exhibit A in the upper right-hand corner - it was inspired by horoscope pages in a womans magazine a few years back. Sketching, drawing and really amateur fashion design has been my passion since I began filling up school notebooks with more doodles than actual notes. When I see the current sad state of my sketchbook, I'm disappointed in myself for abandoning it. To be honest, I can sew a small tear in a shirt and that's about it. Maybe after graduation (with all the spare time I'll have from being jobless I'm sure), I'll take sewing classes and get right back into the groove. And be a walking brand of my own mad designs. Who knows eh? I'll try to be more update-savvy with blogging, it's one of more enjoyable outlets of writing
nowadays.
And I'm determined to make sure 99.9% of the photos on this blog will have been taken by me. Because I'm egotistical? Nay. Since I'm really delving into bonding with my camera and want to share the results with you.
It's going to be a weird transition to go from strolling past the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain while stumbling on cobblestones and fighting hoards of tourists to walking back along the Ave at U.W. in less than 2 weeks. My apartment is all cleaned out (only damage: a broken lamp, not our fault!) and its time to say ciao to our quaint stone floors/hanging laundry outside to dry/eating gelato twice in one day right back into the stream of Seattle life. Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm hopping on a train through Pompeii and a ferry to Corfu, a day on the Amalfi Coast, Athens and Santorini, back to Rome and then homeward bound I go! I've lost track of time, learned embarassing little Italian (I try, I try but I'm much better at remembering food names, very essential that). Maybe I'll even miss the ridiculously pushy peddlers who hawk everything from roses to bubble guns ... or maybe not. My camera is exhausted from photo overload but Europe, its not a one time thing, I'm leaving with the mindset that this is just a taste of the multitude of return trips that lie ahead. No "this is the last time" thoughts here, no negative Faithy! On another random tangent: I realized the extent of technology when I could participate in a conference call with 3 people in Seattle via Skype while I sat in my school building in Rome. Times, they are a'changin'!
No, I didn't get to try Absolut Vodka although Stockholm is its birthplace! That and H & M, the gigantic clothing empire. The plane ride was straight out of a movie complete with rocket ship take-offs that about rearranged my inner organs and a landing that made my life flash before my eyes. Ryanair ... the things I put up with to fly for cheap. The best food I've had during this trip tend to be outside of Rome (sorry kids for bursting that bubble of amazing Italian food being in Rome - maybe I just can't afford the good stuff). And oh yessss, I had thai and sushi, in Sweden to boot! Typical me. I was going through withdrawals. The Swedish meatballs pictured above were pretty decent with lindonberries and pickled things. And an epic vegetarian buffet spread at a restaurant by the water - almost made me want to convert from my carnivorous ways ... almost. Weather? Snow, snow, ice and more snow but not too bad - mostly light & pretty flakes drifting down. There was even a make-shift ice rink where my friends and I slipped/slid like we were 6. These Russian looking children (I swear they weren't Swedish) were dancing around a Maypole with colorful costumes on (it's not May or spring!) and selling little hotcakes and doughnuts that they fried right before your eyes. Do you see a pattern here? Apparently, I remember all my travels by the food I eat there. haha. The Swedes speak perfect English putting my bilingualness to shame and it's a really modern city complete with, get this, 7-11's, McDonalds and the fanciest Pizza Hut I've ever seen. (I peered through the window like a creeper). Kroners though, can't handle that type of currency, I was madly dividing every price by 10 to try to figure it out. I'd love to go back for more than a day and visit the rest of Scandanavia!
Venezia blew away my (semi-low) expectations like the confetti that clogged the pavements. I have no idea what I was thinking but for some reason, I thought the canals would be flooded and everything would be falling down and still over-priced. I was right about the latter but the buildings were in a beautiful state of decay. The city really is trying to renovate and keep things the way they are, this is the place that explodes in color and costumes during Carnevale and is mentioned in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice." I rode a water bus for the first time (twice for free, shhh) - took over 300 photos like the one to the left making me feel quite artsy, at least for the weekend. The costumes were magnificent and insanely creative from ones that you might see on Halloween to towering courtesans with feathers, sparkles and more. I swear every costumed person was 7 feet tall or maybe I just felt like an ant in comparison to their bright, shiny greatness. haha. Murano glass is everywhere but the prices vary widly from place to place, artisans can shape a perfect fiery red glass horse in five minutes flat. As for the night life? It was basically a gigantic street party with people stuffed on the Rialto Bridge, streaming out of piazzas and identities masked and hidden everywhere. A sampling of what I saw: a crowd of crayons, Groucho Marx, vampires, pirates, stormtroopers, cross-dressers and cupids. I never wanted to leave, I was part of the congestion making it difficult to maneuver around but I didn't get to see half the things I wanted to see! In the end, the glittery black and gold mask I purchased will hang on the wall along with all my memories ~
Gah, I told you I was horrible at blog writing! Once a week is unacceptable but you should see my journal (on second thought ... don't) - there are entries weeks apart. *shamed face*
I went on a volunteer program called the "Weed & Read," yesterday at the Protestant Cemetery. And yes, there's only one of those, basically where most non-Catholics who die in Rome are buried. Don't think they're banished or anything though, the grounds are lush with trees and flowers and very well kept. Some of us students just came armed with brooms, rakes and gloves to put some sweat back into the Earth and help maintain graves where family members may no longer be around to upkeep them. Photo on the right are wilting pink flowers at the foot of the famous author, Percy Shelley's grave but the title of this blog is from a poem by John Keats, also buried in this cemetery.
Plus, just came back from Tivoli, this sprawling landscape of a town that would be any gardener's dream. A cardinal built his summer house there but "house" doesn't cut it - there are over 200 fountains in the backyard alone! And one even has an organ installed, it's beautiful and serene enough to want to throw an extravagant wedding in the height of springtime. Fountains gushing, birds chirping and the rustling of wind, pretty romantic I must say. But now it is time for a nap and then on to making some sort of dessert for my program's Valentine's Day "Festa d'Amore."I'll probably be in a chocolate coma soon.
A quartet of us girls decided to take it upon ourselves to troop to these hot springs we've heard of. 2 hours on the train, trudging in the downpour and a bus later ... we saw the vapors rising from lonely green pastures. Viterbo delivered.4 tranquil blue pools lie in the middle of nowhere in the Italian countryside with fragments of ancient ruins nearby. A muddy area functions as a makeshift parking lot for the locals who drive by and languidly spend their entire days here. I decided to forgo the Terme de Papi nearby (Terme = "thermal baths" in Italian) since it cost 18 euros to get in but they do have a 2,000 square meter pool - so epic! And I'm too lazy to convert those meters to feet. The outdoor pools we found were free, free, free and being fed by a natural source trickling right into the shallows of water.Most of the bathers were older folk and yes, speedos are apparently still in fashion, not that I wanted to know. The sky was gray and stormy with a few streams of sunlight, the water sulphorous but deliciously soothing and the girls and I practically had an entire pool to ourselves. The day ended once our fingers resembled raisins and we shot out of the pools rounding the corner of a limestone wall to change back into civilian clothing. I don't think I've had a photo of me only in a bathing suit since I was 15 (for good reason). But what the hey! We even had to bust out umbrellas at one point as the skies opened up and let loose a smattering of droplets, it was simply glorious.
Taking a break from studying to be stupid and make things completely up:
