John Mayer Said it better...

I'm writing you to
catch you up on places I've been
And you have this letter
you probably got excited,
but there's nothing else inside it
didn't have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm]
in the mood to lose my way with words
TODAY skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliche'
And its strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
are next to mountains anyway
Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
Today I finally overcame
tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame

This song was a good description of my weekend :)...
Spring Break update and [hypocritical] pictures to follow

Hypothetically...

Hell is supposed to be a place that is worse to experience than anything imaginable on earth for eternity. I may have experienced the closest thing to Hell on Earth this morning.

I got the first migraine I have had in about six months. Pretty good considering I used to get them all the time before working for the chiropractor. However, anyone that has ever experienced a migraine knows that you just want to throw up or crawl into a dark quiet hole all day... Here's the problem, I live next to an Italian freeway. A wall of my room literally overlooks the largest freeway in Florence. I can hear traffic (mopeds, motorcycles, honking, ambulances ever 10 minutes or so) at all hours of the day and night, so when I woke up with a migraine I felt like someone was taking all of that noise and channeling it through a drill bit that was pushing its way through my skull in between my eyes. I immediately ate some crackers and took some pain killers (which barely ever helps that much) and tried to stay in the quieter living room for awhile. Again, anyone that has experienced a migraine knows that light is not your friend in this situation... Nowhere in our house are there shutters or dark curtains besides the loud bedrooms. So I am sitting on the couch with a washcloth behind my neck and a blanket over my head. A much longer story short, I had a really sucky morning and finally just gave up and took some of my roommate allergy medicine to knock myself out. Six hours later, it's just a headache :) Thank Jesus!!

Brussels

Brussels and me are fighting right now... It made me gain probably around 10lbs in a weekend. Hey, when in Rome right?! Can I just say, the food there is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Belgian Waffles, Belgian potato wedges (they invented the "French" Fry), Kebab places open 24 hours a day, Belgian Beer, Belgian Chocolate, Belgian Mussels... Oh yes, I tried ALL of these wonderful things in the span of 2 1/2 days. All of them wonderful.

I think my new traveling habit is to do all the major touristy thing the first day as soon as possible. I went to see the peeing boy, which I still don't know what he is actually called, St Michel's Cathedral, this comic book museum (don't laugh I found it on a "10best" website and it was kind of cool), then Grand Place and the historical museum there, and a historical instruments museum (random I know). I did ALL of this at a leisurely pace by 4pm on the first day. The second day we did a walking tour of the city, Belgium has some amazing tag art by the way, totally fun. Later at a more appropriate time we did another beer factory tour. (Someone take me running when I get home!!) After the girls did some shopping we were wiped so we made our way back to the hotel (by the way, NEVER stay in the Hotel De France in Brussels) and then headed back at 7am the next morning. Another wonderful weekend.

Prague

For those of you who know how much I LOVE Russia... Prague had a ton of similarities; very Soviet Union drabby buildings, stern but really nice people, really amazing (and heavy) food. I had a BLAST. The first day (immediately following a 12 hour bus ride) I did all the touristy stuff. Went to Old Town Square, walked the Charles bridge, did a walking tour of the city, saw Prague Castle, and took a tour of the oldest Jewish synagogue in Europe. The girls went out that night but I opted out because I hadn't had much "real" sleep since Wednesday night.

The second day they had this adorable fair going on in Old Town Square that was the Czech's early Easter celebration. I had some AMAZING apple cider and a sweet Czech sausage/hot dog. YUUUMMY!! Then we did a little shopping and a boat tour. After that we went out to this beer factory. It was fun, they had taps on the table and there was an electronic scoreboard on the wall that tallied up how much each table had drank in liters. We didn't really get into it, but I had to try what the Czech's call the "god of beers," but one was plenty. Very fun experience, I highly recommend it to anyone in the Czech Republic.

The next morning I took a nice long sit in the hostel sauna then we headed back around noon. Absolutely amazing weekend!!

Wow...

Doubting Thomas - Nickel Creek

What will be left when I've drawn my last breath,
Besides the folks I've met and the folks who know me,
Will I discover a soul saving love,
Or just the dirt above and below me,

I'm a doubting thomas,
I took a promise,
But I do not feel safe,
Oh me of little faith,

Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face,
Then I beg to be spared 'cause I'm a coward,
If there's a master of death I'll bet he's holding his breath,
As I show the blind and tell the deaf about his power,

I'm a doubting thomas,
I can't keep my promises,
'Cause i don't know what's safe,
Oh me of little faith

Can I be used to help others find truth,
When I'm scared I'll find proof that its a lie,
Can I be lead down a trail dropping bread crumbs,
That prove I'm not ready to die,

Please give me time to decipher the signs,
Please forgive me for time that I've wasted,
I'm a doubting thomas,
I'll take your promise,
Though I know nothin's safe,
Oh me of little faith


I currently am going through the Apocryphal and Gnostic Gospels in my world religions course, and it shook me up a bit. I have been doing background research since my teacher is rather bias in her practice of Gnosticism and have found plenty of the proof I need to knock sense into me. This strikes me as a bit pathetic though that one hour and a half discussion would have me looking elsewhere for answers. Been a Christian since I was 5, been pursuing it myself since I was 19. I guess that just goes to show I still have TONS more growing to do. Humbling past 2 days...

Pisa and Lucca

This is the bapistry in Pisa... gorgeous!! Best acoustics of any building in Italy (that I've been in so far) and the art work on the outside was some of the most impressive in my opinion.
This is the rest of "Miracle Square" which is basically the only thing worth while to see if you are a tourist in Pisa as most of the city was destroyed by bombings with the one exception.
The leaning tower was absolutely as impressive as I expected it to be. Huge, stable and moves 2mm every year. Breathtaking!!
The last thing we saw in Pisa was the cemetery. This was awesome. Decorated sarcophagi, fresco-ed walls and this beautiful garden in the center where you can see the top of the Jewish Synagogue in the background.
After a WHOLE LOT of stairs I got to the top of this tower that overlooked the city. Wow! There are no words. This tower had 2 trees growing on top of it and was tiny, but the view was great and the weather was perfect.


What you don't see from these pictures is the sweet, ginormous wall that surrounds the city on which I took an amazing walk. Lucca so far was the prettiest place I have been in Italy. Absolutely loved this day!

Kevin & Bean from KROQ

"They really love the game. That's one thing about hockey players, nobody gets into it for any other reason than they really love the game. You have to to put yourself through that. That really comes across when we speak with them." - Bean at the St Louis Game

This made me so happy. And it is the #1 reason I love this sport more than any other. Real men playing for their passion.

Siena & San Gimignano

I have been sick and swamped. But the good news is... I didn't do anything fun this weekend? I have had a really bad cold which has sucked the energy out of me and I had been working on a 10 speech for art history that I gave on Thursday. This week I will catch up with my happenings in the last week and a half.

Last Saturday I went to Sienna and San Gimignano. Super small, super medieval, super cold and windy towns. Loved it. Rome and Florence are totally great but the small hilltop towns are my new favorite. Here's the comparison, Rome has 4 million people, Florence has 300,000, Sienna has 60,000 and San Gimignano has 13,000. So WAY smaller than any place here I had seen before. Sienna was probably the coldest place I have ever experienced without a ski jacket on. That was actually the culprit of me getting sick. While travelling, I am not the biggest complainer because my mind set is completely different and I am trying to take it all in. As a result, my hands and feet were numb all day and I was constantly trying to fit my head in my jacket with a smile on my face. Glad I did it though because it was gorgeous. Sara and I want to come back some day and see the Palio together (huge, famous horse race). Here we saw the Duomo, walked to the top and saw the whole city, took a tour of the town hall and saw where the Palio took place every year.

I think I would love to retire in San Gimignano if I have the money at that stage of my life. I liesurely walked from the beginning to the end of San Gimignano in about 15 minutes, which tells you how small it actually is. This town was so quiet and so unbelievably 13th century I totally fell in love. There is a marble well in the heart of the city, which is no longer used, that still has grooves around it from ropes pulling up the buckets before the plague hit this town. That was amazing to me. Here we walked the entire city, visit the main cathedral with AMAZING frescoed walls, and sample some of the local Vernaccia wine (best white wine I've EVER had).

First Load of Laundry

First of all... This is long overdo. I left California on January the 27th and I have just now been able to do laundry. This partially has to do with the fact that my landlord is a really attractive FLAKE, which apparently is a common thing over here, and he only just got around to fixing our washing machine this morning.... Which is February 13th. UGH!

Anywho, there are no dryers here, the washing machines can only take up to 4kilos, and the water temperature is in Celsius. I have been doing laundry since about 10 years old and I felt like that was my first time. When I got home from class and my clothes looked relatively clean, I was ecstatic!! I hung my entire dark load up on the clothes line and felt totally accmplished. I'll post pictures tomorrow when there is day light and I get my white on there too :) Go me

So... ROME!!

Rome was soo fun, but it kinda went like a blur. We were there for 2 and 1/2 days and most of it was scheduled for us. We literally dropped our stuff and went for a walking tour (this is after a 4 hour bus ride) which was really cool but extremely cold and windy. The next day was the Vatican which was amazing, but we literally RAN through the entire thing and our group got separated so I was in with the people that didn't make it into St. Peter's (good thing I've already been there). After that was the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and shopping. The next day was another walking tour mostly of the old ghettos, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and the Palentine Hill. All amazing.

At the end of it I was exhausted! It was amazing... This coming Saturday I think will be more of the same in Sienna.

In all of these pictures are the roomies by the way (minus one)