quick update

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

love,

sarah

p.s. i wanted to put up a pic of you and me when i was a baby but my access to pictures is limited with me traveling around europe and all.

Corfu

So, we are in Corfu and it is beautiful here. It kinda reminds me of a mix between Santa Barbara, Kuaii, and parts of Tuscany. Too bad we only have a couple of hours here. I've been thinking during my travels if I would want to come back and island hop around Greece again, and not getting to see this island sealed the deal. I have to come back. But when I'm 23, so I can rent a car. It's shitty getting around the islands in far too expensive taxis. And at least in Kefalonia they didn't have ATVs.

Okay, so last time I wrote we were in Paros. So the next day we left for Santorini, which was pretty but touristy. We did a "Santorini in one day" tour which kinda sucked. They took us too the lame caldera, up to the highest peak on the island, and a couple of other places. They did do good with two of the places though. We ended in Oia for the sunset which was pretty but would have been prettier if I had been able to get to the viewing spot I had wanted. And also after the volcano we went swimming in the "hot" springs which was fun. They were pretty patchy with their warmth, but it was fun. Except that I then smelled like sulfer for the next couple of days. In Oia we ran into some random kid who just started talking to us. We talked to him for like 3 minutes and didn't think anything of it. The next day on our 9 hour ferry ride back to Athens we saw him, and the 3 of us ended hanging out for the entire ride. He's from North Carolina with his school that has a 3 week class on greek mythology where they bring the kids around to a bunch of islands and all over the mainland. I am jealous.

After getting into Athens we had 4 hours of waiting around on the port until the metro opened, which we took to the trains station and after a bunch of confusion we finally made it to Petra just in time to catch a ferry out to Kefalonia. Kefalonia was pretty, but sadly we didn't get to see that much. Emily convinced me to go horse riding which was alright but I'm sure I'm probably covered ticks now, which makes me all nervous. We also saw two caves that were totally not worth how much they cost. And besides that we just wasted a bunch of money on taxis. It would have been nice to see the whole island and to go to the beaches but as it was we were being f---ed over with the taxis so we stayed put for the most part. I really wanted to go to Ithica too, but it didn't happen. Until next time I suppose.

Then last night we got on a ferry, which took us to the main land where we slept in the station and then took a 7:30 ferry here. Tomorrow we are waking up at some ungodly hour like 5 to catch our 7 o'clock ferry out of here to Venice. That will be a 25 hour ferry ride. I am not looking forward to it. Oh well. I'll try to write again in Barcelona in a couple of days.

PAROS

Hokay so, we are in Paros--an island in Greece in the Cyclides. Its our last night here and then we leave to Santorini. Our last day in Athens we went to the Acropolis, which was pretty cool. But I have really been spoiled with the great ruins in Rome and didn't find then as impressive as I probably would have had it not been for where I was living. I also wish I had known more about the ancient Greeks before seeing the Acropolis. I've read some myths and know some stuff just from studying the Romans, but I want to know more. These past two days in Paros have been SLOW. We are just so lazy. Sleep in to around 12ish, wake up, eat, go sun bathe, eat, walk around a bit, head back to the roome, watch some tv, eat, sleep. and repeat. It is real nice to just move slowly though. I felt that for the majority of the time I was in Rome I didn't get enough sleep. So, I feel like I'm making up for it now.

Internet here is expensive, so I'm gonna go, but I'll try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

S

Picture time!

We are now in Athens. It's HOT which is a nice and very dramatic change from Prague. We slept in the airport last night so I'm all foggy today. After we settled we headed over to the National Archaeological Museum. Very spiffy. A lot of Greek and Roman sculpture which is pretty much my favorite kind of art at the moment. So I was in heaven. And I had studied a number of the pieces. Now I'm a total nerd, so I get extreme kicks out of all of that. And I walk around looking at the sculptures of gods, emperors, and they even had a nifty Egypt exhibition so gods there as well, and I get all sorts of kicks out of guessing who the sculpture depicts. Yea, nerd. So, when I was only half way through the museum and told it was closing time (not the time it said it was in my guide book!), I was pissed. I missed out on the majority of the Roman emperor busts and half of the Egyptian stuff. I'm so bummed right now. I think Emily was happy that it closed though, so that she wouldn't have to wait around for me to carry on my nerd-dom much longer.

here's some pics from Prague:

St. Titus inside Prague Castle


stained glass inside



view from tower


weird horse thing



i tried to climb it and failed miserably, i suck


Prague Castle/river by night


creepy bone place...some family's coat of arms.

Praha

So, today was my and Em's third day here in Prague. I wish I could say I really enjoyed all my time here---but I can't. The first day was alright. We went to see Prague Castle and walk around Old Town and all of that was pretty nice. It was a little rainy but not that bad. All in all, a good day. The next day we got on a train out to Terezin, a concentration camp in the area that the Red Cross had actually visited when they heard about the atrocities the Nazis were committing. So before they arrived, the Nazi's shipped out like the majority of those who were there to other concentration camps, cleaned everything up, and set up fake schools. This was all so that they could say it was a some kind of retreat. Well, sounds interesting right? I'm sure it is, but we didn't end up there. We ended up in a Terezin, but I'm pretty sure it was the wrong one. We walked all over that town and into the next one and asked a bunch of people (all who didn't speak any English) and ended up going home without seeing any of it. Boo. Oh, and all the while its raining and freezing. A little later we went out to a pub and got beer. I had been told that the beer here is the best in the world, and that even though I hate beer I'd like it here. Guess what? I still hate it. And I couldn't drink about half of my mug. What a waste.

Then today Emily wanted to go to this creepy bone church thing. That type of thing creeps me out, but I figured when else am I gonna be here. So, it was creepy--but not nearly as creepy as the one they have in Rome that my mom dragged me to. The one in Rome as full skeletons, some with there skin still on, and there's some creepy phrase on the ground that says something like, "what we are, one day you will become." Like I said, CREEPY. So this one had no full skeletons, so I could pretend like they weren't someones bones, but it was still nasty. And it has also been pouring all day and its so cold. Neither of us packed for this kind of cold, so we are very unprepared. Thankfully, we will be in warm weather soon (in Greece). Anyways, I'll post some of my favorite pictures on this blog in a couple of days, and if snapfish isn't being as obnoxious as usual, I'll try to post my pictures on that as well.

s

Creta

Hokey so, I realized that I didn’t write before on what I was going to be doing this week. Well, currently I’m in Crete with my mom and older brother, Brian. But before I get to talking about that—let’s sum up last week: finals, finals, finals. Packing up my stuff. Being too lazy to study all that much. Goodbye diner at Bro’s (which is connected with me drinking a bit too much in front of ACCENT and both bumping into my teacher on the way to the food table and calling a friend who was standing next to her a “little bitch”-- good one, Sarah). Trying to go to gelato with Christine and Ingrid only to find that it’s closed and then we were stalked by some creeper. Packing. Going to bed and only getting about an hour and a half of sleep. Waking up super early to say goodbye to Kat and Jess. Finding out some juicy gossip because I woke up super early to say goodbye to Kate and Jess. Going back to bed for about an hour and a half. Packing. Family arriving. Gelato one last time with Ingrid and Anna. Saying goodbye to Ingrid and Anna. Wanting to cry. Packing. Leaving Rome. Wanting to cry. Getting on plane. Wanting to cry. Getting off plane in Athens at midnight. Not being able to go to sleep. REALLY wanting to cry. Getting into airport at Crete at 7 in the morning. Still haven’t slept. Drive into Chania and lie on a beach. Still can’t sleep. Eat. And then pretty much crabby until I finally was able to sleep that night. Damn, that sucked. Okay, so the next day we hung around Chania some more and we planned on heading down south only to learn that the patrol tank drivers are on strike. And all the gas is sold out. BALLS. And so we are stranded here and hang around for the rest of day. Oh, and my camera officially crapped out on me and is broke. So, now not only is my computer being all janky and breaking on me quite often, but now I don’t have a functioning camera. Cool. The next day we woke up far too early and got on a particularly nauseating bus to Samaria Gorge. Beautiful hike and Brian let me use his camera. About the last 3 miles of the hike I realize Brian’s camera is set to the lowest resolution-CAZZO. There goes all those panoramics I took and was hoping to print out. Now if I were to print them they would be all stretched out and pixilated. Then two days ago we stayed in Chania again. We were all so sore from the hike that we didn’t feel like moving much anyways. Mom and I went shopping around town a bit but not much else happened besides lunch and me trying to plan out my fall class schedule. Yesterday we woke up and drove out of town to Rethymno. A pretty boring town. We went to their Venetian fountain which was written up in my mom’s Crete travel guide as one of the highlights, and it was so dinky and ugly and pathetic. Well, we got some decent food and then went to see one of the last traditional filo masters in all of Greece do his thing. And we bought WAY TOO MUCH baklava and kataifi. This isn’t helping me with my whole wanting to loose weight thing. Seriously, I am like 10 pounds heavier than I ever was in the states and I don’t feel comfortable in my own body but at the same time I’m so lazy and unwilling to do what I have to as to loose weight. It’s a conundrum.

Now that the recap is over, let’s get to the nitty-gritty. So obviously I’m upset that the program is over. I think that the whole thing might have been the best experience I have ever had. I tried something completely new and stepped out of my comfort zone, and was rewarded for it. I love Rome and I love the people I met there and I wish I could be back there with all of them So, I’m upset, a bit depressed, and already in a nasty mood for all of this. I just ended what was probably the best thing I have ever done for myself, so no duh everything after this is going to look unappealing, although I will admit, I do look forward to traveling with Emily and hope that this negatively leaves me by then. Now, my mom and Brian are the two people in the family that piss me off the most. This isn’t to say that I don’t love them, cos I actually do love them. But, man, are they obnoxious. My mom pisses me off because she treats me like a child. Apparently even though I haven’t seen her in four months and I’m more or less (less in the money department—but at least I make my own money and don’t expect them to buy me anything other than the necessities) entirely self-sufficient, I still deserve to be treated as if I were 8. I told her how much this pisses me off and instead of trying to change how she treats me to better our relationship, she tried to rationalize why it’s okay to treat me like I were a child (“But I’m your mom…”). Honestly, I don’t care for any of it. I deserve to be treated like an adult and somehow I was ignorant enough to believe that going off to a completely different continent would aid me in gaining the respect I deserve. Obviously, I was wrong. Brian pisses me off cos he’s disgusting. And I feel like I can only blame so much of it on the ADD. He has terrible table manners, not that I have particularly good table manners, but I’m pretty sure my 4 year old cousin behaves better at the table then he does. He asks obnoxious questions, is lazy, and really both him and my mom know how to and seem to enjoy getting under my skin. Hokey, so with the general depression of the end on my time in Rome and the obnoxiousness of my family, I am not a happy camper.

But honestly, I’m upset for more than just this…I feel like I have lost a part of myself. I feel like a part me, the better part of me, was left in Rome. With my family here I am forced back into that little hole I left behind. I’m expected to be a certain way and so I become it. And I hate that person. I don’t want to dwell on insignificant things or hold grudges or be boxed in or be depressed. And this is not to say that the me I was in Rome isn’t the true me. Cos it is—within a certain context. I have been that me before but it is rare. I’m only that me when I’m happy and it has been years since I got to be happy me for an extended period of time. I just want to be happy and be the person I was last week. I sit at the table while we eat and don’t say a word. I feel like there is no reason to. All they talk about, none-stop, is politics. Obama this, Hilary that. And don’t get me wrong, politics matter and all that. But I’ve been abroad. I didn’t stay up with the news in the states, cos honestly, I didn’t care. I paid some attention to Italian news, but only ever read the Yahoo headlines for my US news. And this ultimately is because I don’t care. I don’t want to live in the US for much longer. And even though I am a US citizen and some of this political shit will still affect me while I am not in the states, I am over the US and its politics. Yes, I am jaded, and no, I care not. And so I sit, holding back my tears. I half listen, but mostly I zone out their incessant babble over who is doing or saying what. Now, I would talk. I could force the conversation another way. But where? Every time I seem to mention Italy or traveling they both get a glossed over look on their faces, or feign an “oh, that’s interesting”. They care as little about the last four months of my life as I do about their obsession with politics. But what else have I to speak of? Italy and travel is all I have known for these past months. And so I remain quite. I have nothing to say to either. I have nothing to contribute to either. And it makes me all that much more moody and makes me feel even more so that the part of me that was left in Rome will never be returned.

…depressing, huh?

Non voglio dire "arrivederla"

Man, only four days left and we have finals lame. Oh well, Thursday was May Day so there was no school but I was so depressed I just spent the entire day in bed then on Friday we had Italian finals. I think I did really well. Sadly I cannot speak the language or understand it spoken like at all, but somehow I can read it. Go figure. Friday night some of us went out dancing. I'm gonna miss that in the the states. I don't know if there are a lot of good clubs in Santa Cruz. And I like that when we go to clubs here we don't see anyone we know. It's all new people. And I'm sure that is not a possibility in S.C. Kat's friend is visiting too, so we got to show him the night life which was fun. And man, it's nice to have a guy go dancing with you, cos when some really gross guy came over to dance with me and I told him I wanted to get rid of the guy, he grabbed me so that I would dance with him instead. Then yesterday I slept in late and Ingrid and I went to Santa Maria della Vittoria (a church) to see Bernini's "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" then we went to this really cool church, Santa Maria degli Angeli, that has been built into the building of the baths of Domitian. We are both taking a medieval class pretty much solely on churches and this one has a very strange layout so it was fun going there together and discuss it. I suppose it is because it was built into a bath complex. After we walked outside and into a random collection of young people, mostly all wearing punk clothes.

So we walked around and tried to figure out what was happening. Our first clue: a table with a bunch of potted weed plants. Turned out we walked into The Million Marijuana March. It actually happens worldwide, in something like 300 cities during the beginning of May. Its all about decriminalizing weed and supporting it for medical uses. Pretty much just a mass of Italians doing a lot of drugs and then marching from Piazza della Repubblica to the Boca della Verita. We only stuck around for a while and then went home, got some of our friends so that they could see the craziness and came back. But they were all getting ready to march and we decided to go home. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

on our way back to Repubblica.


Then today we woke up and weighed ourselves. Two of my friends and I had a competition going to see who could loose the most amount of weight. I ended up tying with one of them (for first), with only having lost a pitiful 2.2 pounds. It's sad cos I actually lost like 5 then gained it all back when I went to Naples and had 2 pizzas in one day. Then I worked my ass of at lost 3 more then gained that back after a weekend of a bit too much partying and then lost the other 2. So ultimately, I've kinda lost 10, but not really. I really need to loose weight though cos I need to be in bikini shape for my job in a month and a half...and right now I'm about 20 pounds heavier than what I consider bikini shape. Boo.

So, being that I was a winner, I was supposed to get a paid for ride on a hot air balloon in Villa Borghese park. Accent told us about it. We went there and it has been closed for 2 years. Accent sucks. So we went to the lake and went around on the boats instead. On our way there we ran into another girl on our program, Marrisa and asked her to come along with us, so she did. Actually in another boat was two other girls from our program. You think in this huge city you wouldn't run into a bunch of people you know. But we do all the time. And randomly see people in the oddest of places. Anyways, it was really nice. And half-way through our paddling around Danielle (sp?), showed up. Cossella and Kat met him in Italian class (we have Italian students from the university who want to improve their English come talk to us and we talk to them half the time in Italian and half in English). Anyways, so since then we've hung out with him a couple of times ad he's a lot of fun. It's so cool to know someone who is actually Italian. I got to learn a bunch of really cool swear words and he's real honest with us. So we know from an Italian how Italians view Americans (As you would expect, not so highly). Its just a bummer that we only started hanging out with him a couple of weeks ago. I was here for like 4 months before I had even hung out with an Italian...how lame and we only started making friends with some just before we are gonna leave.

Cossella, Marrisa, Mikhail (Kat's friend) all in the boat.

paddling.


Kat and Cossella and Danielle.