Der Amerikanische Urlauber

La Fin...

2005-08-13T00:10:00.000-04:00

Well I made it through French II on speed really well, I found my final grade today... a 98% so I'm quite happy. And I think my vocabulary nearly tripled in the course of six weeks, so that's great as well.

It's wonderful to have two weeks off before I go back for another fifteen, however I seem to be one of those restless type A people that just can't sit idlly and not do anything. I was miserable today. It rained, so I was just pretty much home doing nothing. Well, not exactly anything. Being the enterprising individual I am, I decided to get a head start on fall by reading one of my books for my International Ethics class, Five Uneasy Pieces: American Ethics in a Globalized World, which deals with the ethicality of American foreign policy. It's a really easy read, only 140 something pages, so I figured, why not? For those of you who know me well enough, this kind of stuff is right up my alley.

I figure while I have enough time, I'll get my application and resumé done for Washington. However, I also may be going to Washington for extra time that I didn't yet plan, and here's why.

This class in ethics I'm taking in two weeks is taught by a woman who also happens to be in the top level of administration over at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa; in May, there's going to be an opportunity for 10 students to go with her up to DC (and this counts as a class) for a week that would entail visiting the Pentagon and CIA and meeting with various officials and dignitaries from around the world. And I've been heavily touted as someone to go, which was a surprise to me and of course which is a huge honor. I wish I had more information and when I find out about it I'll definitely write more. But I definitely find that cool. I can only imagine, however, the security clearance checks I'll be going through for this one... They'll probably be calling childhood friends asking for character references for all I know!

At times, like now when things are relatively dull, it's nice to keep the eye on the future.

On another note, I'd like to congratulate Sweety, whose blog I read regularly and who regularly comments here (dank je ;-) ) because she's expecting a baby! I'm so excited to see what cute little Dutch name the baby winds up with! Hartelijke Gelukwensen!

I Hate Car Dealerships...

2005-08-06T00:10:00.000-04:00

If anything best explains why there's been so few updates lately, it's because I just really wish I had more to write about. I guess I have high standards for what passes my litmus-test of being "blog worthy" but I'm making sure until my life picks up I at least provide a weekly update so you all know I'm alive. Oh, and just a note to those of you who really don't care or want to hear about anything automotive-related, just skip down to like the fourth to last paragraph if you want an abridged blog entry, because I see I kinda went long today!

Well last Thursday, as I wrote last week, I brought my Jetta in for servicing at a local Volkswagen dealer. My friend Matt brought his as well. I first of all am very cynical around car dealerships, and I was even more so about this particular one because they tried to screw me and my mother over back when we were actually looking for cars in March.

Nevertheless, everyone said this was the best one to bring it to (whoever "everyone" is they obviously have had their heads up their rear ends) so that's what we did.

My car had a problem concerning the air conditioning, which came with the car and I didn't expect to be covered under warranty since someone had done some hack fix job and rewired it so weird that I couldn't control the temperature of the AC. It just blew cold (which isn't exactly a problem in Florida during the summer, but sometimes it got so cold I'd have to play an on-off game with the switch) Also, recently my horn stopped giving that fun little beep when I locked my car with the remote. And more serious, the car experiences a sharp jolt when coming to a stop. A problem that actually plagues many Volkswagens in North America.

I should have figured I was in for trouble when the guy tells me that that jolt was nothing more than the transmission shifting down. Yeah sure. So basically he was refusing to even look at that under warranty.So we leave the cars in their loving care, and go off to the mall which is like half a mile away to kill time.

Long story short, they refused to even touch my friend's car even though everything should have been covered under warranty (and later was at another dealer) and while I agreed to pay the $200 for them to fix my air conditioning, they refused to look at the alarm, saying it must have been in an accident and so on. Then they tell me the car is going to be ready in fifteen minutes... I wound up waiting an extra hour.

Then after paying $230 with tax, I get in my car and find it absolutely filthy. I bring it there looking showroom new and I get it back looking like crap. Dirt and grease everywhere, pieces of the interior not put back properly (so now my friend has to fix it for me)... what a load of BS.

My friend brings his to another VW dealer yesterday... and they fix over $2500 worth of problems on his car, under warranty. Plus they washed and detailed the entire car.

All I got out of the deal last week was a new dipstick. Whoop dee doo.

I seriously hate car dealers and their mechanics. I cannot wait until the day that the internet and other aspects of modern technology eliminates them as the middleman and we can just get the cars direct, because they ruin all aspects of the car buying experience, and it's little wonder why they rank only a few places above panhandlers in a general respectability poll.

So now I get to waste yet another day bringing it down to the other dealer. Though at least I know I'll get it back clean this time.

In other news, I only have four more days left in this semester, and then I'm free of school... for two weeks, and then I start Fall semester. I wonder how many days this year I'll get off thanks to Mother Nature? Last year I wound up getting like 7-8 days off due to the numerous hurricanes that hit the state. Though in actuality this can seriously screw things up for people that think that means you don't have to do any work or anything...

At least in those two weeks I can get a lot accomplished, not the least of which is getting the Washington applications done and over with before the semester begins.

My Brazilian Cousins

2005-07-28T00:09:00.000-04:00

Brasil!

I seem to keep finding relatives on all edges of the earth, because recently I connected online with some cousins of mine in Brazil. They happen to share my last name and we share common ancestors back in Italy (Italians made up a huge wave of immigrants in the late 1800s to Brazil, just as they did here in the United States)

It's really amazing to me how the internet has allowed people to connect in ways I don't think anyone would have thought possible. When I consider that the last time these two branches of the family were in contact was over 130 years ago back in Cosenza, a town in the region of Calabria in Italy, that's really incredible.

My one cousin happens to be an English and Portuguese teacher... and she wound up getting me to take the leap into Portuguese.

I've actually wanted to learn Portuguese for a while. And being that I have Brazilian friends and now family, it seems like more than an ideal opportunity to start, I know I'll certainly get enough practice. I'm exceptionally looking forward to being able to go down to Brazil and visit in the not too distant future (but once my Portuguese is to my standards)

I surprise people when they find I'm in regular contact with cousins in the Netherlands, Italy, and now Brazil. And it really makes me feel connected to the world community as a whole, which I couldn't appreciate more.

Portuguese is going to be an interesting experience for me, because I've had little to no exposure to the language, and I still have a hard time distinguishing it when I hear it. But this was how I was when I started French back in January, and I'm really far along into that language now.

In other news, I'm bringing the Jetta down to the Volkswagen dealer tomorrow to get it serviced under warranty. This is the first car I've ever owned to still be covered under warranty, so it's quite a new concept that I may have some minor things fixed at no cost to me. Though I'm exceptionally wary whenever I go to a dealer or mechanic because I'm afraid of them trying to pull one on me, so my guard is always on overdrive.

I can't believe I'm nearly finally done with French II, either. Because this has been one of the most intensive courses I've ever taken. I never thought I'd be able to cram 125-200 new vocabulary words in my head a week... but somehow I do it.

I also need to start on my application essay for my internship in Washington... What's critical is I carefully think out where I want to intern first, because my experience will be very different depending on where I go. I'm doing something in the field of international affairs, but that can range from working for the federal government at the State Department (which I'm actually not quite sure I'd enjoy because so much of it is extreme paper pushing) to working for a foreign embassy or multinational organization, such as the European Commission. So I'll see. I do want it to have something to do with US-European relations, however. So that's on my to do list.

I miss sleeping late.

Good to be in DC

2005-07-22T22:15:00.000-04:00

Capitol Hill

I've made a big decision to intern next summer in Washington, DC. It wasn't a difficult choice at all, because I've been wanting to do this from when I heard about it, however it was all a matter of proper timing. I wouldn't have felt ready to go anytime before I was done with sophomore year. And I can't leave it past next summer, because for Spring 2007 I'm studying abroad in France, and then I have to stay and complete my senior year, which also involves preparation for the LSAT.
Which I'm not quite looking forward to, but it's one of those things you just have to do... and excel at, especially considering where I'd like to go for law school (Columbia or NYU)

So, I'm preparing my application right now, although I'm not quite yet sure as to what area of international affairs I'd like to intern in. I do know I want it to have something to do with European relations. If it could ultilise a language of mine as well that would be great, but we'll see.

So I'll be writing more on this from time to time, because it's extremely exciting for me. I'd be going from May to August, for roughly 10 weeks (a regular semester is 15) And I've always wanted to live in a huge city. Plus this will be a really nice prep for moving away to Paris, since I'd be used to living in a city, fending for myself, etc. but in my own country first before I move on to tackle the French...

I always joke with friends of mine that I could really handle living in any city on earth, just so long as I have a gym nearby. Because other than that I'm extremely flexible. Of course they also all think I'm insane, but that's a compliment to me!

It is really exciting to think about living there, where you have so much happening around you. Tampa is a nice city, but not much really happens here at the moment (though may I add we're getting a Trump Tower, so we'll have a different skyline eventually, and that's relatively exciting because I like tall buildings!)

Off for the weekend...

2005-07-15T03:57:00.000-04:00

After a rather hectic week (which explains the lack of updates, even though I've had plenty to write about) I'm really looking forward to getting away this weekend. We're going to be going to Disney this weekend. For Floridians it can be pretty accessible and affordable, since you figure we don't have airfare or any of that stuff to worry about. Anyway, we usually go three or four weekends a year as sort of mini-weekend getaways.

We haven't actually taken a large vacation in the summer in a few years now, because we started getting in the habit of going at Christmastime (which I like better) The destination of choice this year really floored me, because I didn't expect it at all. We're going to... Hawaii! Aloha!

We just got our confirmations in the mail today, and I'll post more on that when I return from this weekend away, but needless to say that my entire family is incredibly excited. My stepdad is afraid to fly, which is so amusing because he acts like nothing ever bothers him, but you can tell that the thought of 12 hours on an airplane makes him nervous. If anything should give him "sky legs" (ok that really doesn't exist but I don't know of an appropriate counterpart to "sea legs") it's this trip!

As for this weekend, I'm really excited to just get out of town. Even if the weather continues to be godawful, at least we're in a definite change of scenery.

I personally derive my own odd form of entertainment whenever we go over there, because as you know I love languages. Well, Disney is pretty much crawling with foreign tourists at any time of year, but especially the mid to late summer and the winter months. So I love trying to pick out all the different languages I hear, and if I can understand them, that's even better. Spanish is always the most common one... in some cases I've gone and I've heard more Spanish spoken in one day than English!

Oh and how I'm still alive and able to write this right now is probably by the grace of God or something, because it turns out Thursday I wound up driving a round trip total of 100 miles on a flat tire. Apparently while heading to school I ran over debris in the road or something, because when I left the house my tires were all fine. But five minutes into the drive, my car was starting to fishtail, which I attributed to driving at expressway speeds on the wet parkway. But then coming home it was extremely bad, and at one point when I made a turn I nearly slid into a minivan because the rear of the car gave (again I thought it was because the roads were extremely wet because it was pouring... which certainly didn't aid the situation)

But then I pull into the garage and get out, and the rear tire is as flat as a pancake. How I didn't kill anyone or myself is a miracle. And how the rim didn't even get damaged is also amazing. So that saved me from having to buy a new one from Volkswagen for like $250.

I give that car credit, because even with a flat rear tire, it handled better than my old car.

What a week...

2005-07-08T22:46:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Dennis

If there's a reason I haven't updated this week, it's because I've been so incredibly busy, and it seems I also could have made a bit more effort to write something as well. So you instead get to read about everything in one fun long entry!

Well, I might as well start off with the most pressing issue, and that's Hurricane Dennis (pictured above) which is slated to hit Florida... it's just all a matter of where. I live right near Tampa, which you can see on the map. It's not supposed to come near us, it's supposed to hit in the Panhandle, from anywhere near Mobile, Alabama to Pensacola (which would make a huge difference) However, the key phrase here is supposed to. It's quite apparent, how after last August's fiasco with all of us here in the Tampa Bay area being all prepared for Hurricane Charley, only for it at the last minute to bypass us completely and slam into Southwest Florida, that nobody here is taking their chances.

Case in point, I was pretty much riding on fumes today, so I made a point of going for gas before I did anything else today. I get to the one Hess station, only to find that it's roped off around the gas pumps. At first I had no idea what happened... until I looked across the street at the Mobil station and it suddenly dawned on me that everyone in the county had gone on a gas rush. This happens here every time a hurricane comes. It's now been made an instinctive ritual, thanks to last year. I actually think all of us Floridians are getting eerily adjusted to it now. Sort of like how in the same vein Italians no longer even bat an eye at collapsed governments.

What really irritated me, however, was blatant price gouging. I wound up paying $2.19 a gallon at the Mobil station (which usually happens to be most expensive) but the Hess had raised its prices to $2.29, another gas station farther down was charging $2.32... I never paid over $30 for a gallon of gas in the three years I've been driving, so it was quite a shock for my total to come to $31.50. (I'm sure any of you living in Europe are rolling your eyes and/or laughing at this point)

So anyway, if this thing kind of does make a sudden turn east and we get hit or get a large brunt of the storm here in Tampa, we're all kind of screwed since nobody had adequate warning, since we've all been told it's going for the Panhandle. So they'd better be right (unfortunately of course for the people in the Panhadle... but something tells me we'll be dealing with this many times over this season here anyway)

So what else? Well, this week I started my French II course back up at school. It's nice, I'm mainly happy because I got back to the USF gym; the gym up here wasn't doing it for me.

This week brought sad news in that a former friend of mine died on July 4th, coming home from his grandparent's house on his Honda motorbike. I hadn't really talked or been overly friendly with him in several years, but I knew him from when we were like 11, so I was more upset over it than I expected myself to be. This was the very first time anyone I knew from my own generation died. I've dealt with death many times before, including my father, who died when I was 6 in 1993. However, it's something altogether shocking and very different when it's someone your own age, 18, who had nothing wrong with him who suddenly dies in a crash. It's really a reminder of everyone's vulnerability and mortality. And it reminds you, that even when you don't expect it, you shouldn't take your own life for granted. I think too many of us at this age do incredibly stupid things and take incredible risks and abuse themselves with drugs and alcohol and the like because they think nothing will ever happen to them. And then, when you least expect it, something can. We all need to be more appreciative for the opportunity to even live out our dreams. I don't know what his were, but it's tragic he's now never going to be able to see them play out.

Finally, I went and spoke with my study abroad advisor yesterday. It's pretty much akin to pulling teeth to try and get into Sciences Po. I can do it, but it would involve dropping out of USF, enrolling at the University of Florida, which has a program with them, and then applying to study there, then dropping back out of UF (which I then don't think I'd even want to do!) and reapply to USF. That's utterly ridiculous to me. Especially since I think the Sorbonne would be incredible as well.

I would really like to do an entire year, but I don't think it's really economically feasible, and I also want to intern, and that would make it incredibly hard. So I'm planning to try and acquire a summer internship abroad for this upcoming summer, and to then study in France in the following spring 2007 (if I did fall, because the semesters in Europe never align with ours, I'd be coming back halfway into the American spring semester)

I've determined there is no way I'm staying in one of those chambres de bonne that they try and push on foreign students. A maid room the size of a closet for five months really isn't appealing, and I thankfully have scholarships and my parents to help cover the cost of the semester, so I'm going to try and get a small studio for myself for that time, so I can really feel comfortable while I'm there. If any one of you guys from Paris has any suggestions on what arrondissement to look in, what places are good, etc. by all means, I'm really looking for some advice on Paris, and I know I have some great readers who could help me (thank you very much in advance ;-) )

So that's all for now. Hopefully all works out well with Dennis, but nobody here is going to rest easy until that thing actually makes landfall somewhere.

Il pleut... tous les jours

2005-06-30T22:18:00.000-04:00

Florida, The Sunshine State!

Calling Florida the Sunshine State surely must have been a cruel joke to get everyone to move here, only to realize that from May to October, you're lucky to see the sun at all.

This has to be one of the worst summers I've experienced in the decade-plus I've lived here. Usually our rainy season starts here around late May, with short, yet heavy, thunderstorms in the mid-afternoon which blow over by evening. This year, however, for the past month and a half it has rained all of but 3 or 4 days, and it stays nasty out all day. Today it rained nonstop from 7 AM all the way to 6 PM. It's really not the best weather to promote a good mood. Fortunately, I just happen to be naturally cheery. Smiles all around.

Seriously, it's pretty bad when you have a darker tan in mid-December.

Normally I'd say how bad I feel for the tourists, who have their vacation time ruined by horrible weather. Except I live here and have my day to day life ruined by horrible weather. At least when you're on vacation you're away from the office or school or whatever, so you have that bit to be optimistic about. Plus it's a change of scenery.

The only way this could get any better, of course, is to have another fun hurricane season like we did last year.

I really do apologize for not providing regular updates with exciting material. My life is starting to get a bit more interesting again. I think I feel tainted after being in Italy; my daily life no longer seems as exciting to report about, when you figure a month ago I was talking about my experiences in Rome and sleeping on a chair-bed on the top of a mountain in Cinque Terre.

I miss that chair bed. I never thought I'd say that.

I actually was quite annoyed the other day, however, when I came across pictures taken by the first group, Group 1. See, 80 people in all were chosen to go on this trip, and they divided us into two groups of 40. We were group 2. Group 1 left about a week earlier than us, and we did our trip in reverse from theirs; we did Rome first, then Cinque Terre. They did Cinque Terre, then finished it off in Rome.

Well, apparently they did everything we were supposed to do, but didn't. For instance, they went to Florence, like we were supposed to, yet didn't. They stayed in a clean hostel in La Spezia, while we stayed at the top of the mountain in the Italian boonies.

However, as odd as it sounds, I'm almost kind of happy we had such a crazy experience. Because I can go and have a great time and be comfortable in Italy anytime. But I never would have had the experiences I had if not for that trip. It made for great bonding moments, and funny pictures.

After people offered me encouragement, I think I am going to pursue my dream of studying at Sciences Po in Paris. I don't know if I'll get in, but I'll try. It's amazing how it works there; if I got into their year-long international students program for international exchange students, I would actually get a diplôme from Sciences Po. That just seems amazing.

I had initially wanted to study at Sciences Po to begin with, but some professor tried talking me out of it, saying I wouldn't enjoy it, shouldn't overburden myself, blah blah blah. Nevermind the fact that my international affairs professors all supported me, I let that one bit of gloomy advice derail my plans. But now I'm planning to see about how to go about doing this. I already researched everything about Sciences Po as much as possible, now it's just a matter of finding out how USF would deal with it, and how to actually apply.

Thank God I have a French friend. Merci beaucoup, Syl. Tu es mon ami très secourable.

If anything, this trip to Italy was a godsend because I also know I'll be able to handle living in a foreign country. I already went through the anxiousness of being away from the family for an extended period of time with Italy. Modern communication also is a wonderful thing. It makes life so much easier when you can talk to your family clear on the other side of the world. It makes you less homesick. Though I do wish it were free...

Le Futur...

2005-06-26T01:40:00.000-04:00

La Sorbonne

Inevitaby, as soon as I got back from Italy, my thoughts turned to my next likely sojourn to Europe... this time it's more likely than not going to be France. And not just for two weeks, no, for about five or six months!

I've been having to seriously consider from now where I'd like to study abroad and when. It's extremely important that I do so, because when you go through another institution other than USF it takes a while. USF's programs in France are abysmal, so needless to say I'm not going through them. However, one girl I happen to know from my major (both my majors actually, as she's an international affairs and French language major like I am) studied in France this past semester at L'Université Paris III, which is part of the elite university system of Paris better known as La Sorbonne.

So I pretty much decided that's what I'd like to do. Actually, my ultimate dream has been to study at L'Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), but that's very difficult to get into. But we shall see, I'll give that a shot as well.

I'm aiming to go abroad fall of my junior year, which would mean next fall 2006. I need to ensure that I'm pretty much highly proficient/near fluent/most preferrably fluent in French by then. I believe I can achieve this, as my course load is pretty much slated for me to complete all French language courses by Spring. Following that it's then actual courses in the language, like French civilization, Composition, Literature (which includes more French classics than I've ever seen... I've never even read that many classical works in English, and that's my mother tongue!)

So as far as linguistic necessities go, I should be set by then. This is necessary, because all the courses I would be taking at the Sorbonne would be in French, or perhaps another foreign language like German or Italian which I also would speak. The girl I know took two classes in Spanish besides her courses in French.

Anyway, I'll be making an appointment with an advisor for study abroad when I get back to class on July 5... for French II no less. I need to thoroughly review all the previous 7 chapitres we did in French I, plus all the vocabulary sometime tomorrow, so I can be like I never took a moment off from French at all.

It's quite exciting to me, to imagine living in Europe, in Paris no less. I believe Syl told me that the school was located in the XIII arrondissement... which when I google I get a picture of the Louvre. So that's incredible. I'll be in the same neighborhood as the Louvre. That really floors me. I have no idea at this point how you go about housing in Paris when you're a student. It's not at all like in the US where they have dorms. So I guess I'll have to find an apartment. Does your awesome landlord have any vacancies, Auntie?? I'm not worried about that anyway, because I'd find that out when I made the plans (but ask him anyway... I'd be a great tenant!)

The thing is, then when I come home I know I'll be bored out of my mind again, just as I am now. Tampa is a beautiful city, but after the excitement of Rome I almost feel tainted. I've always been a city boy. I don't plan at all to live in a suburb when I leave home, I can't stand them. But then, you really miss your family, which is the nice part about coming back home.

Anyway, until such time, I'm going to plan and dream...

Il mio posto...

2005-06-21T19:36:00.000-04:00

When will it ever end?

First, I'd like to apologize for not writing anything in nearly a week. It's partly from a drought of interesting things to write about, partly from being incredibly tied up. But I'm back on track now. And I have new material!

Well, I've been working for my mother's boss's medical practice. The company is greatly expanding, but at the same time my mother has been in charge of cleaning up much of the mess that was there before she arrived (this seems to be her forté) This mess also includes getting rid of the previous billing agency, who failed to collect over $100,000. Which we now need to find. So what this entails is paperwork. Lots and lots and lots of paperwork. I've had to photocopy receipts, check charts, and make files. And what's worse is it seems almost endless. But at least the pay is great. And I only have to do it until I start school again in July. It's nice to have a job there for when you have time, such as winter break and so on. And it's not that bad, because of the company I have, but I do wish I didn't get stuck in the office with mold growing in the air ducts.

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, I think, because when I was told there was a bit of a mold problem, I felt my sinuses clogging up and my eyes watering. Actually, I think that was real. Everyone else at that office has a similar problem. I had a pounding migraine yesterday, but I attribute that to the wonderful Florida weather. It has rained and been unbearably humid every single day since I've been home from Italy.

I'm looking forward to starting French II in two weeks. I just need to quickly review the material and vocabulary from French I, which should take me a weekend.

On top of this, I'm preparing to start studying Dutch in a week or so. No, I'm not crazy, I kind of have it so it should work out fine; but it obviously comes after my other languages. I'm excited that I'll finally be able to communicate with my Dutch family and friends in their own language. Personally, being able to pronounce it properly will be a proud enough accomplishment for me.

My family has been trying to figure out where we'd like to go for Christmas vacation. It's the most opportune time for us to all travel. We're going away for a weekend this summer, but I still don't know where. But the winter trip is to be our big trip. My mother originally had wanted to go to Aruba, as did I; I don't know, however, if that missing girl thing in Aruba put a psychological damper on her plans or what, but she became less enthusiastic and now is throwing around Grand Cayman. I think it may have more to do with airfare. Aruba can run up to around $600-700 at that time of year. That's the only real barrier to ever traveling anywhere, is the airfare. You can find cheap fares, but it can sometimes be as fun as pulling teeth, and a lot more difficult.

I do know though that I am never willingly getting on another Continental plane... my poor posterior won't let me. 20 hours total of sitting in excruciating pain from the incredibly uncomfortable seats really put a damper on my flight experience. Though these days with airlines folding left and right, you also want to make sure you're not on one that seems likely to go bankrupt within the next six months. I don't know, it seems that international airlines tend to run better on service than the American ones. The large American carriers have gotten extremely stingy on domestic service. Continental's Tampa-Newark flights were on pathetically small and ancient aircraft; meanwhile had I had the option of flying from New York, I could have flown JetBlue and had a leather seat and satellite TV, and it's cheaper too.

The Story of the Chair-Bed

2005-06-13T21:43:00.000-04:00

I figured I should really tell this tale, because every time people see my picture of my chair-bed in Cinque Terre, their interest is piqued. Plus I promised I'd explain from when I took the picture on my cell phone two weeks ago, so here we go:

We arrived from Rome on Thursday, May 26, at about 12 AM (so it was pretty much the 27th) Why we got there so late is a story in itself. We arrived at the base of the mountain in the pitch darkness, after having stopped 20 minutes before further down the mountain because of a couple of passionate-filled young Italians who were, um, well let's just say they were naked in their car, which they parked in the middle of the road. The bus driver had a great deal of fun, shining his brights on the car and nearly 3/4 of the group piling out onto the road to see the couple get out of there faster than you can say Andiamo!

So we had to load up all our luggage onto this little lawnmower powered tram-thing which brought everyone's bags up to the top. After a 3/4 mile hike up to the top, we found that we then had a further hike to wherever our cabins/villas/cottages/whatever you want to call them were. The main Sanctuary building, which was the cleanest and nicest, went to a majority of the girls (who later dubbed it The Convent, because at 11:30 the doors were padlocked. Not exactly an ideal situation should a fire arise or anything...

The rest of the five girls got the closest cottage, which was about 100 feet from the main building and the ideal location. Everyone else got to start hiking up the mountain some more.

Well, long story short, I wound up getting placed in the farthest, most remote cottage, and had to carry two bulky pieces of luggage about another mile up the mountain in the pitch black of night, on tiny narrow pathways that had no ledge, so if you tripped, down the mountain you went.

So we open the door to supposed home sweet home, and the first thing greeting me is a 4 inch long scorpion crawling on the wall. So I had the honors of getting a pan out of the cupboard and exterminating it. The scorpion seemed to be sharing the cabin with a healthy population of moths, mosquitoes, and various other bugs. It also for some weird reason was like 90 degrees in there, presumably because the entire building had one single 12 inch window.

By the time I showered, it was about 2 AM, and I certainly wasn't tired; one other roomate of mine had gone up to see the guys in the nearest cabin, whose cabin apparently was just as bad, and they refused to sleep in it; so being that I wasn't tired, I joined my friends Josh and John in going down the mountain to see how everyone else was faring.

Long story short, the girls in the one cottage took mercy on us and let us stay there. John didn't want to, so he went back up to his cabin. But Josh and I stayed; and came up with the chair bed idea. Which actually was more comfortable than it looked, I must add; and even if it wasn't it was far better and more comfortable than being at the tip top of the mountain in a 90 degree cabin with monster scorpions.

No, in this one we instead had two dead pet scorpions in the flourescent light fixture, who the girls had already named Rocco and Stanley...

And people have asked why I didn't sleep on the floor instead. Well, I would have, provided that the floor wasn't crawling with bugs of other kinds (including scorpions) and wasn't a concrete floor that was filthy from the dirt everyone tracked in on their shoes!

So there you have it! I put an end to the undying question of why I slept for five days on a chair!

Some More Pictures

2005-06-11T23:40:00.000-04:00

These are some more different pictures that I took while I was in Italy; I finally got my photo album completed, so you can now see these and all 424 of my pictures (actually I took more but many of them were similar) online. Get a big drink and a comfy chair! (Or just view it in multiple sittings!)

Il Miei Foti d'Italia 23 maggio 2005- 05 giugno 2005

2005-06-11T23:37:00.000-04:00

A crazy guy in Piazza Navona, he stood like this for about 3 hours before finally having to give up and take a drink of water. They'll do anything for money over in Piazza Navona...

2005-06-11T23:36:00.000-04:00

I thought this poster was so funny, because what it says is this woman here was a former World Fitness Champion, and she had run in the Lazio regional elections the end of April. (She didn't win)

2005-06-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

When I saw there was a town called St. �tienne in France, I had to take this picture for �tienne

Some Pictures

2005-06-09T22:49:00.000-04:00

This is one of my absolute favorite shots; taken in Vernazza

2005-06-09T22:47:00.000-04:00

Me and my Alfa... I was courteous enough to actually not touch this person's car, because I knew I wouldn't want any stranger touching MY car

2005-06-09T22:46:00.000-04:00

Who needs Brinks when you have this? No burglar can get over this wall; taken outside Carrara

My Surprise!

2005-06-08T22:35:00.000-04:00

My car! Well, just like mine... I need to get my pics loaded up...

I had wanted to wait and get my own personal pictures up, but since everyone has been inquiring...

Yes, my surprise was a Volkswagen Jetta! A car I had wanted for 3.5 years now... and I finally get it while I'm in Italy. Here's how my family wound up pulling this surprise off.

My car, or rather my former car, was a 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage sedan, which I got 3 years ago. My sister had just gotten her license in April and she needed a car as well. So I was told I was going to have to share mine for the time being. Which really didn't make me happy because I pampered that little car, but I figured that's OK, I guess I'll have to deal with that.

While I was in Italy, my parents decided to surprise me when I came home with the Jetta, which they knew I loved. I love European cars (I was in heaven in Italy seeing all the cars they don't have here) and particularly German cars. I really have a special affinity for Volkswagens and Audis. But I'll cut to the chase.

So they bought this car, a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta GLS (by the way for any European readers, it's known as the Bora there), reflex silver with gray interior, with sunroof, Monsoon sound system... basically it has everything except the leather package. When I got home Sunday, they had done an extensive number of things around the house and yard, and one of these things was they had the garage door fixed. It had broken in 2002, and we had never been able to open it again since then. So my mom hands me the garage door opener, and says to open it.

So I press the little button, and when the thing opens... and there it was. And I, having come off of traveling like halfway around the world and going on 24 hours by then with no sleep (it was already like 5 AM Rome time, which I was still running on) I really was just in shock. It honestly didn't even hit me until Monday.

And since then I've been really getting a kick out of driving it. My old car would shimmy like a tin can when I drove over 50 mph. This thing is so incredibly solid that I've found myself going 20 mph over the speed limit and not realizing it! So I have to be careful, because Floridian State Troopers like to hand out tickets as much as Santa Claus likes to hand out toys.

It's just really remarkable, and I can't even express how appreciative and happy I've been. And it just looks, runs, and feels brand new. This is certainly going to make the commute to Tampa come July when I start summer classes that much more pleasant!

I honestly had so much excitement on Sunday, I think that had to be the most eventful day I've had in some time! I'll also post some pictures up of my car when I get my Italian pictures up tomorrow.

Home Again

2005-06-06T10:32:00.000-04:00

I have so much to say, but I'll spring it on everyone little by little (waiting especially to load all my pictures on my computer from my digital camera... but first I need to get a new EasyShare dock because I blew it out in Italy; apparently, the EasyShare dock is not compatible outside North America... though I swore it said it was, but whatever)

Yesterday just was one big bag of excitement, really. I was up at 6 AM Rome time, and I wound up getting to sleep at 10 PM Eastern, meaning it was really 4 AM for me. By this time I was pretty delirious with lack of sleep.

Anyway, what a long flight I had. We had to avoid the Gulf Stream on this flight, so returning home it was an 8h 55min flight, and we wound up going in this huge arc north, over France, Britain, Ireland, coming extremely close to Iceland and Greenland, back down over Canada, going pretty much over Québec and Montréal, down then in a straight line to Newark. I thought Continental actually was a very good airline, the service was quite good given the horror stories you hear about flying these days; but the seats were extremely uncomfortable. This happened to me on my trip from Newark-Rome, and both trips back; I got a very sharp pain in my back near my tailbone because it was like the cushion was weak in the back and I felt like I was sitting on a metal bar.

Coach of course is never exactly hailed as comfortable... But I remember American Airlines' seats being more comfortable.

I had an extremely huge surprise when I arrived home, but that's for my next entry!

I had quite a busy time at Newark that almost turned into a nightmare; nowadays, and I didn't know this, when you get off in the US from an international flight, you need to reclaim your bags even if you're connecting elsewhere. So now it's a huge production where you get off Plane A, go through Immigration and get your passport and Customs form stamped, then to the huge baggage area where you have to pray to God your luggage comes off first because you have a connecting flight, get the baggage, go through Customs, and then recheck your bags through the TSA screeners, then go through yet another security screening, and run like mad to your next gate.

Fittingly, the carousel in Newark jammed in the middle of an Iberia flight's baggage that was coming off before us. It took five minutes for them to summon the guy whose duty it seems is to turn the key to restart the machine. This, of course, was preceded by heckling and yelling from a variety of ticked-off passengers, including one older man who actually started to climb on top of the carousel because his baggage was halfway down.

I had thirty minutes to spare to make it to my connecting flight, but it was way too down to the wire for me. There was an older couple on my flight to Tampa who also were on my Rome flight, who made it on with a minute before takeoff.

I do have to say, I received really nice treatment from one official who, when seeing my flight time, opened a barrier and let me drop my bag and run to the gate.

To top it all off, boarding the final plane, I get stuck behind some Cheshire Cat family, who stopped to say hello to people in every single row, asking about if we got pillows (we don't), why don't they have pillows (because those people took theirs from an international flight) and then to take a picture of their son in the aisle...

Thank you all who have read my blog while I was away; I really loved doing it, and I wish my cell phone would have let me write a bit more per email; but it was awesome. And to everyone who commented, I loved reading your comments, and I'm going to be adressing them in posts to come.

In all, it's nice to be home; I was surprised, though, at how weird and different everything looked to me, after being away for just two weeks. It felt like I was away for over a month!

Arrivederci Roma!

2005-06-05T02:59:00.000-04:00

In about 20 minutes we can board. I know I'll be back (I tossed a coin in the Trevi, after all) so I'm not sad; and next time I may even be fluent in Italian! On another note, I hate Rome Fiumicino. What a confusing mess! Though they earn points for having Armani and Fendi in the terminal...

Country music- Italian Style

2005-06-04T18:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, now I've seen everything. While packing, I've been watching Rai Uno, and Isabella Rossellini and a guy were singing this country-like song, in English with delightful Italian accents. Now a woman with straw in her hair is talking a mile a minute. Amo televisione italiana...

Ho comprato molti cosi...

2005-06-04T16:53:00.000-04:00

I eventually caught the shopping bug. I've noticed Italians love to shop, including men, especially for clothes. My hotel is in the midst of Vie Condotti, Borgognona, e del Corso, so that was nice; I bought stuff at the Ferrari Store, Benetton, Puma, and Fatta Fabrica Italiana; smart shopper am I!

Città del Vaticano

2005-06-04T16:38:00.000-04:00

The Vatican was my final destination in Rome today; between going up to the Cupola, the Basilica (a mass was going on, so that was very cool) and the Treasury, I was there around 5 hours! John Paul II's tomb was closed today, but I'm not sure why. Next time, I guess...

Finalmente

2005-06-02T16:36:00.000-04:00

Finally, some random things: Italians honestly are the most fashionable people I've ever seen, especially guys; also, I succumbed and ate dinner at Burger King. I'm Italian so that's ok! It's funny also that everyone there was Italian. Impeccably dressed, of course.  Oh- postcard writing time! Ciao!

Più...

2005-06-02T16:25:00.000-04:00

I can only write a certain amount per email from this, so I shall continue!  The photo below is of the fountain at la Piazza della Repubblica. Also, today- 2 giugno- is a national holiday. I just got in my room when I heard the sounds from il Vittoriano.

Ritorno a Roma

2005-06-02T16:15:00.000-04:00

I'm back in Rome and now am relaxing in my beautiful hotel room. Biggest highlight today was speaking Italian for 30 mins w/ my driver on the way to the hotel because he knew next to no English! Yes, only I would be thrilled about that... Oh, Elisa, you were right- Italian TV is ODD!

J'ai de la chance!

2005-06-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

Take a close look at the above picture. That's right, I have a bed! The hotel- yes, I said hotel- in Tuscania is gorgeous. Though after the Sanctuary a Sleep Inn would have seemed like a palace! I have to say, this trip has been great, but I think I'm not the only one glad to go my own way tomorrow.

Le Montagne

2005-06-01T00:55:00.000-04:00

Today I walked down the mountain for the last time (yay!) We're on the bus to Tuscania after having to get up at 5 am. As much as I and nearly everyone hated the Sanctuary, Cinque Terre was great. Above is a pic (albeit blurry) taken during yesterday's hike.

Un momento...

2005-05-31T11:28:00.000-04:00

We had time in the town of Vernazza to stop at an internet café, so I figured it would be nice to write up something, since typing into a cell phone is tedious!

Today was our last day in the Cinque Terre, and we got to start it off hiking... and I and several others nearly plummeted off several times. Twice for me. The ledges were weak and gave way; nothing more than scrapes, thankfully. What an experience!

Tomorrow we leave and go to Tuscania... the way this trip has been going, it has been a surprise a minute, so who knows what we are going to do there. It has really been fun, with some craziness that I will definitely elaborate on when I get home and am not spending 15 cents a minute in an Internet café! It is so interesting to use this Euro spec keyboard, by the way!

Oh and to everyone, about the bed, I will say this much: yep, I am certainly sleeping on that thing; and the floor is not something I would want to sleep on. I definitely would take the chairs! Auntie is so right, the story I have to tell is interesting indeed... more to come when I get back!

I am so glad you all have been checking in, I have really been loving posting to it and am so glad I have my cell phone! I really loved Cinque Terre but I can't wait to get back to Rome! After sleeping on a chair for five nights, I think my sense of comfort has been skewed! A hotel is going to be amazing... Oh, and if you could only see the huge trek we have to the Sancturary every single time we have to leave and come back; it's about a 3/4 mile journey allll the way up!

OK, I'm going to get going for now, keep checking in because I am definitely going to keep posting!

Ciao a tutti!

Mon lit au Cinque Terre.,

2005-05-29T19:13:00.000-04:00

Some have been curious to see my unusual sleeping arrangements here at the Sanctuary in Cinque Terre. I'm more than happy to oblige! (Yes, I am quite the innovator, if I do say so myself...) It's only a bit more comfortable than it looks!

Ciao da Riomaggiore!

2005-05-29T07:25:00.000-04:00

Bell'acqua!

Castello di Sarzana

2005-05-28T10:13:00.000-04:00

2005-05-28T09:54:00.000-04:00

La spiaggia di Carrara

2005-05-28T08:09:00.000-04:00

We're spending the afternoon here in Carrara in Tuscany- unfortunately we forgot our bathing suits!

Lucca e Pisa

2005-05-28T02:57:00.000-04:00

A recap of yesterday- we went to both Lucca and Pisa, leaving at 8 and returning at 8. Both were incredible; Lucca was a fantastic and beautiful surprise. I took tons of pictures! Not so incredible are our Cinque Terre lodgings, but they WILL provide for plenty of um... interesting tales later!

Viaggio a Cinque Terre

2005-05-26T11:18:00.000-04:00

Right now we're in a traffic jam right outside Rome. Which reminds me, nothing quite compares with Roman traffic. I quickly learned how to cross a Roman street- quickly and with authority. I'm really looking forward to being back next Wednesday- at a gorgeous hotel no less!

2005-05-25T06:46:00.000-04:00

Il Colosseo

2005-05-25T04:58:00.000-04:00

On a tour around Rome...

Just to show I'm here!

2005-05-25T03:10:00.000-04:00

More later!

For you, Marcel!

2005-05-23T21:48:00.000-04:00

30 mins to takeoff!

Halfway There...

2005-05-23T19:00:00.000-04:00

A picture of my flight from Tampa, at the gate in beautiful Newark, NJ....

Arrivederci!

2005-05-23T02:31:00.000-04:00

Ciao Italia!

Well, the day is finally here... I can't believe it. I thought that the above picture was just perfect for the occasion, don't you? It even features Provincia Liguria!

So in less than 12 hours I'm going to be at Tampa International Airport. My first flight leaves at 3:15; my flight from Newark to Rome leaves at 10:10 PM; so all told, by the time we get out of Fiumicino tomorrow, I'll have been in transit for nearly an entire day.

I have a lot of thoughts running through my head right now. My problem is I think too much; I'm worried about losing my luggage, how the other people going will be, what I'm going to do while there; I need to just really sit back and enjoy the experience. I'm as prepared as I can get!

Speaking of which... after finally getting through the adventure of packing this evening (which Marcel can attest to) I really would love to know how this chaperone of mine can claim to travel for ten days with just a carry on and her purse. I don't know what she's brining, but I brought all the necessities, nothing frivolous whatsoever, and my 26" suitcase and my carry on are both packed to capacity. (I would have brought my 30" but they restricted it to 29" for the buses/trains/whatever the heck we're taking) She must be bringing like a couple of things and plans to wash them out in the sink... That's all nice and everything, but I don't know who you're impressing saying you just take a carry on for a trip that lasts a week and a half.

I'm so excited to utilize my Italian; I'm absolutely amazed at the amount of progress I made in the language in the two months since I took it up in mid-March. I was able to have an entire conversation completely in Italian online today that lasted well over an hour. Speaking is totally different of course, but then I don't plan on having hour long conversations in Italian after only studying it two months!

I'm really crossing my fingers and hoping all goes well with my cell phone blogging. I called and got a one-month international roaming package for $5.99 from Cingular today, so instead of me being charged $2 a minute to roam in Europe, it's only going to be $0.39. Which is good to know, because sometimes tracking a pay phone is very inconvienent. So hopefully I get a signal and can get this up from wherever I happen to be! Well, you'll all see tomorrow when I try from Rome!

Thanks so much to everyone that has given me such great advice about this trip. I greatly appreciate it.

So for now, ciao a tutti, ed a presto!

Ha, how about that, now I finally am ein amerikanische Urlauber!

Parto fra tre giorni...

2005-05-20T01:53:00.000-04:00

La piccola spiaggia di Vernazza

I had a really busy day today; I've been wanting to write this now for three weeks. I finally can. I got my itinerary today...

Of course, in the end it leaves as much a mystery as it reveals, but all the important questions are answered. Anyway, it reads as follows:

Monday, May 23
Depart from Newark to Rome; in flight

Tuesday, May 24
Arrival at Fiumicino; afternoon free

Wednesday, May 25
All day tour of Rome, including a tour of the pagan culture of Ancient Rome, visiting several ancient sites among them the Pantheon. Some place I probably never would have known to visit myself i the Mitre di San Clemente, which is located beneath the Basilica di San Clemente, and is an ancient temple devoted to the ancient god Mithras (predating the ancient Romans)

Thursday, May 26
Depart Rome and head north to La Spezia

Friday, May 27
Riomaggiore

Saturday, May 28
Excursion around Cinque Terre

Sunday, May 29
Pisa, Carrara, and Lucca

Monday, May 30
Maranola and Monterosso

Tuesday, May 31
Corniglia and Vernazza (that really pretty place pictured above)

Wednesday, June 01
Head back to Rome, stopping in Tarquinia, where among other things we're visiting an Etruscan burial ground built within an antique cave

Thursday, June 02

Everyone that isn't extending the trip heads back June 02. But I'm staying on until June 05 back in Rome.

Anyway, that's the itinerary in a really brief nutshell. That's all I know as well. I personally think the woman didn't feel like writing the whole thing out for us so she just gave us a brief rundown, because we're already told we're being kept plenty busy doing stuff each day. It's nice, I think, to be able to experience Rome with everyone so when I'm by myself I'll already be a little acquainted with la città eterna.

I was surprised that Florence is no longer on the itinerary. Instead, we got extra time in Rome. Not a bad tradeoff; I was extremely looking forward to Florence, but I'll get there someday soon, I think. Florence has too much to try and just see in one day anyway.

As for lodging; when I looked and I saw as the first place we're staying in Rome "hostel" I immediately was like "oh God no" and thoughts of huge rooms crowded with beds and loud people running around in their underwear and filthy communal baths flooded my mind (I've heard stories!) But then I looked it up online; we're staying the first two nights in Rome at the Youth Station Hostel, which is in the northeast of the city near Stazione Termini. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's more like a small hotel; just very basic. It has private baths, which alleviated that concern, and so I'm none too worried at all. Let's just hope I have a pleasant enough experience to write of.

When we spend the bulk of our time in Cinque Terre, which, by the way you can read all about here, we're going to be staying at il Santuario di Montenero, which I'm gathering is a bed and breakfast.
It seems very quaint.

The night on the way back to Rome they have it down as we're staying at the Holiday House San Francesco di Tuscania. Which incidentally doesn't seem to have a website, so it's going to be surprises all around.

But what's good travel without surprise?

I really am excited at the variety of experiences I'll be having on this trip. The theme apparently assigned to this trip is Italy's National Parks and Treasured Towns. Which seems very appropriate. Cinque Terre is in itself a massive national park and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. I wish I had a more detailed itinerary so I could give you a clearer rundown of what I'll be doing; but hey, this way you have something to look forward to on my updates...

Everyone I know that has been to Cinque Terre has loved it. So that's an extremely good sign. This is all in the Riviera, which is incredible in itself.

I'm really running the full spectrum of lodging experiences on this trip as well; I'm staying in a hostel, a bed and breakfast, and then in a luxury hotel in Rome. I'm staying at the Hotel dei Borgognoni, which gets it's name from the Via Borgognoni. I got an incredible deal off Expedia. Which remind me, I need to call and check tomorrow just to confirm they have me down in their system. Because my worst fear would be getting there and having them not have me in the system. But at least Expedia in this case would be responsible.

So I'm really, really excited.

In other news, today I got the Euro I ordered through Bank of America. I ordered €175 online, so I could have a good amount, but not a ton, on me when I get there. The exchange rate right now is particularly brutal; it's $1.32 to €1. So it cost like $232. It could be worse, I could be going to Britain...

This is my first encounter with the Euro. I've seen pictures online, and I have a €1 coin (de España) but that's it. So I was surprised to see that the size varies depending on the value of the bill. A €5 note is the smallest, and each note, €10, 20, 50, etc. continues to increase in size. And it has a little silver anti-countefeit band running down the side, and is all colorful. It honestly at first felt like Monopoly money to me! I kind of miss the old currencies only because it was so fun to collect the various ones, and each one had a bit of national flavor. The Euro makes things easier, but I do miss the Lira, with its outrageously devaluation so they placed values of 50 lire on coins..one of which I happen to have, from 1977.

So anyway, yeah that was exciting. I wonder how ready I will be to depart with my colorful Euros...

Let's Get Organized...

2005-05-18T02:28:00.000-04:00

Wish mine looked like this...

Did you ever have a bright idea to get to work on something right away, not quite realizing the scale of the task at hand... until several hours later you realize you're only halfway done?

I consider myself a really organized person and a neat freak. But I also seem to develop some form of nostalgia for any piece of junk that I hold onto for too long, and I tend to keep it. So I hate clutter, yet at the same time I collect too much crap. So this equals nicely organized garbage, basically.

I wound up having to go on a fairly sized shopping spree for this trip to Italy. I realized, out of my entire closet, I had four t-shirts, two collared shirts, and a pair of khaki shorts. All my other good clothes are for winter. So this meant big shopping time. But then I had to make room for this stuff in advance.

I can't believe I felt sentimental toward an ugly and dusty shirt that sat in the abyss of the farthest corner of my closet for five years now. So I figured the quicker I put it in the bag the better. So now that I get all that stuff taken care of... my closet is incredibly empty.

I'm getting really impatient about this trip itinerary thing. I've never seen before a person say it'll be out by the end of the first week of the month, and now, 5 days from departure, we still don't have it. I don't like to complain, because I'm pretty much going to Italy gratis, but I don't like not knowing where I'm even going to be sleeping 5 days before I get there, and how we're getting there. And I feel like such a nag having had to email her finally this past Sunday evening asking the woman in charge where it is. But it just seems kind of unorganized to me. This woman is going to love me... she's our group's chaperone and she must be thrilled at the prospect of Mr. Details here being around for ten straight days... But it's her fault, don't guarantee something and then not bother to even update everyone.

Aside from that, I'm quite excited!

Back to tackling the closet...

Ricevo i miei biglietti...

2005-05-13T01:28:00.000-04:00

No middle seat for me!

Well, I'm still waiting on the itinerary, but I did get one nice surprise today: my plane tickets came in the mail (well, it's an e-ticket so I just got a receipt that looks like a ticket, and an itinerary). I've been waiting for this so I could finally see where I was sitting on my four flights. My biggest fear was being stuck in the dreaded middle seat.

The middle seat's not too bad if you know the other two people on either side of you, but when you don't, you really don't want it.

Fortunately, I got excellent seating. Three of the four legs I sit on the aisle. Newark to Rome I have a window seat, so I get to take pictures out the plane window as we pass over Europe... That was really the only leg of the trip I even wanted a window seat on, since I think sometimes having the aisle is more accomodating anyway.

So that's one big concern down... now I'm just eagerly awaiting the trip itinerary itself.

Well actually, another concern of mine is being stuck behind someone who decides to go to sleep the minute we board and having their seat on my lap for 9 hours... How do you watch the movies when that happens anyway? Nowadays all the airlines have seatback TVs. I guess the answer is... you don't, or you watch the one next to you. That probably won't happen, but I've heard things...

Parles-tu Français?

2005-05-11T22:23:00.000-04:00

La Vieille Bourse, Lille, France

I had my first real, meaningful conversation in French today. And by meaningful I mean talking about real stuff, not made up textbook conversation. I was amazingly able to get a microphone connection to work properly over MSN Messenger, so for about an hour I talked with my friend Syl interchangably between French and English. Mostly more in English, since he's pretty near fluent, while I'm beginning French.

Syl is from Lille, a city in the north of France, close to the Belgian border. Hence the above photo, of La Vieille Bourse, at one time a site of bustling commerce. Paris can't get all the credit now, can it?

One thing that's readily clear is, it takes a lot more to speak the language than just knowing vocabulary. You have to be on your feet and be able to pretty much subconscioulsy summon what you're looking to say. It's not like writing, where you can look up a word you don't know, or reading, where you can understand in context. You have to have material mastered before you can speak it.

Another hurdle I actually shouldn't have but I do, is getting over the nervousness of making mistakes while talking. The only way I'm ever going to speak properly is to just start talking and make those mistakes. If my immigrant ancestors could come to this country and eventually get from speaking broken English to speaking it fluently with no fancy education, then I can put this stuff behind me.

French is interesting, because unless you know what a word sounds like beforehand, you're going to have one heck of a time understanding someone. It's not like German or Italian, for example, which are very clearly pronounced. I can see how many words in English pose a problem also for people learning it. But, see, at least I don't have to worry about learning English!

Anyway, I was really excited, because despite the pausing I had to make to find words and mistakes I may have made, I said more in French today than I actually have in the entire 15 weeks I spent in French I. Yay for independent achievement.

And this helps me in Italian as well (though I've been learning most Italian through actually speaking in the first place) because it helps break down the intimidation factor.

One thing that strikes me as funny is, even though I know better, because I've never left the Anglophone world (which is quite large so it's not hard to do) it's so easy to believe that everyone in the world speaks English. You just get that impression. And not just dribs and drabs, but know it fluently. That's just not the case. But it's easy, when you never experience otherwise, to feel that way, even when you know it's to the contrary. So it's going to be cool to try and employ the Italian I know. I'm glad, even though Italy has a multilingual tourist industry that does know English (which is good because while I'm getting good in Italian... I don't think I could solve a billing dispute in it quite yet, though I know enough Italian hand language I think I could get my displeasure across!) it's not like the Netherlands, where 90% know it, and they get so impatient with you if you try speaking Dutch and mess up that they immediately switch into your language!

Anyway, you also can probably tell that yet another day went by and I didn't get my itinerary yet... I personally am beginning to think they plan on placing us in a barn, and they aren't telling us the intinerary yet so none of us can say anything! I'm getting visions of this I Love Lucy episode where they wind up staying at an Italian farmer's barn, and Lucy has to milk the cow. (Not the grape stomping one, that one was the episode before)

Come si dice « impatient » in italiano?

Che penso...

2005-05-10T23:52:00.000-04:00

Campobasso, la città della mia famiglia italiana

I thought today it would be nice to post up a picture not of a famous Italian landmark, but rather of one of my ancestral hometowns. This picture is of Campobasso, which is located in central Italy. In fact, of all my ancestral hometowns, this is pretty much the farthest north it gets in Italy. About 3/4 of my ancestors of my paternal grandmother's side came from this one town.

This is in fact where many of my cousins, on my Gennarelli side, happen to live. This one particular branch emigrated not only to the US but also to Canada and Argentina.

Anyway, it's really a great desire of mine to one day be able to visit all the places my ancestors came from. I won't have time on this trip, unfortunately. It's about a three hour train ride from Rome to Campobasso, and I only have three days. But I'll get there eventually, along with Naples, Calabria, and Sicily.

Today I received my Lonely Planet Rome guidebook in the mail, three days earlier than expected. I love Amazon.com.

I'm still awaiting the receipt of my final itinerary from the NIAF. We were supposed to have it on May 1. The it was supposed to be here no later than the middle of last week. Believe me, the irony of an Italian-American organiaztion being disorganized and behind schedule is not lost on me... Now, if it was the National Swiss-American Founation, I'm sure it would have been here by now!

I've been having so much fun reading Sweety's blog She's in Rome at this very moment and has been updating her blog from there. It's so exciting to think I'm going to be in that same spot myself in less than a month. Incidentally, she's staying in the same area as I'm staying, near the Piazza di Spagna.

On another note, to expand upon Italian fashion... how can Italians afford some of this stuff? Sure, I go looking out of curiousity on Dolce and Gabbana yesterday, and I found this really nice Italia shirt. Of course, they don't exactly give prices on there (it's one of those "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" things) So I used my friend Froogle just to get an idea... OK, if a pair of underwear is going for $70, I don't think I want to know what the shirt costs!

I think I can see now how 67% of Italian men stay at home with their parents until around the age of 34... that's how they afford it!

In other news, I signed up at the local Gold's Gym today now that I'm off from school. I had a week off primarily because last Tuesday, right before I finished working out, I was putting a 100 lb plate (that's 45.5 kg for my metric friends) on a dip belt, and right before I got it on the thing wobbled over and right onto my left big toe. So I was in quite a lot of agony last week. I miss one week and I feel like I've been lacking something in my day. So I'm quite excited about getting back in tomorrow.

When I get my itinerary, I'll post it up so you can all see the fun places I'll be seeing and the interesting things I'll be doing... I bet you can't wait!

Ho fatto la mia prenotazione!

2005-05-08T01:12:00.000-04:00

La Piazza di Spagna

I'm starting to get really excited. I finally booked my hotel accomodations for Rome today, and I wound up getting a beautiful hotel a few hundred meters away from la Piazza di Spagna and the Trevi Fountain. Location is important to me, and so this is really absolutely fantastic.

As a matter of fact, yesterday on TCM they had La Dolce Vita, which I recorded on my wonderful Philips DVD Recorder (I don't think I could ever go back to recording on a VCR) So now I don't have to rush to buy the DVD off Amazon. I probably will anyway, since it's a special edition, but someday. No rush now. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie when Anita Eckberg goes tromping through the Trevi Fountain with Marcello Mastroianni. It really struck me to think that I'm going to be there myself in less than a month's time. Though I don't think I'm going to be able to actually go swim in it...

So yeah, that's a really cool thought.

Additionally, last night I stumbled upon a Blogger "how-to" article on my sign in page about posting pictures to your blog from your cell phone. This is in addition to posting text.

So I got myself all set up and have the addresses in my cell phone. This is fantastic. Now I can go around snapping a picture or two each day of my trip and send it to this blog and post some commentary or whatever. I'm going to turn this thing into a little travel journal. Follow Joe's travels through Italy... Oh man that's really cool! Yay for modern technology!

Now I'm also trying to figure out what I'm going to wear. We've already been advised to wear shorts as little as possible. Italians don't like shorts. That just figures, I'm going at one of the warmest times of the year, and shorts are a fashion-no in Italy. It's pretty much forbidden to enter churches there with uncovered shoulders and knees (this is something they really don't observe much of in the US) It's like law at St. Peter's Basilica, I read today they have like a guard outside the place that prevents you from entering wearing shorts.

I actually don't even have that many pants in my wardrobe. I love my khaki shorts. And jeans are way too heavy to wear, so I guess I'll have to pick up some khakis and other lighter pants before I go.

Tell me, is this how fashion goes in the rest of Europe as well? Because you might as well tell me now so I can get a whole European clothing line up ready.

See, I care about that kind of stuff. I mean I know I'm uno straniero (a foreigner) but I don't want to stand out like a sore thumb. So it always surprises me when I hear stories of families who go to these countries and wear bright Hawaiian shirts and have the camera around their necks and the flip flops and all that. Nothing quite says "Please pick my pocket" like the obnoxious American tourist look, does it?

Hmm, though if I go decked out in this stuff from Dolce and Gabbana, something tells me I won't exactly blend in any easier... Unless Italian guys really do dress like this, in which case, God Bless America...

Power Struggle

2005-05-06T23:28:00.000-04:00

Myth No. 2: American appliances don't work in Europe...

This commercial always comes to mind whenever I think of using American appliances in Europe. It makes me chuckle...

I wasn't quite sure about how to go about it, since I obviously need to bring my cell phone and charger, and I also really wanted to bring my iPod. Yesterday, though, after first saying make sure you bring a charger, the woman from the NIAF writes back that her supervisor said not to bring any appliances whatsoever, even with a charger, since they would blow out.

Yeah, well you can see how much I listen to authority when I know otherwise... I decided to do research, since I know a lot of people travel extensively and somehow get their laptops and iPods and cell phones powered up globally. Well it turns out most new appliances have a range of 100V-240V. In the US we have outlets that give out 120V, in Europe it's 240V. So unless your appliance is newer and specifically has in writing somewhere that it can handle this range, the scene when you plug it into the wall in Europe probably looks a bit like the Roaming Gnome's experience above. Which makes me laugh just thinking about it (I don't know why I find it so funny)

I personally think they don't want to be held liable should we lose any of our valuable electronics, or better yet, if they're stolen. I still have no clue where we'll be staying. They said we'd have the itinerary by the end of the week... as well as our e-Tickets. This, by the way, is the first time I will be using an e-Ticket instead of an actual ticket to present at the check-in counter. Last time I flew though was in 1996, before anyone really even had the internet. Progress marches on...

I'm more than a little interested in where we're staying, only to end everyone's incessant questioning of me "does it have a communal bath?" All I know is the recent email said to bring flip flops for the shower, which means one of two things: a) it's a communal bath, or b) since we're sharing the room with three other people, the private bath becomes a de facto communal bath. I'm more inclined to believe it's the latter. We're staying at economy, but then, economy means lots of things. As long as it's clean, I don't plan on spending a lot of time sitting in a room there anyway, especially when it's with three other people not related to me (it's bad enough when it's my brother and sister)

They say to get some money changed over into Euro here before we leave. Well, if I go to my Bank of America branch... we live in a suburb of Tampa... they don't have a ready reserve of Euros in supply, so it would probably take a day or two, so I should probably do that next week. Then again, they just may have a lot of Euros, who knows.

My mom remembers right around when the Lire was getting replaced by the Euro, an old Italian couple came into the bank, when she was working for Bank of America as a manager and regional vice president, and wanted to change it into dollars. They had about 5 million lire... It took quite a while to count and convert it all, but when they did it came out to a lot less than 5,000,000...

I ordered a guidebook today off Amazon... Lonely Planet: Rome. Usually the Lonely Planet guides tend to be good, so I went with that; my cousin had recommended a really good one, but I didn't feel like paying $35 for a guidebook with all the expenses I have. This was only $12. So considering they're a good source and it was $12 ($16 with shipping... I didn't qualify for free Super Saver!) I'm happy.

Sweety is actually going to Rome before me... this Monday in fact. (Have a great time Sweety!) So I'm really looking forward to hearing about her trip before I leave myself. (And you better not forget my postcard either!)

I'm off to study some Italian, so arrivederci ed a presto!

New Luggage and Airline Food

2005-05-03T01:29:00.000-04:00

The Beloved TSA

Yeah, I know... only I would get excited about buying new luggage. But it's still so exciting. I never before had my own set of luggage.

Saturday my mother and sister came across a bunch of Samsonite luggage at over half price at Ross, a department store here where you wind up getting these huge discounts all on name brand stuff. I mean I guess it's a season old, but whoop-dee-do, right? Oh my suitcase is last season's!

Anyway, I wound up getting a 30" and a matching carry on, plus a leather Samsonite messenger tote for $250 total. The price of this season's version of the model of my luggage I just bought (which looks exactly identical) is $320. So I'm traveling in style... and I got a deal! Shopping is always made better when you get a huge deal.

But there's something I've noticed about women, at least every woman I happen to know, and that is they'll buy something that's on sale just for the sake that it's on sale. Never mind that you don't really need it. It's on sale! This alone could explain the success behind Wal-Mart...

Anyway, a thought passed into my mind today when I was thinking of securing my luggage: I remembered that since September 11, it's much more common for the TSA (The Transportation Safety Administration) to go rummaging through your luggage. And of course, you need to lock your luggage. So if my luggage happened to be pulled, what would happen?

Well, I guess I'm not the only one who asks this question, because on their website , along with advice on "what shoes to wear" is a FAQ page which mentions that you should buy one of two approved varieties of locks... Locks that they can easily open without bringing out the jaws of life and ruining your lock and suitcase in the process.

It still bothers me though to think that without my knowledge I could have people rummaging through my stuff. And even worse are the stories I've heard of some shady TSA agents (they don't particularly make a fortune doing what they're doing after all) stealing stuff from people's luggage. Nothing more reassuring than knowing someone's going through your underwear, right? I guess that's a concession we all made in the name of safety. It makes more sense than the old question they used to ask: "Did you pack your own bags?" Well, I'm sure any terrorist who intended to blow up a plane with a bomb in a suitcase certainly would have... That was pretty much the only frontier that used to have to be crossed for checked luggage.

I love some of the stuff they feel they have to mention on their "Permitted and Forbidden Items" list. So I guess that clears up the question of me bringing my favorite ice pick, throwing stars, and meat cleaver aboard the plane with me to Rome...

I stumbled on this site several months ago when randomly browsing the internet... it's called Airline Meals.net, a site devoted to publishing travelers' personal photos of the food they serve aboard each airline. It's amazing to note the difference in service among the classes: the bourgeoisie up in First and Business class get five course meals... the proletariat in coach gets a box meal... if you're lucky! When I'm the person sitting in Business Class someday I won't be complaining.

Anyway, I'll leave you today with my favorite selection, this culinary masterpiece from Air Botswana... mmm... radioactive Kool-Aid!

Bon appétit!

Fijne Koninginnedag!

2005-04-30T02:57:00.000-04:00

Wij houden van oranje... en groote kronen

In honor of Koninginnedag (Queen's Day), which takes place today in the Netherlands, I'm writing this post in orange instead of my usual blue. Orange is the big national color for Dutch events like this, and since I can't be there in Amsterdam with Kim partying it up, this is my way of celebrating...
Not quite the same as being there, but I've already determined I'm making it there for Koninginnedag in the near future. Don't quite know when, but when I happen to be studying abroad, even if I'm in France or wherever, I'm hopping on a train to Amsterdam.

I love how such a small country literally goes crazy on a day like this. We have displays like that here on Fourth of July, but for some reason I've always found my Fourth of Julys to be relatively boring. We always have some kind of barbecue and then it's a neighborhood contest to see which neighbor blew more money on fireworks (last year the record must have been this idiot down the street who spent $15,000 on fireworks... we enjoyed a Disney-like spectacular for over 45 minutes... Hey, I'm not complaining since I didn't have to pay, but I know I wouldn't have done it...) Some people have so many fireworks that you have to hear them going off nightly for the next two weeks...

I think the best way to spend events like this is to be around lots of other people. There's just something about the atmosphere that lends itself to making everything more festive.

Voor al mijn Nederlandse lezers, een fijne Koninginnedag!

Finals Week...

2005-04-28T22:53:00.000-04:00

Finals week is here...

Today was officially the last day of the Spring semester for me. The way it works at American universities is that the week following is then devoted to finals. Some schools I guess have even more time... my friend who goes to McGill University in Montréal was surprised to learn we devote only roughly two hours' time to the taking of a final exam.

Compared to last semester, this is pretty much a light finals week for me. I have one final in French, which honestly doesn't intimidate me much because I study French daily and everything on there should be known by now anyway if you want to have any faculty in the language. The other final is actually just a last exam in Intro to International Studies. I need to study more for that one, but again I'm not stressing. I always feel that if you work continuously throughout the semester then a final shouldn't be that intimidating and require a huge long cram session. Of course, some classes are different. Like last semester I had 100 question final exam, in Intro to Public Speaking, a class where we never once covered any material out of the book. Intro to Public Speaking has a "common" final, meaning the department, not the individual instructor, is the one who makes the exam up. So I had to spend a lot of time reviewing for that stupid class.

Anyway, it's just so relieving to finally be done with this semester. Of course, I still am going down to campus both to go to the gym and for Summer session B, which goes from July into August, for French II. Being that French II uses the same book as French I (French I covered Première étape to Chapitre 5; French II covers Chapitre 6-12) I think it would be smart of me to like go through and start studying vocabulary and stuff from future Chapitres in order to have a head start, because we're going to be moving extremely fast to get three months' work done in one and a half month's time, and at least this way it would help it be less rushed for me. Plus, I need to keep my French up somehow in the next two months.

What's so nice though is now I get to devote for the next... oh what is it now, 25 days, intensive Italian studying, but I also can finally get back into progressing in German.

I'm still awaiting the final itinerary for this trip, they said it should be coming shortly after the beginning of May. I'm so curious as to what we'll exactly be doing, because we only had a really rough itinerary when we got our acceptances. I also eventually have to book the accommodations in Rome, but when my mother is ready to, since she's generously paying for it. I really appreciate that too.

I remember a month back when I told this one German professor at USF who I used to talk quite often to until he shot down my aspirations at every turn (including applying to Georgetown, which is a story I'll perhaps touch on at another time) asked me about where I was staying while in Rome. He had previously suggested I stay in a monestary. I thanked him for the suggestion. Anyway, when he asked where I was staying and I mentioned the great deals on some fantastic hotels in Rome, he started flipping out on me, saying I didn't even consider what he said, and he called me a "spoiled rotten American brat"

To this I took great offense. Neither I nor my family are rich by any means. We live comfortably, but with limitations. In other words, we're middle class. I don't see how pretending you're poor and subjecting yourself to staying in crappy hotels makes the experience better. I'm a very strong proponent of not surrounding yourself in luxury all the time, because you experience a lot when you have a diverse travel experience, but I mean heck, my travel experiences are indeed diverse. I've lived in Jamaica as a normal Jamaican does, and I've experienced with it all the joys of third-world living; meaning coping with power outages and taking a bath in a huge shower/tub in my stepdad's father's house, but with a tub of water because the water service was down. When we moved to Florida, we had only one car, which my stepfather had to use for work, so when I got the flu one hot September day I had to walk the mile and a half home with my mother, vomiting along the way and shivering like crazy.

I don't think it's fair to judge someone like that when you don't know their past. And the scorn he had in his voice was just disgusting. So needless to say, I really haven't been in a rush to talk to him anytime soon. That's what happens when you flap your mouth around freely without knowing someone too well. I enjoy a very comfortable life by many means, I always try and remember people that have it worse off, (but of course it's always easier to be jealous of someone with more.) But I don't know why people feel the need to judge like that.

And to his remark about not being able to experience taking a cold shower in Italy, I just merely responded "no, I take those daily at home"

Ventotto Giorni...

2005-04-26T01:36:00.000-04:00

Firenze

To keep myself motivated for learning Italian (like I wasn't motivated enough) perhaps I should post a different picture of Italy a day, each day for the remaining 28 days until I step foot on the plane to get out of Tampa... No, that would be excessive, but once every few days may work.

I've gone from feeling so overburdened to feeling accomplished, having managed to get my two scholarship essays done this afternoon, reviewed a lesson of Pimsleur Italian I, briefly reviewed some French vocabulary, and just now sat down and finished a page composition en français. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can pound out a document in French as fast as I can in English. All told, at the moment it takes me about a good 35 minutes to get a really well done page in French, because I still don't have all the vocabulary I always need, nor am I completely sure all the time on proper structure. The big thing seems to be when to use en, dans, and à for places and when to use en for dates. But whatever, I'll figure it out (but if any of you French speakers want to advise, feel free...) Today what hung me up was spending ten minutes on French Google trying to find a map so I could find the correct French names of Caribbean islands.

I have to say, I get so jealous when I read these other sites and blogs online of expatriate students living abroad in like Paris or Austria or wherever. They're in the middle of city life, which I just love, and they're living abroad, which I have always wanted to do again since living in Jamaica (and this time actually being able to live in a country where the water and electricity operate 24/7)

It's going to be extremely new to me, going to a non-Anglophone country. I've traveled internationally before, but since most islands, save for the handful of Spanish speaking and Francophone ones, are Anglophone, I've never had the opportunity to leave my Anglophone bubble. It's going to be so great, I'm really looking forward to it! I just hope I don't choke when it comes to speaking Italian, but even if I do the first few times, by the time I'm on my own in Rome I should actually be able to break out of my self-imposed shell, which should help me in all my languages.

Speaking of which, I need to book my reservations for my hotel in Rome for the three days I'm adding on. I think I know where I'm staying, not quite sure yet though. But it has a fantastic rating, and I'm so appreciative my parents don't mind paying for it. I'm actually more interested in seeing where I'll be staying the ten days we're in the group... they stress it's budget. I'm not complaining, as long as it's clean. I've never seen anything quite like Italian hotels though. Maybe they do it elsewhere as well, but you never see hotel rooms in the United States that cram four twin beds in there! Actually, I saw one hotel online in Rome that squeezes four DOUBLE beds in one room. Eight people in a room...

I'm going to see if I can figure out enough in advance on how to post pictures to my blog via my cell phone, so you can get a wonderfully high quality shot each day! Actually, the shot I sent Kim from Disney back in December that she posted on our other blog came out excellent. I was surprised!

I was thinking also, I need to really buy a book I can actually read and enjoy for entertainment instead of purely for factual basis, which is like all I've read since college has started... Back in high school at least the assigned readings in English class were enjoyable novels (my last novel I actually read was back in January 2004 when we finished Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None) I was thinking of the DaVinci Code because everyone except me seems to have read it, including a friend of mine who I've never seen pick up a book in his life. And he read it in one day. Is it really that good? I guess I'll have to judge for myself!

I also reminded myself last night I need to make more time for entertaining myself. Sometimes I honestly need to just relax and laugh, because if I don't my mind just keeps churning at like a mile a minute in my head. So I watched my Saturday Night Live Best of Will Ferrell Vol. 1 DVD (Volume 2 comes later this week) Oh good times. My favorite recurring sketch continues to be the Culps which he did with Ana Gasteyer... the singing middle school music teachers. Oh god, it's hilarious.

While I'm in DVD mode, I was browsing Amazon and I'm not quite sure what my next DVD purchase should be. If I go French it's between Amélie and Monsieur Ibrahim. But I really think I'll go Italian, in which case since I already own my all-time favorite Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) maybe I'll get La Dolce Vita... Decisions, decisions...

Oh and I also need to buy a travel guidebook for Italy. Amazon.com is going to be seeing a lot of my money in the next week or so...

So much to do...

2005-04-25T01:22:00.000-04:00

Yet so little time...

I had to take a minute out and just stop and gather myself back up for a moment. It seems, with this last week of classes before the Spring semester is over, that everything has fallen on my lap at once. I have so much to do, yet I never seem to have the time to do it.

Ironically, much of the stress is from my own doing. I make so much for myself to do. I mean I'm studying three languages for christ's sake. This shouldn't be stressful, it should be fun. Yet it has been a little, because I feel, particularly with Italian, that I'm racing against the clock to learn as much as possible, and to fit as much in my head as I can within the next month before I leave for Italy. Normally I go at a fun and leisurely pace. When I come back I can resume the leisurely pace, I tell myself.

I've been disappointed that I haven't had enough time so as to continue advancing in German, though I've at least reviewed regularly so that while I'm stationary, I'm not rolling backwards.

So it's kind of like a dual between Italian and French at the moment. I just need to remind myself that once the semester is over, and before I start Summer semester in July, I have two months to actually learn quite a bit in advance. So, with that in mind, it eases the pressure.

Actually, on top of all this I have two finish my application for a scholarship. Especially if I get into Georgetown, procuring as much outside financial aid as possible is a huge obligation. So I can't not apply for an opportunity staring me right in the face. This is for the National Italian American Foundation's scholarships, they give out a lot, actually. I didn't win last year (but in a nice side effect because I did apply and get on their lists, that's how I found out about their scholarship for their Italy program, which I was fortunate enough to be chosen for)

So I have to write two essays for that now too.

I guess what I'm going to have to do is take off now tomorrow. It serves little to no purpose for me to make the commute down to Tampa to sit in a class where I won't learn anything anyway. The only reason I go anymore has been French and the gym. And I can miss shoulder and traps day this week if it means spending one day to actually get everything done and get AHEAD of the game.

Thank God this is the last week, because it really has annoyed me that I have to go, sit in classes where I don't learn anything pertinent at all, when I can spend the time learning things on my own that interest me and are of use to me.

So yes, that means today (when I wake up in oh, seven hours) I get to start work on a French composition, 25 pages of mon cahier d'exercices, two essays for the scholarship, squeezing in like an hour and a half of Italian as well, and perhaps getting French vocabulary and German review in too.

And that's on top of making time to just enjoy myself for at least an hour tomorrow, so my mind doesn't implode.

I sometimes wish I could just press a button and stop the progress of time for a while while I catch up with everything... Like in that movie, what was its name... Timestoppers or something (no, I didn't see it)

En moment je vais me couche... Je suis très fatigué...

My Inner European...

2005-04-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful.
You show the world what culture really is.

Who's" Your Inner European?

Hoje é dia não para mim...

2005-04-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

This is probably the only bizarre thing that has yet to happen to me while driving...

If there's one thing that really ruins my day, it's the drive I have to make every day, four days a week, down to Tampa.

In the 50 minutes (and it always takes EXACTLY 50 minutes, no matter how fast or slow I seem to drive) it takes from my driveway to the entrance to USF I wind up nearly getting in at least one or two accidents. This has ranged from a deranged old man chasing after me in his Ford Crown Victoria for 30 miles on the Suncoast Parkway, flashing his brights at me the entire way for no reason whatsoever, or some idiot who never checks their side mirrors suddenly, without warning, deciding to merge into my lane... as I'm driving right alongside them. And you have to love the people who zip in and out of lanes without signals. I'm an expert and knowing when someone is going to change lanes without a signal. Call it clairvoyance from experience.

The thing that reallllly gets under my skin though are these people who insist on driving in the left lane 10 mph UNDER the speed limit. It's bad enough when they do this in the right lane, but when it's a two lane road and the person on the right is going slow and you're stuck behind a piece of junk that's driving 35 mph in a 50, that's incredibly irritating. Even more irritating still when they cause you to miss a traffic light, where you then have to sit behind the scrap heap for 5 minutes, as black smoke belches out the exhaust. Sitting in the car in the Florida sun with no air conditioning on so as to prevent the smoke from entering the cabin, it's not very pretty. We're the fourth most populated state in the country, yet we don't have emissions tests.

Honestly, I wish I had a car like Queen Latifah's taxi in the movie aptly named Taxi (and where the above picture comes from...) Just hit a turbo boost and go speeding by cops and everyone.

Maybe one day we'll all have FLYING cars like on the Jetsons. That would be cool.

The most amusing sight for me, and this is something exclusive to the South, are these people who just abandon their old cars on the side of the highway. Every day driving to or from Tampa, I pass at least two or three cars on the Suncoast Parkway, abandoned for someone else to tow away, collecting a bunch of bright red citations. One car stayed there for an entire week before someone moved it.

I used to love to drive, now it's become a living hell. I knew I was a city boy. Yes, taking the train or the metro and then walking seems a lot more appealing to me.

Well, in other news, today I registered for summer and fall classes, though if all goes according to my plans hopefully I won't be worrying about fall. But no matter, I always have said that the worst thing you can ever do is take something for granted. Therefore, I made sure I set myself up with some great classes for both Summer and Fall. Here it is, for all of you who are oh so curious to know as to what I will be enriching my mind with the remainder of this year:

Summer Semester B (July into early August)

French II- and I have this four days a week from 09:00-11:45, so it's going to be intense. I like to move quickly though. And it's great to be done with Beginning French by August.

Fall Semester 2005:

French III
French Conversation I
Introduction to Linguistics
International Issues and Actors

Yes, I'm sure to those of you who know me well, my schedule seems fitting. It's nice because I have French III and French Conversation I on MWF one following the other. I also am looking forward to Intro to Linguistics, should I be there to take it. At least, as I said, if I don't wind up in Washington, DC this fall, I'll have classes I really will enjoy.

Though then I'll still have that commute...

Écrire avec élégance...

2005-04-17T16:15:00.000-04:00

The language has come a long way...

If there's one thing that bothers me when it comes to written literature, it's the stuff that sounds so overdone that it reeks of heavy thesaurus usage. People seem to think that by throwing in tons of fancy adjectives it makes the paper elegant. Meanwhile all it does, especially if you don't know what you're doing, is make it look like someone's trying too hard.

I've seen so many examples of people doing this, sometimes with saccharine sweet, teeth gritting results. I won't forget one time, coming across this thank you letter au doyen de la fac honneurs that still stands out in my mind as someone who just was trying too much to sound educated that it made this person look like a fool. Every other word was a huge adjective, yet the sentences were incredibly short. People who kiss the proverbial derriere is drive me insane to begin with, but it was so ridiculous to read, and what was more, le directeur thought it was so worthy of people's attention he posts it online for everyone to see.

Williams describes in Lesson 9 of the book Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace the art of elegant writing. None of the points mentioned included confounding placement of huge words. Instead, he emphasizes the careful balance of words, to create a flow. My favorite new literary tool is the chiasmus, which is derived from the Greek word for crossing. In prose, the chiasmus balances two parts out, in an AB:BA pattern.

I have to be honest, when it comes to my own writing I just write. I don't think of "ooh, did I employ chiasmus here," or "I really should use some balanced coordination over there. However, the point I've taken away from the lessons in this book that you can employ to writing in any language, not just English, is that most of these things come with time and revision. You're not supposed to think of this while you write, you look to these elements to improve your paper when it's being edited.

It's always amazed me how different written language can be from spoken colloquial language. I know I talk in a far more relaxed manner than I write. But I've come across amusing individuals, I guess they think that talking like a robot, avoding contractions at all costs and using every huge word they have stored in their head, makes them seem smarter than they really are. Whenever you hear someone talk like they're writing a thesis, you can just turn your mind off right there, lest you loose it (your mind, that is, or your patience, whichever comes first!)

By the way, it's amazing how specific you have to be when searching images on Google. I type in "elegance" and I got, well let's just say I got images that weren't quite what I was looking for in keeping with the theme of this particular post!

Getting Acquainted

2005-04-16T14:13:00.000-04:00

Cinque Terre, in the Italian Riviera

Well, yesterday the NIAF head organizer for the trip to Italy I'm going on in May sent everyone in the group a list of each other's emails, as well as creating a Yahoo board so we can all get acquainted, exchange Facebooks and AIM names and such.

It really has alleviated any nervousness I had been experiencing of not knowing anyone. Everyone has been incredibly nice (I mean none of us know each other, so we're all in the same boat) And what's fascinating is the wide spectrum of people that are going. There's a guy from Harvard, a girl who's a member of a rock band in Texas, a lifeguard from California; people who have traveled extensively and speak other languages, including Italian (one guy is fluent in Italian) and then many who haven't even left the United States.

I think I'm probably going to be one of the youngest people on the trip, at 18. Though I'm not at all bothered by this, because I never have paid much attention to age. The youngest is probably going to be this girl, who I have yet to meet, who was born in 1987, meaning she either just turned 18 or is still 17.

I also am so excited because I had no idea, first of all, that one of the cities we're going to be spending a lot of time in, La Spezia, is actually part of the Italian Riviera. Provincia Liguria, which along with Tuscany is the other provice we're going to be seeing, is part of the Italian Riviera. I also didn't know that we're going to be going outside of La Spezia to famous Riviera spots like Cinque Terre (pictured above). Don't worry, I had no idea where Cinque Terre or La Spezia were before this trip myself!

I still have to finalize plans for the three days I'm adding onto my trip. I'm planning on just staying in Rome, since there's so much to see and do there, and going and staying in Florence or Milan or something would be so far out of the way, since I have to return anyway to fly home from Rome. However, many others are doing this, including one lucky girl who's going to Sicily. But I'm throwing some coins into the Trevi Fountain while I'm there, so I make sure I return, to Rome at least! I do plan on perhaps going to visit my Italian relatives in Campobasso, a small city in the center of Italy. I need to get in contact and make plans regarding that. From Rome, by train it takes about 2.5 hours.

I'm definitely excited!

Everyone Gets a Turn

2005-04-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

Searching for their piece of the American Dream

In the United States, we currently at the moment have been having a long and serious debate about immigration, particularly that of illegal immigrants that frequently come from Mexico. Just last week, a group of armed citizen volunteers that call themselves the Minutemen (after the Revolutionary War colonial troops, for a patriotic touch) started patrolling the Arizona border with Mexico, as this is the most easily violated border in the Southern United States now that California pretty much walled theirs shut.

Illegal immigration is a huge problem. However, it's wrong to paint the Mexicans in particular in a certain light. Many do indeed come here illegally, and there are a portion who can't work and just seem to drain our national services like healthcare and education. However, a good portion do jobs that any naturalized American citizen, especially a native-born white, would never touch. Even if they WERE unemployed, I want to see a former GM factory employee go into a field in California and start picking strawberries and tomatoes.

That strays from the point I'm aiming for. Not only are illegal immigrants looked down upon, but it is an unfortunate fact, and has been since the founding of this country, that immigrants of any stripe are looked down upon and discriminated against. Legal or not.

Everyone gets a turn...

It seems that each group has had to endure a painful initiation process into American society before two or so generations pass and the group's children are considered as American as the original Anglo-Saxon WASP community. First came the Germans, whose descendents now constitute the largest ancestral group in the United States. The real wave started with the Irish Catholics who came over during the mid-1800s. Immediately facing racism and de facto segregation, the Irish were characitured as being dirty, looking like monkeys, and had difficulty getting jobs. "No Irish Need Apply" was such a common refrain that it was made into a song.

During the early 1900s, the main groups to come over were Jews and other Eastern Europeans, particularly Poles, and Italians. Again, they all got to endure a painful process of hate and resentment from the native born Americans.

Being that my ancestry itself is so diverse, and it includes Italian, German, and Irish lineage among others (French, Dutch, and Scottish rounding it off) I have personal stake, and I've studied and heard many stories of the discrimination my earliest ancestors experienced, particularly the Italians.

My great-great grandmother, at the age of 7, had to work in a sweatshop making clothes in New York City's Garment District. What she and countless other Italians had to do back then was the backbreaking dirty work no native born American would do.

Doesn't that sound familiar?

And yet in return, each group faced glaring eyes and cries of suspicion and hate. In time, what I have found to be the most disturbing, is that the very descendents of these immigrants have become as bad as the earliest American WASPs who discriminated against their own ancestors. How quickly we forget, right?

When you stop and consider that the "Mexicans" you mock at the corner, who mow your lawn or build the new skyscraper downtown, or are paving the new road, consider that at one time it's very possible your own ancestor did the same thing. Yet, because we all forget history so easily, we forget where we all came from, and so this cycle just continues.

It seems that in the United States, in most countries in fact, the newest immigrant group gives the old one a break, in a changing of the guard where the new one takes over as the society's whipping boy until other hopefuls come along. Everyone definitely gets their turn, don't they?

J'ai mon nouveau passeport!

2005-04-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

Came pretty quickly too...

I've never seen a branch of the US Government work so quickly, but today, exactly four days from having submitted my application to the US State Department, I got my new passport in the mail.

I go out to the mailbox this afternoon and pull out this long white envelope emblazoned in the corner with "Official US Government Mail" I, being oh so quick, immediately think "Oh my God, what did I do??" It never even dawned on me until I opened the envelope that it would be my passport.

I also got back my old one, from 1994, which I had to submit for processing purposes. They took good care of it, I must say, though it now has two punched holes in the front cover and on the signature page there's a big red stamp that says "CANCELLED: NEW APPLICATION" If I showed up to the airport and presented it, with a picture of myself from 1994 when I was 7 years old, I somehow don't think they would have let me pass by... at least for the sake of national security I would hope not. You never know...

The State Department has changed the passport quite a bit in the 10 years time between my fist and this one. Now they digitally impose your picture onto the inside cover, instead of before when they used to laminate it on. They also now have all these new holographic things on the inside cover, like what they put on all the new money.

And the biggest change is language. The old US passports used to come in English with French, because French is la langue diplomatique. But now, to keep up with the times, there's a third language. Bet you can't guess what it is!

Si, Español.

In actual news, it seems that Americans and everyone in the Western Hemisphere who wishes to travel here will need a passport soon, because the US government has set a new measure where by 2008 everyone entering the country must present a current passport, including to our border with Canada.

This only applies for re-entry to the United States, because Immigration doesn't stamp it when you depart, only for arrivals. It used to be acceptable to travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, etc. with a birth certificate and photo ID, including an old passport.

I like the idea, because if you're going to spend billions to ramp up security measures, yet allow entry to the country from other Western Hemisphere countries to be as easy as showing a birth certificate and driver's license, it seems like a waste. Anyone who plans to travel abroad should make the investment and get a passport, I think. Even if now they DID raise the price to $97... those thieves! But, on the bright side, it's good for 10 years. So I get to present this slightly cockeyed photo of myself to Immigration Officials worldwide until April 1, 2015... I mean I'm generally pleased enough with the picture, but it figures of the two they put in the one where I'm looking a little sideways... I'm actually beginning to think the people at the passport offices must get their kicks looking at the assortment of passport photos people send in with their applications.

God Save the Queen!

2005-04-05T21:44:00.000-04:00

Queen Elizabeth II

After speaking the language for 18 years, and learning how to write in it for probably 14 or 15 of those, it's kind of amazing how much you can still continue to learn. If you look at it the wrong way, you could throw your arms up in frustration, say "I'll never get it right!" and quit trying. But nobody is the perfect writer, and like any skill, it takes practice to improve. As you'll see shortly, no one is safe from crafting a confusing sentence...

Learning how to compose a good sentence is harder than it looks. Too many people try to get around complexity by writing sentences that read like "See Spot run. Spot runs fast." A well crafted, complex, orderly sentence needs to flow, while at the same time maintaining the clarity and coherence of a simple sentence. I've come across sentences that can run nearly as long as a paragraph in itself.

Williams offers some good examples in his book, Style, Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, which I have previously mentioned. In lesson eight he writes about shape of the sentence, including the proper use of modifiers and clauses. It seems that the good people ove at The Herald Sun, a British newspaper, could use to read Williams' book.

What follows is an example of bad sentence coordination in a complex sentence, and also lends itself to a bit of comedy (or horrible prophecy... in which case I hope Her Majesty was duly informed...)

Royal bride to be Camilla Parker Bowles will officially become British queen after fiancé prince Charles takes the throne…Parker Bowles is to marry Prince Charles , who will take the throne once his mother Queen Elizabeth dies, on April 8th…

While not a dangling modifier, it is closely related to the confusion that results when one writes without regard for how it will be taken. It's SUPPOSED to say "on April 8th Camilla Parker Bowles is to marry Prince Charles, who will take the throne once his mother, Queen Elizabeth, dies."Or something like that.

Nevertheless, this just proves there are people in all professions, of all levels of intellgience, and of all ages who exemplify the need to continue to refine our writing.

That, or those guys at The Herald Sun might be trying to give Nostradamus a run for his money...

Those Little Oval Stickers...

2005-04-01T00:14:00.000-05:00

Hmm, where was I when this craze hit?

Apparently I must have been sleeping for the past four years à la Rip van Winkle, because those little oval Euro decal stickers you see everywhere apparently have been popular since 2001. Though I swear I only noticed them about 8 months ago. Maybe the trend took longer to get to Florida, who knows.

Anyway, since I started noticing them, I've noticed these things everywhere. Maybe you have one on your own car.

I had no idea until I looked it up online how crazy it had gotten. I thought these were only made for countries (GB, NL, D, I, etc) but apparently the situation had been hijacked quickly and turned into advertisements for cheap tourist destinations here in the US. Now you can personalize one putting whatever incomprehensible abbreviation you want on it. Like it wasn't bad enough trying to decode people's vanity plates right?

I think the original ones for the countries are still really cool, since it's akin to Euro import car lovers who buy those German replica plates to put on the front ends of their VWs and Audis.

These little oval stickers in fact orginated in Europe as a mandatory badge EU citizens had to put on their cars before the EU nations went over to putting the citizen's nationality on the plate along with the EU star wreath emblem. So they're no longer used. Instead of having to plop a big NL on your car to say you're a citizen of the Netherlands, it's now conveniently located on your tag. Looks a lot better too. I must say, the yellow color in use in Britain, France, and the Netherlands (and other EU nations but these are the ones I know of) are quite an attention getter. Germany, the biggest car loving country of them all, has much more eye pleasing plates.

I just want to know then where the heck I've been if these things have been around for so long.

Well, the stickers have served one useful purpose: they give you something to think about as you try and decode the cryptic message on the back of the Windstar in front of you while in gridlock...

Wolfowitz Wins Over the Europeans

2005-03-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

From the Defense Dept. to the World Bank...

Well, I didn't expect it would wind up causing any tensions, but I didn't expect it to go so smoothly either.

When Bush nominated Deputy Defense Sec. Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank, right on top of naming John Bolton as the US ambassador to the UN (and he's not exactly a big fan of the UN, so I'm certain he'll love his new job...) a lot of people saw it as Bush being really unilateral and basically saying "screw you, we'll do things our own way, thanks" to Europe.

It really kind of is the message we're sending. But whatever. The United States, under tradition, always nominates the head of the World Bank. In turn, the Europeans nominate the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So each holds sway over a different entity. But this was looked at as the US trying to bend the Europeans to doing things our way. If that's the case, they bent a little by offering formal backing today. But then, it's really not worth it and it wasn't expected for them to offer an argument to his nomination. Many people within the World Bank themselves aren't too happy, however.

But we'll see how it turns out. Paul Wolfowitz, if he does his job right, should on many occasions wind up doing things that are not always to his former boss's (that would be President Bush) liking. It's entirely possible that he can do it, and the Europeans seem willing to give him a chance. The World Bank is especially important because of the clout it holds in the international community; it's the entity that grants loans to developing nations, help end world poverty, etc.

The Europeans happen to be as a whole the largest contributors to the Bank and they plan to make their influence felt more in the future. Likely so this can't happen again.

I'm particularly interested because I am considering going for a job in the World Bank in the future, at a time when Wolfowitz will still likely be head of the Bank. So this could be my future big-time boss I'm talking about here. Pretty much it all depends on what area in international affairs I intend to go into. Still making my mind up on that ftront...

What an Ingenious Book...

2005-03-26T22:47:00.000-05:00

What a great book...

It's amazing how much you really continue to learn about your own native language even after you've been speaking and writing in it for years. English is a complicated language, especially to write in. We have tons of different rules, inane spelling, and pronunciation is about as ridiculous as French (particularly due to our borrowing a huge percentage of our modern wordage from French)

This book, pictured above, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity in Grace, always seems to teach me something, with each of the ten lessons that I read. This particular lesson was devoted to the wonderful art of concision. Concision is extremely important. I'm certain I could be more concise, as could everyone.

But at the same time, there's a danger of being so concise and to the point that you lose the effect you wanted to have on your reader in the first place. It can make the writing sound cold or overconfident. So there's a fine line to be walked when it comes to concision. Essentially, as author Williams writes, you have to listen to the reader, because only they know how to be your reader. Yay for willing guinea pigs.

Honestly, I sometimes employ up to a dozen people to read those papers I deem essentially important and worthy of critique. Of course, I've found the greater the pool of judges, the greater the spectrum of critique. One person will praise what another says to omit, and so on.

So that's when I decide to listen to those points that resonate with me and that open my eyes to legitimate problems.

I was amazed that right after reading this particular section, when I went and re-read over my journal analysis that I've been writing for International Studies, the editorial pen went to paper and repetitive words and excessive metadiscourse (filler that we like to add in spoken conversation which is essential to, but can weaken, an essay) went out the window. My what a difference that made.

I do indeed love this book. And it's so nice and short. Why can't all academic readings be this... concise?

A Blow to the European Union

2005-03-24T22:48:00.000-05:00

Chirac: Oui au Union Européenne!

Many Americans may be unaware, but across the pond there has been the development of a union of European nations which is called the European Union, or EU. It's based in Brussels, Belgium, and it serves a role of unifying the individual European states under a single organization. Some envision the EU becoming a "United States of Europe." Others just want the EU to serve a role similar to a large trading bloc. The EU is a big presence in the world today, because it is comprised of a number of the world's largest economies, in effect it now is made up of nearly every European nation, save for the Balkans and some in the far east (Ukraine, Romania) which do hope to enter.

The latest topic of debate in Europe for Europeans has been ratifying a new European Union constitution. Some nations just had their parliaments vote on it. The most significant nations, however, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, just to name a few, have made it open for national vote.

But something has happened that many European politicians never predicted: many Europeans are now Euroskeptics. They aren't so sure that the new Constitution represents their best interest. It's been surprising for a number of International observers (like myself, don't forget I study this stuff!) to see a nation like the Netherlands, which has been per capita the largest monetary supporter of the EU, and even Belgium, which is home to the EU, with small majorities now ready to vote Non or Nee on this new Constitution.

And now it's happening in France. Polls came out today that show a majority of the French would oppose the constitution, prompting President Jacques Chirac, a huge EU backer, to send a warning to the French people

The main reason it seems many Europeans are reluctant to approve this new Constitution is because they worry somewhere in the 200-something page document (yes, 200+ pages; that's certainly longer than the American Constitution... somehow I don't think anyone will ever be able to quote parts of THAT thing!) are provisions that will cause a loss of national sovereignty and give way too much power to Brussels.

Because whatever happens with the EU will affect everyone, yes, even Americans in the middle of rural Idaho, it's important to watch. All it takes is one nation to vote no, and the Constitution is a no-go. And it's very close to reaching that vote in a number of nations, and that's not even including Britain, which everyone thought would be the only real obstacle; they don't vote until 2006.

Some people wonder if the EU will collapse. While I certainly am not betting on that, it still wouldn't ever surprise me if that were to happen. Would that be an end to the whole united Europe experiment, or would they try again? They probably would try again. I don't know if Europeans would be so happy to have to wait at national borderlines again to have their passports stamped. But who knows? It'll be interesting to watch.

Ich lerne drei Sprachen! Je apprends trois langues!

2005-03-24T00:21:00.000-05:00

Speaking My Way Around the World...

Yes, it's true, my current count of languages I am studying has now increased to three.

In addition to German, which I'm learning on my own, and French, which I'm majoring in at school, I now have taken up Italian for my upcoming trip to Italy this May.

I'm an admitted language-nut. I can't go anywhere without making some attempt to know even a little about the language. Thank God I don't plan on going to China or Japan anytime soon.

When it's something you enjoy, as this is for me, it's not hard, it's a fun challenge. I'm one of those people that really likes to challenge myself. And it's surprisingly not very hard for me to do; I just split time up daily amongst the three.

My interest in international affairs, traveling, and languages really all go hand in hand. One just builds upon the other. I've found that languages, as with anything, it's so easy to get frustrated, because you never become fluent overnight. So I focus instead on how each day I make more and more progress. Each new word I learn is another part of a code that allows me to communicate with millions of people around the world.

Each of these languages also happens, incidentally, to be a language ancestors of mine have spoken. How unfair, that they spoke these all from birth, and I have to devote hours to the same!

I can't pick a favorite language either. Each one is so different. Italian flows beautifully; German is just really fun to speak; French sounds sophisticated. I remember how terrified I was the first day of French back in January. I never thought I'd learn so much in just nine weeks.

I'm really excited to be able to use Italian on my first trip to Italy (and Europe, for that matter). It's going to be the first time I ever get to use one of these languages in a native setting. How fun. :-D And it's when you get to use these languages in these settings where it really culiminates and it definitely is worth it. Sure, you can get around speaking English; but the experience is a heck of a lot better if you can speak their language and not have to be stuck within a restricted Anglophone bubble.

Also on my list are Dutch and Spanish. I took Spanish for two years in high school; but the French and Italian have kind of been wiping out whatever is left of that in my brain.

Incidentally, someone who is learning Arabic once told me that it's easier to learn than French (she also has been learning French) which surprised me. I guess once you get a handle on the written script it's possible! French definitely is not the easiest language either. Though I have a French friend who is still learning English; it's comforting to know that she has the same problems I have, and that she thinks we all talk too fast too!

Fluency is still a distant goal, but I'll get there eventually!

Arrivederci, à bientôt, und tschüß!

Wikitravel: Jamaica

2005-03-05T00:40:00.000-05:00

I really had a fantastic time editing the Wikitravel pages. As I mentioned before, I lived in Jamaica for several months when I was a child, so I had significant knowledge to give on Jamaica in particular, to choose just one of many islands I could comment on.

In fact, I got really into writing, and I wrote a LOT. You can find the Jamaica page here. There pretty much was nothing there before I got there. It's easy to discern from overall writing style which are my contributions and which aren't, however I'll list them here so you know where to look:

Added detail to description of Jamaica
Added the 14 parishes
Wrote all the city descriptions: Kingston, Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio
added a resort to Hotels and Resorts (Sandals and Beaches resorts)
Wrote the sections "By Plane" and "By Car" under "Get In"
Stay Safe
Stay Healthy
Respect

It really was fun, and I hope people can benefit from my advice. I could have written even more, but I'm exhausted and I think I made quite a substantial contribution for the day! If you have any contibutions you would like to make yourself, the site is http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page and just search under the Continent in which your country or city is located. It's actually kind of fulfilling...

Willkommen aus mein neues Blog!

2005-03-04T23:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I had a feeling it would come to this, and it did. I'm happy too, I really didn't like Writingblog.org at all. I think it's perfectly feasible to make academic posts on a much better service like Blogger or LiveJournal. Plus, at least this allows creativity.

I know I wrote an introduction before, but that mysteriously disappeared. Seriously, that server had serious problems, I think. But, I digress...

My name's Joe. I'm an International Affairs and French language major; the main function of this blog is to serve for writing for my English Composition II class at the University of South Florida in Tampa. However, when this class is over, I intend to keep it up. I already have another blog which I do in joint conduction with my Dutch friend Kim, who lives in Amsterdam. Well, she did live in Amsterdam. Now she's moving to her first home in the town of Huizen, which is actually Dutch for houses. Creative, no?

Most info about me can be found in my profile. But I'll elaborate a bit here. I absolutely love to travel and I am fascinated with learning languages. I love it. It's not even work for me, it's so much fun. I just found out today that I will be going to Italy in May, so I'm extremely excited. It's the first time I'll ever have been to Europe. The first of many, many travels abroad!

As far as language goes, I am studying German, French, and now, Italian. I also know a bit of Dutch because of my Dutch family and friends, and plan to study that more intensely in the future. I also would like to learn Spanish again someday; I took two years in HS but it was an immense waste of time. It's very hard for me to pick a favorite language, because they're all so unique. I think I like German the most, but it's so close.

That leads me to where I got the name for this blog. Urlauber is a German word for traveler, or, more literally, "holiday-maker." Amerikanische means American. So, Der amerikanische Urlauber
roughly translates to "The American Traveler." I thought it sounded cool. ;-)

Where have I traveled before? I've traveled rather extensively in the Caribbean, to Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, and the Bahamas. Jamaica in particular; in fact, I lived in Jamaica for a few months when I was 7, an experience that I like to consider shaped my life and helped lead me toward a path in international affairs. It's an extremely rewarding field to be in, I think.

I'm really cerebral, but I also love to be active. Bodybuilding is an immense part of my life, I love it. I also love to play many sports just for fun, particulary tennis and swimming. I also love cycling. I just basically like to move!

I also love European cars, particularly German cars. I am a huge car buff.

Well, that's all for now, I'll end this before it becomes an essay in its own right!

Also, feel free to comment in my blog as you'd like. I love commentary!