Wednesday, February 27, 2008
On a whim ...
I cut my hair. I mean, I got a hair cut - I didn't do any cutting! But I did go short, shorter than it's been in the past 7 years. The few people I've seen seem to love it, or are just being really nice, I'm currently undecided, but I do love how light it feels. Anyway, I took a quick picture on photobooth so everyone can see:
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
In case there was any question ...
I really do have the world's best parents.
I came home after lectures today to find that my "Easter basket" had arrived from Schwenksville. Because I'll be traveling over Easter, my parents had sent the package early. I opened it to find the two things that any girl studying in the UK could need: marshmallow peeps and kraft parmesan cheese! But my Mother's arts-and-craftiness took this package to a whole 'nother heartwarming level:
In other news, I'm keeping extremely busy with writing papers, exploring Edinburgh, studying for the GRE, and researching PhD programs. Speaking of the GRE, I take it in 3 months and 15 days - so I should get back to those quantitative problem sets and studying my daily root words!
I came home after lectures today to find that my "Easter basket" had arrived from Schwenksville. Because I'll be traveling over Easter, my parents had sent the package early. I opened it to find the two things that any girl studying in the UK could need: marshmallow peeps and kraft parmesan cheese! But my Mother's arts-and-craftiness took this package to a whole 'nother heartwarming level:
In other news, I'm keeping extremely busy with writing papers, exploring Edinburgh, studying for the GRE, and researching PhD programs. Speaking of the GRE, I take it in 3 months and 15 days - so I should get back to those quantitative problem sets and studying my daily root words!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Venice: The Unabridged Version
Today being a (relatively) lazy Sunday and the foggiest day I've seen in Edinburgh thus far, I decided I should sit down and give a more detailed account of Venice. The problem is that I've been back for 5 days, so details aren't as fresh, but I'll try and recount what I can.
Thursday/Friday: Jules friend Fabio was nice enough t
o give us a ride to the airport where we split nachos while waiting for our delayed flight. When we got to our gate, we discovered that we were flying to Dublin with a group of 34, extremely intoxicated, high school students who proved to be highly entertaining. After our short flight, we had six hour layover in Dublin where we ran queue races and pushed constance around on a cart before settling down to sleep on the Starbucks couches. The Starbucks manager kicked us out around 4AM so Katie and I watched a country-western infomercial while the others slept on different couches. We finally boarded our plain to Venice, which we used to catch a bit more sleep. The views the Alps were stunning, but shortly after we 
learned that Trevisio airport was too foggy to land, so our plane literally flew in circles for half an hour while we waited to see if it would clear. Since it didn't clear at all in that time, though, we had to land at another airport - two hours away from Trevisio! It was a tiny airport though, clearly made for private planes, so after waiting for everyone to get stamped by the one customs agent (I was actually surprised they even had one), we boarded buses to Trevisio. Once we arrived at Trevisio, we were able to catch a bus to take us to Venice!
Once we were in Venice we wandered along canals until we settled on a place to eat lunch. We had fabulous pizza and made origami out of our place
mats before setting off to explore more. It was around the time of this lunch that our fascination with Venetian children began. First, there was the 4 year old in a full pirate costume (complete with drawn on beard) riding his power wheels outside our restaurant. Then after lunch, we walked past a little girl attacking a wall with pink silly string. From that point on, a great deal of conversation seemed to revolve around the merits of different children's costumes, and if we had to pick one to be ours, which one we would choose. We spent most of Friday afternoon just wandering around the main areas of Venice. We checked out different mask shops until we finally settled on the ones that we bought. We also listened
to different musical performances and snacked on candied nuts bought from one of the many street vendors and ducked into a couple of cafes for cappuccinos. Next, after putting on our masks, we went to San Marco, Venice's main square, where we were delighted to see many people in costume - but disappointed to hear Justin Timberlake and many other American pop artists playing. Finally, we caught a boat to Guidecca, one of the nearby islands that our hostel was on. Guidecca, like absolutely everywhere else in Venice, was beautiful. We checked into our hostel and explored the island for awhile before grabbing a late dinner. Finally, we just crashed relatively early because to catch up the sleep we didn't get in Dublin.
Saturday: Saturday
we got up quite early to start exploring. After rolls, yogurt, and cappuccino's at the hostel, we caught a boat back to Venice's main island. We walked through the main areas where Carnival activities were being held - with thousands of other tourists. We ducked into an art gallery, ate amazing pastries, and listened to a German band play Sweet Child of Mine and other Guns 'n Roses songs. After we got a bit overwhelmed by the tourists, we followed Jules lead to another part of the island where there were no tourists to be found. We wandered along canals and through parks for most of the morning exploring whatever passage ways or cathedrals we found intriguing. We stretched lunch at a tiny restaurant full of locals over a few hours and then set out to explore more, eventually heading back to the main 
tourist areas. We road the bumper cars and watched Venetian children chase each other with silly string while listening to some traditional music performances. After exploring some more of the island we headed back to Guidecca for late dinner and changing to go meet on of Jules friends who took us clubbing. The difference between Venice and DC or Nova Scotia, is that things stay open much, much later. Jules friend Andre picked us up at midnight, but took us to an American themed bar (which served nothing but peanuts, beer, and soda) because midnight was far too early to get to a club. The bar was highly enjoyable though, and we sang along to all of the classic 1950s and 1960s pop songs they played - especially to the Grease montage - but I enjoyed the very random montage of songs from The Blues Brothers the most. When it got closer to 2AM we headed off to the club, which was extremely nice and a lot of fun. As Constance pointed out it was nice to be at a "proper club," and we all had a good time dancing along to mostly American music and an announcer who kept repeating how "posh" the place was. It was nearly 5AM when we left, but the boats only run once an hour during the night so we had a snack near the boat stop and finally made it back to our hostel at 6AM.
Sunday: After our late night, we slept in until noon on Sunday and then got pizza for brunch on Guidecca. Once back on the main island we walked around San Marco admiring costumes for awhile and then set off for another less touristy area. We continued to wander and discovered street performers, jazz musicians, art galleries, etc. and drank a few cappuccinos along the way. Amongst one crowd watching a street performer, we found our favorite Venetina child: tiger baby. She was a probably three years old, dressed up as tigger, and walked everywhere with her nose upturned. By the end of the afternoon we had walked
to the far north of the island, so we took a boat all the way back down to San Marco which offered some absolutely stunning views. We searched for the perfect dinner restaurant for quite awhile and then had a nice, long dinner of amazing pastas and then topped it off with some more candied nuts from the a street vendor for dessert. After our late dinner, we headed to a jazz-funk festival which was cold and rainy, but still great. We wandered off for gelato at one point and came back to discover that a DJ had taken over so we danced in the drizzly rain in the crowd full of people in costume. Constance and Katie then had the brilliant idea to take pictures with people in the funniest costume, which we did for awhile until the DJ stopped playing and we wandered back to San Marco. San Marco was relatively dead by this point, but the rest took pictures (my battery had died by right before dinner), while I practiced my cartwheels through the square. Finally, we caught a boat back to Guidecca and split a bottle of wine in the main hostel area before heading to bed.
Monday: We got up early and had breakfast at the hostel and then did some more exploring on Guidecca. I had to leave Monday (the others stayed until Wednesday morning), so we took the long boat route to the bus station which allowed us to see a lot more of Venice. After exploring the area around the bus station a bit, I finally had to bid the other three farewell and get on my bus to the Trevisio airport. The trip back was relatively uneventful - but long. I got on the bus at 12:10 Monday afternoon and arrived in Edinburgh at 7:30 Tuesday morning (with a flight to Liverpool, a 4 hour wait at the Liverpool bus station, a layover in Manchester and finally a six and a half hour bus ride to Edinburgh in between).
Finally here are two pictures Jules took after I left, when they climbed one of the towers in Venice, but I just wanted to share because I think they almost manage to capture just how beautiful Venice is:
Thursday/Friday: Jules friend Fabio was nice enough t
o give us a ride to the airport where we split nachos while waiting for our delayed flight. When we got to our gate, we discovered that we were flying to Dublin with a group of 34, extremely intoxicated, high school students who proved to be highly entertaining. After our short flight, we had six hour layover in Dublin where we ran queue races and pushed constance around on a cart before settling down to sleep on the Starbucks couches. The Starbucks manager kicked us out around 4AM so Katie and I watched a country-western infomercial while the others slept on different couches. We finally boarded our plain to Venice, which we used to catch a bit more sleep. The views the Alps were stunning, but shortly after we 
learned that Trevisio airport was too foggy to land, so our plane literally flew in circles for half an hour while we waited to see if it would clear. Since it didn't clear at all in that time, though, we had to land at another airport - two hours away from Trevisio! It was a tiny airport though, clearly made for private planes, so after waiting for everyone to get stamped by the one customs agent (I was actually surprised they even had one), we boarded buses to Trevisio. Once we arrived at Trevisio, we were able to catch a bus to take us to Venice!Once we were in Venice we wandered along canals until we settled on a place to eat lunch. We had fabulous pizza and made origami out of our place
mats before setting off to explore more. It was around the time of this lunch that our fascination with Venetian children began. First, there was the 4 year old in a full pirate costume (complete with drawn on beard) riding his power wheels outside our restaurant. Then after lunch, we walked past a little girl attacking a wall with pink silly string. From that point on, a great deal of conversation seemed to revolve around the merits of different children's costumes, and if we had to pick one to be ours, which one we would choose. We spent most of Friday afternoon just wandering around the main areas of Venice. We checked out different mask shops until we finally settled on the ones that we bought. We also listened
to different musical performances and snacked on candied nuts bought from one of the many street vendors and ducked into a couple of cafes for cappuccinos. Next, after putting on our masks, we went to San Marco, Venice's main square, where we were delighted to see many people in costume - but disappointed to hear Justin Timberlake and many other American pop artists playing. Finally, we caught a boat to Guidecca, one of the nearby islands that our hostel was on. Guidecca, like absolutely everywhere else in Venice, was beautiful. We checked into our hostel and explored the island for awhile before grabbing a late dinner. Finally, we just crashed relatively early because to catch up the sleep we didn't get in Dublin.
Saturday: Saturday
we got up quite early to start exploring. After rolls, yogurt, and cappuccino's at the hostel, we caught a boat back to Venice's main island. We walked through the main areas where Carnival activities were being held - with thousands of other tourists. We ducked into an art gallery, ate amazing pastries, and listened to a German band play Sweet Child of Mine and other Guns 'n Roses songs. After we got a bit overwhelmed by the tourists, we followed Jules lead to another part of the island where there were no tourists to be found. We wandered along canals and through parks for most of the morning exploring whatever passage ways or cathedrals we found intriguing. We stretched lunch at a tiny restaurant full of locals over a few hours and then set out to explore more, eventually heading back to the main 
tourist areas. We road the bumper cars and watched Venetian children chase each other with silly string while listening to some traditional music performances. After exploring some more of the island we headed back to Guidecca for late dinner and changing to go meet on of Jules friends who took us clubbing. The difference between Venice and DC or Nova Scotia, is that things stay open much, much later. Jules friend Andre picked us up at midnight, but took us to an American themed bar (which served nothing but peanuts, beer, and soda) because midnight was far too early to get to a club. The bar was highly enjoyable though, and we sang along to all of the classic 1950s and 1960s pop songs they played - especially to the Grease montage - but I enjoyed the very random montage of songs from The Blues Brothers the most. When it got closer to 2AM we headed off to the club, which was extremely nice and a lot of fun. As Constance pointed out it was nice to be at a "proper club," and we all had a good time dancing along to mostly American music and an announcer who kept repeating how "posh" the place was. It was nearly 5AM when we left, but the boats only run once an hour during the night so we had a snack near the boat stop and finally made it back to our hostel at 6AM.
Sunday: After our late night, we slept in until noon on Sunday and then got pizza for brunch on Guidecca. Once back on the main island we walked around San Marco admiring costumes for awhile and then set off for another less touristy area. We continued to wander and discovered street performers, jazz musicians, art galleries, etc. and drank a few cappuccinos along the way. Amongst one crowd watching a street performer, we found our favorite Venetina child: tiger baby. She was a probably three years old, dressed up as tigger, and walked everywhere with her nose upturned. By the end of the afternoon we had walked
to the far north of the island, so we took a boat all the way back down to San Marco which offered some absolutely stunning views. We searched for the perfect dinner restaurant for quite awhile and then had a nice, long dinner of amazing pastas and then topped it off with some more candied nuts from the a street vendor for dessert. After our late dinner, we headed to a jazz-funk festival which was cold and rainy, but still great. We wandered off for gelato at one point and came back to discover that a DJ had taken over so we danced in the drizzly rain in the crowd full of people in costume. Constance and Katie then had the brilliant idea to take pictures with people in the funniest costume, which we did for awhile until the DJ stopped playing and we wandered back to San Marco. San Marco was relatively dead by this point, but the rest took pictures (my battery had died by right before dinner), while I practiced my cartwheels through the square. Finally, we caught a boat back to Guidecca and split a bottle of wine in the main hostel area before heading to bed.
Monday: We got up early and had breakfast at the hostel and then did some more exploring on Guidecca. I had to leave Monday (the others stayed until Wednesday morning), so we took the long boat route to the bus station which allowed us to see a lot more of Venice. After exploring the area around the bus station a bit, I finally had to bid the other three farewell and get on my bus to the Trevisio airport. The trip back was relatively uneventful - but long. I got on the bus at 12:10 Monday afternoon and arrived in Edinburgh at 7:30 Tuesday morning (with a flight to Liverpool, a 4 hour wait at the Liverpool bus station, a layover in Manchester and finally a six and a half hour bus ride to Edinburgh in between).
Finally here are two pictures Jules took after I left, when they climbed one of the towers in Venice, but I just wanted to share because I think they almost manage to capture just how beautiful Venice is:
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