Monday

A post, because I haven't written in a few days, and I feel like writing. A quick post, because I am going in to work with my mother tomorrow, and so I have to get up... in 6 hours.

This weekend was interesting.

I would just say that the weekend was fun actually, except that a UGA professor killed three people on Saturday, which is very sad. One of them was his wife. The others were members of her community theater group. They haven't caught the guy yet, which is a bit disturbing. I wonder how long someone can make it on the run these days, when he has been so clearly identified.

Twilight was on (big bike race event that everyone uses as an excuse to start drinking at 4pm), so Athens was crowded, and we ended up going downtown super early (like 5pm) on Saturday, and staying until 3am.

CCK performed their NKOTB number again, and I got a complete video this time. Still working on figuring out how to take good video with this camera, but at least this time I remembered I can't rotate it, so I have to hold it landscape!:

Art Travel Diary Thing

While I was traveling in Italy, I tried to draw/paint a little. Mostly we were walking around cities and sightseeing, so I have far more photos than drawings. I'm going to make a little scrapbook/art journal of my trip.

First, I need my CD of photos that I left in Italy so I can figure out how many photos to include. I might add some drawings, because sometimes a photo captures all of the ugly things that you didn't notice when you were taking the picture. With a drawing, you can single out the beauty that caught your eye, and just leave the extra bits out.

Here's a page from the hostel we stayed at in Ravenna. It is my most complete page at this point, and even this one I am planning to add to.

Money Issues

So yesterday, my mom got really mad at me about... well, all sorts of things. One of them being that I spend too much money on things I don't need. I guess she has a point.

I don't do any drugs, and I don't drink much, but I am a little addicted to shopping, eating out, and hanging out in coffee shops. I thought about trying to come up with limits as to how much I could spend on each of these a month, but I decided that, like with any addiction, the best way to work on this problem is to cut these things out entirely. It's too easy to fall back in the habit if I let myself do it "once or twice."

So, from now until... well I'm not sure when. How about August? That's kind of extreme for a ban on eating out, but then again, I will need money saved up for first month's rent. Okay, let's do it. From now until August, I will not eat out or buy any more mochas (unless someone really hot invites me out to eat or get coffee.)

I know my friends enjoy going out too, but I hope you can support me in this. (Oh man, I made myself sound so serious about this now, haha). I'm hoping that we can instead get together to eat in-I need to develop that as a new habit. My inability to cook anything edible is an issue, but maybe I'll work on that too!

I'm going to keep track on here of how long I can go without these things in a sidebar here. I also need to stop spending on crafts and fabric, etc. At least until I have finished the 3 or 4 projects I already bought supplies for. I'm going to keep the chart simple and just stick to not eating out and not going to Walkers.

Michal goes to Poland

Sadness: Michal left to go home to Poland yesterday. Hopefully he'll find his way back here soon!

Boybutante 2009!

This was my first time ever going to Boybutante, a big HIV prevention fundraiser held in Athens, GA every year. It's kind of like a big drag show, but with some non-drag performers mixed in. And hella fun, of course.

I got some videos and photos... a couple good ones in there, but it's hard to take photos of people dancing in bad lighting! I'm proud of my little Canon Powershot! I've uploaded all the decent and semi-decent photos to MySpace, but I'm having some issues with the videos.

Mary Jane getting some money :). I met her cousin when I went to the mall to buy my outfit earlier today. Yesterday. Whatever. The girls at Charlotte Russe were awesome. They asked if I was going to buy accessories to go with the shirt I picked out, and I said "Well... if you can help me pick them out." And they did! I don't usually wear a whole lot of jewelery, etc, but they helped me pick out some nice shiny stuff.

Big pot of money. Some people were giving more than just ones apparently! Those of us up close to the stage took the job of rescuing all the money that went astray and making sure it ended up in the pot. We buried the hundred under the ones after I got this photo, haha.

Athens Mayor Heidi Davidson put in an appearance. I think she goes every year. Best mayor everrrr!!

I didn't get any better quality shots of these girls, but they were awesome. Effie's Club Follies.

And on that note . . . I'd better get to sleep so I wake up in time for lunch tomorrow! Mmm, I just remembered I had ChickFilA for lunch/breakfast today (at like... 2 pm) and it was soooo good. Goodnight!

Drag Show!

I took my camera with us to the drag show on Saturday. Usually I end up leaving it at home because I won't even carry a purse with me when we go out. For now, I'm a little addicted to taking my camera with me everywhere since I got used to having it on hand all the time in Italy.



I was so excited that I got this shot. Mary Jane Dube, the drag queen above, used this photo in a flyer for her latest show!

We brought some straight guys with us. For one of them, at least, he had never been to a drag show or even a gay bar before. He was nervous about it, but had his really nice camera with him and decided he would sit on the stairs of the stage in order to take better photos, haha. I think he was still pretty freaked out, but I guess he was willing to get up close for photographies sake.

The other guy with us sat on the stairs too, to stick close with his friends, and ended up getting danced on a lot by Mary Jane, haha.

Trans Man Mapping Project

I thought this was interesting: I just followed @TransGuys on Twitter (found through @Audaciaray), and on his website he has this map where trans guys can add themselves and see how they are all over the world. It's called the TransMan Mapping Project. So far, I only see one person who has added themselves for Athens, GA.

http://transguys.com/map/

Ears

Mel, Michal and I went to a concert tonight at Caledonia Lounge here in Athens . . . it was very loud. I feel a little bit like an old lady . . . or like I'm back in high school, because that's the type of thing my friends would want to go and see. Maybe I'm thinking of my first year of college? That feels so far away now, haha.

Anyway, I'm all about some acoustics. And Ludacris. "I killed so many men I sell rappers on Ebay!"

Gratuitous photo of cioccolata. It is my new goal to figure out how to make cioccolata calda, italian-style, out of american ingredients.

Ciao Mirko!

I made it to Athens, ahead of the tornadoes, but it was a bit scary! The sky got all gray and swirly above me while I was driving, just as they announced a tornado warning for the county I was driving through.

We ate dinner at Mirko tonight in Athens, which was nice. I miss Italian food, and hearing Italian all around me, and even hearing people speak English with Italian accents. So Mirko was awesome because they have good, real Italian food, and then Mirko the owner came over and talked to us in Italian. He loves us because we study Italian, and not many people around here speak any Italian.

He brought us some free cake, shipped from Milano. "Torta della nonna" and "a cake with lemon" is what he told us.

Also, I wore my new glasses.

Lucca, Italia

Lucca is a small town near Pisa, Italy, but with fewer tourists (I think) because it doesn't have the famous leaning tower of Pisa in it. I didn't actually go to Pisa, so I can't judge, but I absolutely loved Lucca.


Lucca is surrounded by a city wall, and you can rent a bike and cycle around the ramparts. It takes about 20 minutes to circle the old part of the city slower. The above photo is a grassy bit on top of the wall where I ate some pizza for lunch.


I got pizza from this small family-run place. The guy working there was really cute, but didn't speak English, which probably just made him seem even cuter to me, haha. I wanted to get my food to go, so I had to figure out how to explain that in Italian. It turned out to be pretty easy, haha.


It was a beautiful sunny day, but the wall has nice shady trees on it, so it was nice and cool for biking.


I left the city around 4 in the afternoon, to head to Cinque Terre. The light was just hitting the tops of these trees. I took this shot on the gound inside the old part of the city, looking up towards the walls. A few minutes later I walked through the wall to head to the train station, very much wishing I could stay.

Back from Italy!

Yay! I'm home from Italy, and I managed to sleep in until a decent hour, and I'm going to go and pick up my new glasses soon, and go to Athens tonight, and I can upload photos now! Whee!

Except for the 400 photos on a CD I left in Italy, along with half my gifts for people, lol. But they're going to mail that to me. But I'll get them all in the end, so I'm excited about that! It's so typical of me to leave the most important stuff behind, haha.

I have so many good stories from my last couple of days.

I hiked all day with an Australian on Monday. I met these two lovely people from Uruguay on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday I went back to Milan and had a lovely time just hanging out in a park, and playing catch with a Frisbee. I had a great chat with this English couple on the train to Milan as well.

Yesterday I spent most of the day traveling home, but I sat next to a woman who is a designer for one of the top fashion houses in Milan and met the US east coast competitive pizza team in the customs line. The guy who came 4th in the world for freestyle pizza toss showed me a video of his award winning performance on his buddy's digital camera, lol, which was pretty awesome.

Then, when I got to the airport, I randomly ran into Juliana at customs, on her way home from Dubai. Then I found a confused Danish couple, and played tour guide through the airport and helped them find their bags and car rental.

Right now I'm uploading photos to facebook. I have sooo many amazing sunset photos. I have to shower now, pick up my contacts and glasses, and then go to the doctor, so I'll have to write up all of my stories sometime later. I want to remember all the great people I met.

Sunny

Sooo... no hiking for me today, so I just hung out for hours outside. I sat in the sun for awhile. I feel like I should be out there now, taking advantage of the nice weather, but then I might get sunburned.

I decided to go ahead and do laundry since I had 0 clean clothes, but I only have 2 days left that I need clothes for! Oh well. I will have a lot of options for those two days and my bag wont smell like dirty socks!

I was thinking of sunbathing this afternoon, but wanted to shave first, since I havent at all for the last couple weeks while traveling. I couldnt find any razors or shaving gel here, just 'depilazore'. So I gave it a go. But I think theres a secret to using it right, because it barely worked at all. I have never managed to use that stuff effectively...

The Italians who live here started putting their boats into the water today... My goal for today was to meet a hot Italian boy with a boat. No luck so far, but 5.30 is by no means the end of the day!!

There was a really cute boy in Lucca, working at his family restaurant. Maybe I should go back there and get him and bring him home with me...

Hiking

I spent today hiking in the Cinque Terre, these five little towns along the coast of Italy. I am staying in Manarola, so I started out from here, intending to walk to the next town along and paint a bit.

I ran into an Australian, and we ended up walking to the next 3 towns along. Whooo, about 4.5 hours of walking, although with breaks for lunch and a couple of Fantas.

I have lots of great photos to post, especially of the sunset. Tomorrow, maybe I will actually draw or try to get some sun on the beach.

My australian hiking buddy and I didnt make any plans to meet up tomorrow, so I will start out on my own again, but there are quite a lot of people around here to meet. Lots of Germans.

Haha, I just remembered one German guy heard us talking today and asked me why there are so many Americans here now. I think that they are not happy to share their great holiday spot! Also, I am the only American I know here, so maybe there arent that many of us after all, haha.

Lucca

Lucca is awesome. It is a teeny Italian town where you can bike around the whole city on the ramparts (top of the city walls.)

Also, there was a really cute boy working at the pizza shop there.

Now I am at the coast again (a different coast than before.) I am in Manarola. I am going to go for a walk now to stare at the water and think about hiking.

Cinque Terre

We skipped out on seeing most of Firenzes sights and went to Siena yesterday instead. It is a lovely little city, filled with happy tourists having fun. We had a great cheese and meat plate as our dinner at this little butcher shop.

Today I am going to Lucca. It is near Pisa, but looks a little prettier in my book. Apparently you can rent a bicycle and cycle around the ramparts, haha.

Then, this afternoon, I will move on to Manarola, a small town on the coast. Im staying there for 3 nights, and then back to Milan for a night, and back on a plane to Georgia.

Alright, time to go and catch a train!

Birthday in Firenze!

Today we are in Firenze. The train to get here was great. It only took 2 hours, so we got here nice and early at 11 am and had the whole day to walk around.

It is very crowded here though, which is a bit of a shock, as we were in Assisi yesterday, and staying in this very tiny town called Torricella on Lago Trasimeno in the middle of Umbrian hills.

Assisi is absolutely amazing. The town is like a miniature city, because it is all paved, but it is also like a small village, because the old part is fairly small, and everyone has little vegetable gardens.

We started out at the Basilica of St. Francis, which was great. Dad and I sat and drew St. Francis tomb for awhile. All while we were there, we could hear the monks singing.

We climbed to the top of the city, stopping at a castle on the way. I had this amazing pasta with truffles in it. I decided that from now on we should only eat at restaurants mentioned in our guide book. Today we stopped at this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant at the mercato in Firenze, because it was mentioned in our book. I had the most amazing ravioli ever... mmm...

I think, because of the crowds, we will go to Siena tomorrow. Siena might be crowded too, of course, but it will be nice to go back to a smaller city. We saw the Duomo today, and Donatellos statues. There is more to see, but we dont have reservations to see Uffizi or the Accademia anyway, so we would not be able to see the top Firenze sites anyway.

All the photos I have posted were taken by my father, by the way, because I cant upload photos from my camera without the software installed, so Ill have to wait until I get home!