Love that dirty water

Back from Italy with one day to spare before I hop a plane back home. Like capital H Home--America!

Italy was a mix of things. Venice was a sticky, hot, tourist trap with dirty canals. It stole our money and fed us overpriced, mediocre food. I'm convinced that no Italians live there. They just float on over everyday to work for the tourists. We stayed at a really nice hotel in a great location (thanks Mom!), about five minutes' walk from St. Mark's Square, but we were on the top floor in a room with broken a/c, and, à cause de the super high temperatures, we had to sleep with the windows open to catch the tiniest breeze. Because said breeze was so tiny, I slept on top of the covers for most of the first night, and thus woke up to find twenty or thirty itchy bites on my arms, legs, and face. (What bug bites a F A C E ?! I mean really, how much blood can there possibly be in my forehead?)

We discovered the next night that the room was infested with mosquitoes who were coming in from the opened window (better those than bedbugs, right?). Between the two of us, Jordan and I probably got about two hours of sleep on account of what he described as Kamikaze mosquitoes. Just as we were about to fall asleep, they would dive bomb onto our bed and attack. It is nearly impossible to dormir when a thousand mosquitoes are buzzing half a centimeter from your ear. Or maybe it was only one. Regardless, by the end of it all, it (or they) inflicted at least sixty mosquito bites on every exposed part of my body (I counted). Even my toes. So that was Venice.

Rome, on the other hand, was ah-mazing! Yay for the Waldorf Hotel and the hop-on hop-off bus! We did a lot of walking, ate delicious food (Santopadre restaurant is a must if you're in Rome), saw tons of ruins and other historic things that after a while were hard to keep track of because they all started to look the same after the third or fourth pass. The only drawback was that because of time restrictions, we were pretty much forced to do Rome in a day and a half. Definitely not enough time to tour 2000+ years of history, but we made it work.

ALSO, we went to the Vatican, which means we saw the Sistine Chapel! Once we finally found our way through the maze of the Vatican museum, we arrived at the chapel, which had a no photos sign prominently displayed at its entrance. However, as soon as we stepped inside, complete pandemonium ensued. The room was literally packed wall to wall with tourists, and everyone, E V E R Y O N E was taking pictures left and right. Some were even bold enough to use flash! A tourist to security guard ratio of about 200 to 1 = anarchy and snap shots at will.

In any case, the weather was beautiful for our whole trip. Will definitely have to go back to Italia some time [soon? i hope.].

As for my last day in Paris (this post has been written over the course of about ten hours or so....please forgive its lack of cohesion, fluidity, style, etc.), after I dropped Jordan off at the airport, I had lunch in my favorite café, Bo Zinc (I have kind of a huge crush on one of the waiters there....another reason to return to Europe? Haha), then returned to Françoise's house just in time to evade a torrential downpour that lasted for about an hour and a half, and prevented me from properly enjoying my last day here. Womp womp. So instead I watched Ugly Betty online, tidied up, and when the sunshine finally poked through, went shopping! After dinner (a baguette au tradition with comté cheese and an apple--how Parisienne of me), I walked to Trocodero just as the Eiffel Tower was doing its sparkly light up thing at the top of the hour. I sat there for about half an hour enjoying the view for one last time before strolling back home. Small h home.

Tomorrow, Home. Yeah.

Curtain

"Paris, c'est fini? Ça va te manquer?"

You're done with Paris. Will you miss it?

Question of the day. Answer: hell yes. I spent my final Thursday evening in Paris sitting at Trocadero in front of a lit-up Eiffel Tower at about midnight shooting the breeze with Mark Anthony, Trevor, Patrick. (This after one last round of Mark Anthony signature chocolat chaud.) MA had a few bottles to finish off before he goes back to the States in a couple days, so we installed ourselves on a bench and passed about two hours taking in la Tour Eiffel one last time.

Will I miss it? Yes and no. The Eiffel Tower is pas grand chose, in my opinion. That is to say, it's not really all that spectacular. However, I must admit that though impress me it may not, whenever I pass it and it's all lit up by the evening sun, I get this sort of giddy feeling, like I can't believe I actually live here.

Lived. here. Not to get all sappy and poetic over that big iron K'Nex structure, but Paris is pretty freaking sweet, and passing four months here has been a surreal pleasure. And now it's over. Things I will miss? Boulangeries, wine, café au lait, coca cola with real sugar, the sun setting over the seine, the friends that I have made. Things I'm excited to go back to? Familiarity, my family (though they have all been to Europe this semester to visit me!), my bed, television, lack of sketchy African men asking my hand in marriage, peanut butter.

Everything is pretty much all wrapped up. Internship is finished, all my reports are written, we've begun the goodbyes (which suck). But hey, time to move on. I'd like to apologize in advance for the franglais that will ensue when I return home. After four months of speaking French, there are just some words that escape me in English. So bare with me.

Not to end on a sad, sappy note, Italy in two days! Here's to pizza, spaghetti, and gelato everyday for one week! Oh yeah, and lots and lots of house wine. :)

:: yea for 5 second shutter-speed! ::