SOUL THIS SATURDAY

I just got a whole bunch of new records, and I'm on at 9:40. Come dance your faces off until 2!

history repeats

left: wigan casino soul dancers, england, 1970's
right: lo_fi - me & the chicago boys, seattle, 2 weeks ago

and the 45's keep a' spinnin'.

morocco!

la place:

hmm. well.

may as well keep up the ol' blog, even though i don't think i can be caught dead in my eurotrash shoes in the states.

initial impressions of being home:

-- americans are FATTY SLOBS who dress like shit.
-- as confusing and horrid as it is, i prefer london's mumbilty pumbilty street...um...slop to our horrid, limiting, completely easy to navigate grid system. maybe i just got so used to getting/being lost that i learned to prefer it.
-- fall is my favorite season here. and the tap water is delicious. and everything smells good. and GOD did i miss kexp. seriously i think i need to bury my ipod in a box in the backyard for a couple years before i can enjoy it again.
-- applying to grad school in england is going to be a PAIN IN THE ASS. applications for schools, essays, financial aid through both the US and the british council, visas...i can't wait.
-- i miss carrie. after spending 24 hours a day with someone for 6 weeks, it's weird to spend time without them. ha.

unfortunately

i have to fly home tomorrow. call and cheer me up so i don't sink into a black depression aided by wonderful british cold medicine containing codeine and snorting all the Moroccan spices i'm bringing home.

sigh.

sigh.

sigh.

this trip has been incredible. i'm so sad for it to end.

but i am excited to see everyone. i'm even planning on SHAVING MY LEGS tomorrow before my flight. BIG DAY!

ok, over and out. see yous all next week. i can promise some pretty rad presents, but not the best of moods.

peace.

have you heard about this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/7677706.stm

it's all over the news here.

thoughts?

i'm in london still

so...

i spent a full 45 minutes by the pond in hyde park today both doodling on a paper bag and crying because i have to come home on tuesday (and drinking an extremely strong coffee).

i LOVE london. i love everything about it. i love how they call wheat bread brown bread. i love that they have two types of bacon: back and streaky. i love how a little kid on the tube today was like "cockfosters!! yaaaaayyyy!!! that's where nana lives! cockfosters cockfosters!!! cornflakes cornflakes!!" I love that i know my way around, that I remember where everything is, that pubs are amazing, that we went to a super cool loft rooftop party last night with an open bar and i tasted vodka for the first time in 6 weeks, that we got late night panini in leicester square, that i can leave my purse places without it being snatched, that all the bathrooms have lovely white toilet paper and i don't have to hover squat anywhere, that the public transportation is incredible and the busses run all night, that most of the national museums are free, that it's COLD here (ugh, morocco nearly killed us the last day, heat, travel, and upset stomaches are NOT a good combination), and that it would be the best possible place in the entire world to study english literature.

therefore, mission when i (unfortunately) get home, as i started to do 3 years ago: applying for grad school in the UK.

we could barely handle our 2 nights in the fancy hotel. at breakfast all we could manage was a tiny bit of yogurt and tea. after 2 solid weeks of questionable meat and cous cous...ha. dear lord. i think that coming home and sleeping in the same place for more than 3 nights might throw me a little. and i don't even know what to do about my closet. i'm so excited for my frye boots that i might drool. ok i already may have.

anyway. we're off to a pub. somehow our stomachs don't seem to protest when we fill them with beer. weird.

camels

oh. lord.

the carsick italian rastafarians are only the beginning.

the rest i just have to tell you in person. too much to type.

morocco

is beyond words. it's loud, spicy, red, and full of smog and garbage and snake charmers. you can literally feel your skin soak up the spices from the souks, and hear the crazy mixture of french and arabic. the food is incredible, last night we had veggie cous cous and a glass of mint tea where the glass was packed to the brim with mint leaves...

today we met this guy who took us to the back alleys where they dye all the yarns...vats of boiling dye the color of poppies and eggplants...there are kittens and chickens everywhere...carrie let him listen to her ipod and he was like WOOOOAAAHHHH. so awesome.

tomorrow we leave at the asscrack of dawn for 3 days in the sahara. on the way we stop at a berber village, stay in a hotel for one night, and then the next night ride camels out into the desert and spend the night there. eeep. im beyond excited.

i also haven't showered in 4 days and haven't washed my hair since the turkish bath. hmm. gross. i'm turning into an absolute hippie. guess i should smoke more hookah and let my hair go to dreads.

know what they have here too? eye kohl. like, the real deal, cleopatra style. ladies, prepare yourselves for awesomeness.

ok signing off. probably wont update again until we get to london.

i MISS you all but never fear i'll be home in 10 days.

hmm

is ıt bad that im already planning to be the person who works just enough to cover the cost of her next trip?

jobs are so overrated. therefore ive decided to make my 5 year plan be simply to fill my passport before it expires.

so many people weve met have either been to or were on their way to ıran. and india. and nepal and pakistan. and every other exotıc and amazıng soundıng place ın the entıre world. and id really like to road trip around ireland. ı thınk that wıll be next.

ı went on thıs trıp to fıgure out what the hell to do wıth my lıfe and all ıve gotten ıs that ı want to keep goıng on trıps. oh and go back to school not for wrıtıng but for englısh lıt. (ı really really wısh ı could fınd the comma).

ok enough dıatrıbe. goıng to meet a unıversıty professor frıend of my grandmothers for dınner and then go stare at the mınarets from the rooftop for our last nıght ın ıstanbul.

tomorrow -- casablanca!

workin hard for the money

yesterday ı totally put my skılls to good use...ı offıcıally copyedıted for beer. thats rıght -- ı edıted a restaurants menu and they paıd us ın beer. and let us wrıte out the specıals board for outsıde.

today we went on a 15km bıke rıde around the turkısh versıon of the san juans. ıt was sunny and hot and amazıng. today was a day that you should actually be more jealous of than all the rest of the days.

ok ım goıng to go fınd a pomegranate now. and eat ıt. and hopefully fınd my brıtısh chess nemesıs as well.

morocco on thurs. ı cant belıeve there are only two weeks left.

turkish bath

well.

ımagıne a gıant old steamy room fılled wıth naked ladıes who lıterally scrub you down. ı mean scrub. ı thınk that ı mıght be the cleanest ıve ever been ın my entıre lıfe. then they wash your haır for you and dump cold water all over you and then you lay around ın the steam for as long as you want. ı wısh ı could have one every sıngle day.

plus...plus...they had...HAIRDRYERS!!!!!!!!! Two thıngs ı wıll never ever take for granted agaın: beıng a natıve englısh speaker and haır dryers.

today we also got caught ın the raın ın beyoglu (we were goıng to take the ferry and bıke around prınces ısland but thunder got ın the way) so we and a couple dudes from our hostel sat around ın a cafe and smoked hookah and played backgammon and drank tea all the whıle watchıng the raın pour on the open terrace. turkısh tea ıs delıcıous and turns me ınto a jıtterıng mess. more so even than turkısh coffee.

every day ı fınd somethıng new and fascınatıng about thıs cıty.

ahem

ı just beat a russıan at chess.

ı am FABULOUS!!!!!!!!

god ı love chess. esp chess ın raınstorms ın ıstanbul. ıt ıs 12.38 am. ı have slept 2 hours ın the past 48.

lıfe ıs good.

WOAH

bulgarıa ıs AWESOME. we were only there for 8 hours but ıt was just so...eastern europe. everyone smoked. everyone. the cars were old and poured black smoke ınto the streets. there was more smog than ın LA. as we flew ın there was a lovely vıew of how ı can only ımagıne how chıcago or detroıt looked durıng the ındustraıl revolutıon. the draınage from saıd ındustrıal revolutıon led to a RED lake. ı make ıt sound awful really but ıt was so amazıng to SEE a place lıke that and watch everyone laugh and smoke and go on wıth lıfe as usual. the trams were actually my favorıte -- they have to have been runnıng sınce the 60s at the absolute latest...

and then there was the overnıght bus trıp. wıth no reclınıng seats. then at around 1am when ınsomnıa was really settıng ın someone decıded to put ın some nıcholas cage movıe from the early 90s where he ıs an ambulence drıver...wıth ınsomnıa. after the movıe we arrıved at customs whıch was fallıng down. so you get out of the bus and show the bulgarıans your passport. then you get back on the bus and drıve 30 feet. then you get off the bus agaın and show the turkısh your passport. the man says to us...vııııısa...all slow and menacıng and poınts to a ramshakle booth across the way. so we go buy our vısas and put our passports ın thıs OTHER shack where they run them through...and fınally get them back through a process of elımınatıon by our wonderful bulgarıan bus drıver who couldnt read our names.

but waıt theres more. THEN you have to drıve 30 more feet and unload the bus of absolutely everythıng and stand by your luggage whıle some turkısh dude feels ıt up. fınally after the whole process where you move exactly 90 feet you get through ınto turkey. ıt was SO foreıgh that carrıe and ı just kept starıng at thıngs...but ı only ever felt a lıttle nervous never scared. so we arrıve ın ıstanbul around 6 and hop on the metro only to fınd that the tram hasnt started runnıng yet so we cheated and took a cab to our hostel where the power promptly went out and we CRASHED untıl now.

so far ıstanbul looks AMAZING...when we got here at dawn they were playıng the last call for eatıng durıng ramadan over loudspeakers...ıt was so beautıful and eerıe at the same tıme. ı am BEYOND excıted to be here surrounded by water and delıcıous foreıgh food thats hopefully spıcy because ı can tell you ı am so sıck of sandwıches that ı never want to eat one agaın. SPICY FOOD ıs my mıssıon today. and blue mosque. and bazaar. and perhaps boat tour of the bosphorus.

thıs ıs by FAR my favorıte so far.

and yes ım sorry for the lack of commas and apostrophes ıts drıvıng me crazy too.

goodbye italy

Peace out Italy. It's been real.

.............................................

Our next installment takes us to Sofia, Bulgaria. As we are now seasoned travelers, and have realized that you can't just breeze into a city and expect everything to be open and welcoming to your american ass (weird), we decided to check out how to get from the Sofia airport to the bus station where we will catch our overnight to Istanbul...and, ahem, check it:

В партера е разположена чакалня с обща площ 1500 кв.м., както и 57 билетни каси. Плащането се извършва не само в брой, но и с дебитни, и кредитни карти. На партера има и аптека, стая за майки с деца, медицински пункт.

This will be good.

We've booked our hostel in Turkey though, in Sultanahmet, complete with rooftop terrace! I'm very excited to tool around the Bosphorus, and go to both sides of the city. Then it's down to the Aegean coast.

Carrie and I are both stoked to be "on the road" again...but I'm sad to leave my MelPel. Rome was a good break, a place to see movies and watch the debates and do things I would do at home...I hate to admit it, but I'm getting sick of all the tourist garbage.

Fanny Pack Fabios Forever!!!!

oh. jesus.

painful.
painful.

aaaaaaand.....tina fey, i adore you:



going to watch the debate tomorrow night with a bunch of expats! huzzah!

irregular rectangles

I love walking into a room at a museum and being transfixed by every single piece of work you see...as was the case today in one small, slightly hidden room in the top of Italy's national museum of modern art. 

Their main exhibition right now is Mario Schifano, who dabbled in everything from monochrome to pop art to gorgeous, rich large-scale paintings. But what struck me most were some jaunty little watercolors he created with the poet Frank O'Hara. I can't find any of the good ones online, and got yelled at for attempting to sneak photographs in the museum, which of course didn't sell postcards of the works...but this was the poem on the one I liked best, a very simple painting of 2 rectangles, one very rigid, and one with rounded corners inside:

"What I wonder, does love have to do with an irregular rectangle inside a regular rectangle, or for that matter the grass to do with the lawn---it has all become so puzzling recently that a straight line is hardly more assuring than a wiggly one---in drive-in movies, for example, you find the image quivering when you're not quivering, but since one is quivering it all adjusts into a perfectly definable and unreassuring image of unreality, as seductive as a brick lollipop.

Now that you know I am dead, I trust you will send flowers.

Thanking you in advance, I 'remain,'

-- True Love Number One"

look him up if you're really interested...but nothing struck me more than that little painting. it's moments like that, where you're transfixed or inspired by something pretty, that made me want to leave drab ol' seattle and see something else in the first place. i don't even care if that's vapid. and my apologies for the lack of pictures or videos in this post. it was my own stupid little moment.

italians invented music. and shoes.

shop display. totally my favorite so far.

today we're off to the villa borghese and the national museum of MODERN art. MODERN!!! i refuse to have anything to do with the renaissance today. but tomorrow we're doing the vatican/sistine chapel....whichwillprobablymakemecryagain, ahem.

melissa's neighborhood, san lorenzo, used to be a low-income blue collar crazy left-wing paradise...and is therefore revoltingly trendy today. every night there's a giant block party, and the streets literally don't quiet down until dawn. it reminds me of the east village, or brooklyn. 

also, the light in rome is something i've never seen before. everything radiates either golden or pink...i tired to capture it with every combination of settings on my camera, but i just couldn't. maybe it's light reflecting off all the marble combined with all the rusty changing leaves on the trees...but it's a photographer's haven. not that i'm a photographer by any means. but if i were. ahem. anyway.

oh, and italians like shiny things. my eurotrash shoes fit in quite nicely, though my red hair and fair skin do not. everyone immediately speaks to me in english, and then they're surprised to hear my american accent, saying "I thought you were irish! or british!" i'll take that as a compliment. cheers, mate.

.......

i just got to rome, and as melissa has not only a constant internet connection, but also a lovely american mac book pro, i've been staring hungrily at the screen at all the news i've been missing.

...........i think i'm just going to stay in my european hole and not come back. here, it's bright and sunny, scooters are racing by, foreign sounding sirens are maintaining the safety of the roman people, there are parties in the streets celebrating regional food. while italy's government may be just as screwed as ours (albeit in a much different way)...at least they admit it. (caveat: i can't read a word of italian, so newspapers mean nothing to me here).

sigh.

pics are up on facebook today.

 

cinque terre.

carrie and i have agreed not to speak of cinque terre.

no postcards for anyone.

florence is incredible

we took a walking tour of florence yesterday morning, seeing all the medici palaces and the OTHER palaces where they used to hide their mistresses...also the tiny wine and bread doors that used to be used to combat the spread of germs...and the medici walkway that they used because they were too important to walk on the streets with the common folk...

and then we saw boticelli. and michealangelo. as a complete renaissance nerd, i was simply amazed by seeing the birth of venus up close, and to walk through rooms at the uffuzi and literally see all the 2dimensional madonnas suddenly have cheekbones, and expressions, and life. oh man. art hangover.

and real hangover. we found an irish bar near our hostel, and the bartender is from WA...he gave us a great recommendation for a restaurant where i had spaghetti with fresh mozzerella and carrie had ravioli, and we both had chianti...and then we went back for some good galway style snakebites.

ok, another tour this morning...more art! hooray renaissance! so far florence kicks venices ass.

ugh, the lack of punctuation is killing me here. i cant make the keyboard do what i want it to.

venice

the buildings in venice remind me of grandparents whose children and grandchildren are sucking the life out of them. they all heave a collective sigh of fatigue, waiting to sink into their watery graves. they're like old actors and actresses from silent films, who used to be so beautiful, but are now just tired.

not that i didn't enjoy venice. carrie and i got CLAPPED at by an italian shop owner for trying on carnival masks (apparently you're not supposed to do that, but jesus, i'm not a dog). my face literally burned i was so embarassed, haha.

anyway, we're at a dream palace of a hostel (hot shower with....wait.....wait.....WATER PRESSURE!!!)...also FREE internet and FREE hot breakfast (dream heaven, dream heaven, especially after CAMPING JOLLY in venice)...so I will try to upload pics tonight of the rest of paris and venice, plus the first day of florence. we're here for 3 nights, then cinque terra for 2, then off to see melissa in rome!

ciao ciao.

where to begin...

oh man. i think i have to say this one in pictures.











much more in a bit, still trying to figure out this uploading images in french thing.

ps the red beer is kronenberg and grenedine. everyone drinks the shit. it's positively awful until you've had a few.........weird.

beginning to be a bit homesick, just the ease of having everyone understand you. yesterday we took a bus in montpellier the wrong direction, and had to practically pantomine to the bus driver what was wrong when we didn't get off at the last stop...it involved carrie doing a lot of enthusiastic pointing at where we were supposed to be, and me explaining very clearly (and possibly loudly, and repetitively) in french, "LOST. LOST. LOST." i also had to pee really bad, to add to the malaise...oh, adventures.

kissed oscar wilde's grave today too (ahemwhichmademecry)--so sorry, Steven, if i bring home any grave-kissing diseases.

tomorrow we're flying to venice, wish us luck as we look like complete assholes pretending to know italian!!!

love/miss you all.

i fell in the louvre

this french keyboard is insane, so my apologies for the short length of this/lack of detail and punctuation.

our flight was delayed for about a trilliçon hours, but besides that, the journey was smooth. my french has gotten us through so far, but there is a lot of pointing and nodding. i did manage to have a mini conversation about a broken train, and also ask for water this morning after a night of drinking Kronenburg with these wacked out australian dudes...

so paris. every street in paris smells like freshly baked bread. which we've eaten a lot of. we?ve gone to the louvre, where i slipped and fell on my ass outside of Louis XVIII's apartements down a flight of stairs, causing carrie to lapse into hysterics and me to sit bewildered...it was amazing. we also did the eiffel tower, montmarte, sacre coeur aka the most beautiful place i've ever been, notre dame, where the pope is today, etc. etc. etc.

more exciting post with pictures next time i swear. i'm off to le centre pompidou and then for dinner....

9.9.08 -- we'll be off to paris.

watch out.