Wow ok! It’s been a while since I’ve had access to the internet, so here we go…

We got into Venice around noon on Monday the 29th. It was really weird- we walked out of the train station and there was a canal! Took the water bus system (an even weirder concept) to our hostel, which was on La Giudecca, a set of islands south of the main islands. So… the islands of Venice kind of look like a fish with a wave under it. We were on the wave, right on the big canal that separated us from San Marco’s square.

After checking in to our hostel and dumping our stuff, we jumped on a boat across the water. Went in to St. Mark’s cathedral, which has some really cool (if sinking and bumpy) marble floors. Took a tour of the Doge’s palace, which was really interesting but also quite huge. It took a long time. We did get to walk across the Bridge of Sighs though and go into the dungeons. That was pretty cool.

We really just wandered around after that. Had dinner at a little restaurant in a piazza with Prince playing in the background. Ah, Italy. We ended up walking through the city, over the Rialto bridge, and back down to the train station, so we took the busboat back to San Marco’s square. It was already dark at this point. The different restaurants on the square had bands outside all playing music. When I say bands, I mean like piano, violin, clarinet, etc. But it was really cool. We went from place to place trying to decide which one we liked best. And then we went to sleep because we were tired.

The next morning, we took the boatbus down the Grand Canal. We saw a fruit market off to one side and decided to get off and explore. What we didn’t realize was that next to the fruit market was the fish market. Yummy. It was actually pretty cool (I need a new adjective), if a little nasty. Everything was quite fresh. Some of it was still alive!

We had to catch our train to Verona so left Venice around noon. Verona is very small; we stored our luggage at the train station, then walked down to the city center. They have an amphitheater there that’s about the same age as the Colosseum. It’s not as big, of course, but it’s made out of rose marble and is still used today for opera and rock concerts and things. Pretty nifty.

Went over to Juliet’s house. Didn’t do it for me. For one thing, the balcony is to the inside of the courtyard, which doesn’t make any sense because everyone would have heard Romeo. And I don’t know. It was very pretty, but didn’t speak to me of Romeo and Juliet. Of course, I really don’t like that play and don’t find it to be romantic at all, so maybe I’m just being a crotchety cynic. The people that owned the house were the De Capatelo family or something like that so in the 1800s, when people saw the balcony and heard the name (kinda like Capulet, no?) they made the connection and dubbed it Juliet’s house. Never mind that she never existed. Rubbed the right boob of the statue there. It’s supposed to bring you good luck in your love life. The statue is only from the 1960s, but that boob is sure shiny already. Walked down to a pretty square with expensive restaurants… we ate lunch somewhere else. And then that was really it. There isn’t a whole lot to do in Verona. We made it back to the train station with extra time to spare, we were so ready to go.

We went back to Piacenza that night, Tuesday. It just made more sense than spending more money on another hostel or hotel. Especially since there wasn’t anything to do in Verona! And then we had Wednesday to run errands and pack and get ready to leave. Lauren left for Paris the same day I left for home.

So we spent Wednesday buying socks and groceries; rode bikes down to the train station to get Lauren’s ticket to Paris. That was an experience, since the roads are cobbled and not all the city streets have bike lanes. Bought myself some absolutely fantastic “5 fruits” juice that we’d had in Siena and drank in like 5 minutes. I only have a small carton so I have to make it last as long as possible!! Packed up all my stuff. And then that was it, really.

Left from Malpensa on Thursday morning. Got home at 6:45 pm California time on Thursday night. My parents and Hugo were there to meet me and take me out to Chinese food for dinner. Then I came home and took a shower, as I hadn’t bathed in 36 hours, and fell right asleep!

The shower was especially nice since they don’t have anything like our showers over there. At least not where I stayed. In Piacenza, you have to turn on a boiler like an hour before you want to shower if you want to have any hot water. And even then, there’s no shower curtain or anything. You just sit on a stool in the tub and the shower head thingie is on the wall next to you at eye level. And in the hostels it was just a stall with a flimsy curtain and you spent the entire time strategizing how not to get your clothes wet. And in the apartment in Rome it was a tiny little stand up stall with water that kept alternating boiling hot and ice cold with little in-between. Anyway, the point is I’d missed my shower and was glad to be back!

I’ve been running errands and things today. Woke up around 7:30 to take Hugo to get his paycheck and I’m trying not to let myself nap or anything so that I’ll be back on track with the time difference. It’s 2:30 right now and it feels like 11:30 pm for me. I’m sleepy. But I’ll survive.

It’s good to be home and I’ll see you all soon!

Getting to the internet has been difficult lately. I was able to upload two Facebook albums of pictures, which has given me some breathing room:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001268&l=7e1de&id=193400067

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001269&l=29104&id=193400067

voila! I have many many more, as does Lauren, which will be posted ASAP. Which might not be until I get home. Because those ^ only are the first few days!

So, last day in Rome we headed down to Appian Way, an Ancient Roman road. It’s to the south of the city but it’s like it’s in another world. It’s all tree-lined and scenic. There were lots of excavations under way, and one was open to the public. (Well, probably more than one but we went into this one.) It was an ancient bathhouse, which was really cool because a lot of the floors and pipe system was still in-tact. And it was well labeled, like I’d hoped Palatine Hill would be.

Then we walked down to the other end and went to the catacombs! Went on a tour of the most extensive ones in the area. They’re from the 3rd century (that’s the 200s people), stretch over 20 km and originally held the remains of 9 popes. We only were down there for 20 minutes but it was really fascinating.

We headed over to Piazza Navone in the evening and had dinner at a little bar. Then it was back to the apartment to pack up and get ready to leave in the morning.

The next day, yesterday (though it feels like weeks ago already) we went to Siena. We had to take a train to one small town then take a bus to Siena, but it allowed for some beautiful views of Tuscany. Spent the afternoon wandering around the city. Did some shopping, visited the brightly-colored Gothic cathedral. Ate dinner on Il Campo then went back to our hotel for some wine and gelato. The place we were staying turned out to be really nice- we had the whole top floor to ourselves with a private bathroom and kitchen. But the elephant neighborhood (I can’t remember what they’re called, the different neighborhoods) was having a grape festival with live music literally right below our window until 1 am. So sleeping was difficult.

Today, we arrived in Florence in the afternoon. We took a wrong bus in Siena so got here later than expected. The hostel we’re staying in is an old villa, which is really cool. But it’s on the far edge of the city, so it took us a while to get here. We checked in, dumped our stuff, and headed quickly back toward the city. Saw Michaelangelo’s David, sat out in front of Piti Palace, crossed the Ponte Vecchio, walked up to Piazzita Michaelangelo for a gorgeous view of the city, then headed back to the cathedral area for dinner.

And now we’re back at the hostel. Leaving tomorrow at 10:30 for Venice, where we’ll spend the next night and two days. We’ll go to Verona after that, though it’s so small and so close to Piacenza, we both doubt we’ll want to stay there for the night. We’re ready to be done I think! I’m still excited for what’s to come, but I am so wiped out. I don’t even remember what it feels like for my feet NOT to hurt all day. Almost done though! It feels like I’ve been gone a month already, not just a week and a half…

I can honestly say I miss you all and I’ve talked about work some. But I haven’t worried about it =P See you all soon!

So the people who were supposed to be staying in “our” apartment tomorrow night cancelled so we get it for another night and don’t have to move to a hostel! Yay!

By the time we got here and got settled in it was around 3 or 4, so we didn’t have a whole lot of time to see things. But we managed to get in a lot anyway! We started with the Pantheon, then walked over to the Piazza del Popolo which had gorgeous views of the city at sunset, then we made our way to the Spanish Steps and then the Trevi Fountain. We sat there for at least half an hour just starting at it. It is absolutely massive.

Today we went to Vatican City/St. Peters, which is also mind-bogglingly massive. Saw the Sistine Chappel; it was almost too much to take in.  I’ve seen more nuns, priests, and monks in the past day and a half than I think I ever have in my entire life.

After the Vatican, we went over to the Ancient City to see the Collesium, Palatino Hill, and the Roman Forum. It was getting late so we didn’t really see the Forum, but our ticket is good for 3 days so we can go back.  Palatino Hill felt kind of like an abandoned amusment park. It was pretty dirty and unkempt and a lot of it was closed off. And there were no descriptions of anything. But there are still tons of excavations going on so I can see why they wouldn’t want to put too much effort into cleaning it all up when they might just dig a hole there later.

I know people say that Rome is dirty but I haven’t found it to be any worse than the other cities we’ve seen. The subway sucks though. There’s only two lines and they don’t go very far and it is unbelievable crowded. But they probably can’t dig too many tunnels without disturbing something ancient. The bus system seems to be pretty good so that makes up for it. And as large as the city is, a lot of the sights are in walkable distance.

Tomorrow, we’re going to head down to the ancient Appian Road and the cacatombs. Though, we can probably do a lot more now that we don’t need to worry about moving to a new hotel.

Still having trouble uploading photos! And I haven’t had luck finding a place that sells a new memory card either… ah, we’ll see. At least Lauren has her camera!

Ciao for now!

Yes, I know. I got really behind on updating. The hostel we stayed at in Barcelona, while quite nice, only had two computers. I didn’t want to hog the internet too much so I didn’t go online often. But I’m alive!

Barcelona was wonderful- I’m already thinking of the things I’d like to do when I go back. I’d never really been a big Gaudi fan from the pictures I’d seen, but seeing the actual architecture was an entirely different experience. I think my favorite was Park Guell.

We didn’t go to see the inside of anything because it was all so expensive. Again, another trip. But we did have a lot of fun! One night we went out with a bunch of kids from the hostel and then another night we hung out with Hugo’s friend, Ernesto. Ernesto has lived in Spain for a few years and was really great about showing us around. He’s a nice guy and it was fun to meet someone that Hugo has spoken of so fondly.

I have plenty more stories with specific details, but for now I’ll just say that Barcelona was great. We arrived in Rome late this morning and are staying in what’s basically this woman’s spare apartment. We have our own kitchen and everything. After several days in a hostel and several more to come, it’s a welcome luxury!

We’ll be heading out to see the sights soon. I’m trying to post pictures- the computer in Barcelona didn’t recognize my converter so I couldn’t do it there.

So yesterday we took the train up to the small lakeside towns of Como and Bellagio. They were quite beautiful and quite expensive. We spent the day wandering around. I added quite a bit to my bright man pants photo collection. After a calm day, we took the train back to Milan. We had decided to spend the night there because we had to catch an early bus for the airport. the hostel we found last minute was a little sketchy but ok. We went out to this club called Luminal with a guy Lauren knows from Lebanon; we left the hostel at 11:45 and by 3:30 we were still out so we decided to just go get out stuff and catch an even earlier bus rather than sleep for like an hour. Got our plane and now here we are in Barcelona. We took showers right away so havent seen anything yet. Iàll update later.

I do have a cold tho which sucks. But iàm having fun!

Lauren’s cousins woke up early this morning to get ready for school, so I was up by 7:45. After a breakfast of tea and some yummy pastries, we got cleaned up and ready to go. Took the bus to the train station and the train to Milan. Walked down to Piaza La Scala and then through Plaza Victorio Emmanuel (I’m totally going to spell all this wrong) out to the Duomo Plaza. Went into the cathedral, took some photos. This guy from Senegal tied these bracelets on our wrists saying “oh they’re free!” (not that he gave us a choice) and then demanded “a donation for africa.” I got him to leave us alone w/a 2 euro piece. Went back into the Victorio Emmanuel center to spin on the bull’s testicles. yay.

We basically just wandered around all day. Went to a public garden, all these little museums at the Sforza palace (totally spelled that wrong) then over to the archeology museum. We did do some window shopping but didn’t guy anything. It’s all too expensive! 

Had lunch outside at a little cafe place. Had pizza. Yum. I almost ate the whole thing but not quite. I’ve started to collect photographs of cats and photos of men in brightly colored pants. It’s quite amusing. 

I’m getting a bit of a sore throat and I’m quite tired. That’s not good =( But I’ll be ok… We’re waking up early tomorrow to head over to Como. Right now we’re watching Futurama in Italian with English subtitles. Interesting.

I’m trying to upload photos to facebook but it’s not working so well. I’ll do it later…

Well, I’m here! It’s 9 p.m. here, 12 p.m. for all you at home. The flights went well, pretty uneventful. As we went in to land in Newark, the plane flew alongside New York city, so I got a nice view of the skyline and even got to see the Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. 

The flight out of Newark left late, but it wasn’t that bad waiting. I just read. The seat next to me was empty so I had lots of space to spread out. I slept as much as I could between the two flights but it was hard to get comfortable. It was really cool flying over Ireland, England, and France and trying to figure out which cities I was seeing out the window. The sun was just coming up so they were just giant clusters of light down below. The coolest one was probably Cardiff. 

As we landed, the airline played this video that told the passengers to take the Malpensa Express train to get into Milan. So that’s what I did. (getting my luggage was easy and there was no customs) Only partway there, I realized it was taking me to the wrong station! I found my way to the subway but couldn’t figure out which train to take from there to get to Milano Centrale (where I could catch a train to Piacenza) or how much I needed to put on a ticket. Luckily, Hugo had been chatting with Lauren on Facebook when he and I were on the phone in Newark, and she’d given him her cell phone number to give me. So I was able to call her and go “HELP!” I figured it out (yeah, it was 1 euro haha) and made it to Milano Centrale, where I then bought the earliest and fastest ticket to Piacenza. The plane had gotten in at like 8:20 and it was already 11!

Made it to Piacenza around 12. Lauren and her aunts came to pick me up and brought me back to their apartment. It’s quite charming, but there’s 2 bedrooms for 8 people, including me. Lauren was nice enough to offer me her bed in the girls’ room for the next few nights. Her cousins are 12, 9, and the little boy cousin is 6.

I took a shower cuz I felt gross, ate some lunch, and then Lauren took me to walk around Piacenza. She says it’s basically a place where people don’t have anything to do so they shop and spend money. What, like Danville!? It’s pretty small but so cool to see all the really old buildings and architecture. We got some gelato then headed back to the apartment. I attempted to watch Nacho Libre with her but kept nodding off. I finally broke down and lay down for a nap at 4:30. I woke up in total darkness at 8 to the cat meowing. I was just in time for dinner!

So here I am. Over dinner, we mapped out our plans for Milan tomorrow. I still kind of can’t believe I’m here. Lauren’s family is really nice and speaks in a mixture of Italian and Spanish. They were impressed that I can understand Spanish but now they’re speaking to me in it! Most of the time it’s ok but sometimes they talk really fast. Lauren interprets lol. 

I think I’m ready for bed again. Hope you’re all having a good day!

Soo I’m leaving for Italy next Wednesday. And I’d like to keep you all updated on my various travels. I figure since you all know about my WordPress blog already, I might as well put it to good use! Just because the 10 Things are over doesn’t mean the experience stops!!

Now, whether or not you’ll check this is another matter entirely…

Things are going pretty well as far as planning goes. I know under normal circumstances, the planning would really be done by now. And it is. For the most part. We know where we’ll be. And we have plane tickets. Just no places to stay as of yet. But we’ll be staying in hostels and I have a reputable website I’ve been looking at: I just have to actually go ahead and book the places. Get on it, Rachel!

Here’s the itinerary:

Wed, 9/17:I leave bright and early from SFO. 7:30 flight to New Jersey, then on to Milan!

Thur, 9/18:I arrive in Milan. And lose a day. Stupid 9 hour time difference. My friend, Lauren, is meeting me at the airport. Then we’ll spend the day exploring Piacenza, the little (once very large and important) city where her aunt (and now Lauren too!) live.

Fri, 9/19: We’ll head back into Milan to do some shopping, check out the sights, and go see the Last Supper.

Sat, 9/20:We’ll take the train up to Lake Como and spend the day lounging around the picturesque water. Ahh.

Sun, 9/21:This is where the real travelling starts. We have an early flight from Milan to Barcelona, where we’re meeting up with Hugo’s friend, Ernesto Chamorro. Chamorro has lived in Barcelona for about 5 years now and promises to show us around.

Mon, 9/22: More Barcelona

Tue, 9/23: Even more Barcelona!

Wed, 9/24: We say goodbye to Barcelona with an early flight out to Rome. We’re hoping to stay in a bed and breakfast for two nights and with a friend of Lauren’s aunt for the third.

Thur, 9/25: More Rome. The Coliseum. Spanish steps. That fun stuff.

Fri, 9/26:Aaaaand more Rome!

Sat, 9/27:Leave Rome nice and early on a train up to Siena. Spend the day there experiencing the strangely macho competitiveness of the Palio.

Sun, 9/28: Take the quick train ride over to Florence. Bask in the glow of what was once a Renaissance hot-spot.

Mon, 9/29: My sister’s birthday! (kind of funny: I’m 8/28, she’s 9/29. I’ve always found that amusing) And we’ll be heading over to Venice.

Tue, 9/30: Most of the day in Venice, taking the train over to Verona in the afternoon. We’ll spend the night in Verona.

Wed, 10/1:Spend the morning exploring the deeply romantic city that Shakespeare probably never ever visited, including the famous balcony of a girl who never existed. We’ll head back to Piacenza in the evening.

Thur, 10/2:I have a morning flight out of Milan to New Jersey, then back to SFO. I’ll be home (and quite sleepy) at 6:30.

Mon, 10/6: Back to work! Oh joy, the part I’m looking forward to the most!

Seriously though, I will miss you guys! I certainly won’t be worrying about LSA new hires or payroll, but it is possible to separate the people from the place. And you be my people!

Check back; I’ll try to update as much as possible! I think Lauren has a laptop and anyway, I have to be at a computer at least twice a week for school. So you’ll be hearing from me!!

Finding something library-ish to blog about when I don’t actually work in a library is a little difficult. When I think about libraries, I think about knowledge and education and that makes me think about the on-line class I’m taking.

That’s 2.0-ish, right?

The class never meets and so is conducted entirely on the internet. We have a website, Course Compass, that we access daily to check for updates. Within Course Compass are areas for the teacher to post announcements, to post documents, discussion boards, a roster where each student can create a home page, and a whole other wealth of goodies.

It really is like being in an actual classroom. Even better, I think. Each week, we’re broken down into groups to have discussions on our reading assignments. And boy, do the conversations flow! I think people are more outgoing and more able to really state their opinions when they have the protection of the internet. There’s no fear of seeing your listener’s negative reaction or feeling inferior or threatened. Certainly, if someone writes a scathing response you could still feel bad. But as a general rule, people are quite respectful. But the feeling of being free to express yourself has created woderful learning situations and allowed students (well, me at least. I can’t speak for everone) to really understand their peers and their points of view.

I love YouTube. It took me a while to warm up to it, I admit. It just seemed like a place for silly people to take silly videos of themselves doing silly things and share it with other silly people. Internet usage at its best.

But then I discovered that there is an entire wealth of information and material on YouTube. I’ve used uploaded video tutorials, watched clips from childhood shows, viewed television episodes of content only relased in the UK, and then of course there are those funny videos that everyone watches again and again. Like the clip of Miss South Carolina from the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant. Enough said. 

When the library had the teen video contest, I checked back on a regular basis to view the entries. I think it was an awesome way to reach youth where they already are.

And I know the library does podcasts, because Catherine is always trying to find a quiet place to record them. Or she’s heading off with her little armored wheely bag to go teach podcasting techniques at one of the libraries. I think it’s quite awesome that we’re keeping up with things this way.

Then there’s also InfoPeople who has archived videos and podcasts for library trainings. You can go in and view any past webinar you’d like. Quite handy.

Videos and podcasts are a great way for libraries to communicate and educate because it allows for that human element without having to be in the same location at the same time. And they can be viewed/listened to again and again!