pix

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78507167@N00/?saved=1

Pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78507167@N00/?saved=1

that should take you right there. That took just as long to upload as it would have on here though.

Pipes.

Friends and Family,

I tihnk you all deserve to know what I jsut learned from my representative across seas. My beloved Piper is no longer with us. Aparently it happened suddenly and hopefully painlessly. He was a good dwarf hampster and I hope my absence had nothing to do with it. Please post your favortie memories of piper as sort of a memorial service.

One of my top faves was when we would spin the wheel while he was in the bottom of it so he would go all the way around.

Or how he would get really ansy and run around the cage in circles.

And the maze, he just didnt want that carrot bad enough.

and maybe he would have lived if had just worn that little green construction paper top hat fred and I made for him.

Rest In Peace Piper, I loved you more than remy loves peanut butter roll ups.

LondresPrahaWien2 (read 1 first)

Continued...

So katie and I stayed up late and took short naps before our bus to vienna that left prague at 3am. We both slept on and off on the bus. It made one stop at Brno and then at the next stop (about 3 hours into the trip) the woman who is the flight attendant of the bus comes to us and starts speaking czech to us. And we are both half asleep and giving her blank stares and eventually she sayd Wien? and we say yes. And she shakes her head and said "Bus Connection: Brno." Shes on the phone for a while trying to figure things out and eventually tells us to get off the bus and that another bus will be back through in an hour and half back to brno where we will have to wait five hours for the next bus to vienna. Its dark still, freezing, and were in some town which were not sure if its in austria or the czech reupublic. there doesnt seem to be anything else in sight besides this bus station and were tired as heck. Katie was worried they werent going to let us on the next bus and i was just plain worried that the bus wasnt even going to come. All we had was this little piece of paper that said BRNO 7:35. We waited anxiously in some semi warm shelter and eventually the bus did come (although it was 10 minutes late which gave me a little heart attack) The flight attendant of this bus, Vasek, spoke perfect english and took very good care of us. He said it was the bus company's fault, because no one had once mentioned to us that we were supposed to switch. He also said we should get our money back, which ended up not happening because the czechs are cold hearted and bitter about communism.

Vasek lead us to a restaurant to hang out at for at least a little bit of our 5hour layover, which happened to be a mcdonalds because it was the only thing open, because it was still really early. We just zombilly walked around this little czech town for a bit with my huge backpack. They had an Hand M and T mobile store so it wasnt TOO prevntial. We eventually got to Vienna and we scooped up by the oh so generous bea. She brought us back to her BEAUTIFUL apartment and showed us the aunt jemima pancake mix and syrup and skippy peanut butter she had for us to eat as much as we wanted to. We then went out for a delicious traditional meal, complete with wiener schnitzle and this soup with little pancake bits and some thick desserts. It was delicious. We fell asleep pretty soon after that in our oh so plush beds in the loft area of their apartment, right down the hall from the sauna.

The next morning, after an aunt jemima filled breakfast we made out way into the city and met up will Bill Dwyer, an old high school bff. He is studying there and knew a whole lot actually about the city. We had a mini walking tour and then went to the Schonbrunn palace. that might be the wrong name, ill double check my sources and get back to you. It has these extensive gardens and we wandered around them for awhile just laughing about inside jokes from highschool. later that afternoon bill had to leave and katie and I went to the leopold museum and saw a german expressionist exhibit and this photography exhibit aboutbudapest in 1953. Then we got standing room tickets for 2euro!! for the opera which was the love elixir which katie mentioned was alot like an I love Lucy episode. It was fun, although hard to stand for 2.5hours. then we had a delicious bottle of wine and talked for a bit with bea and josef which made me a little homesick, especially when they started talking about moms emails from italy and how funny they were.

The next morning we had a huge more or less traditional austrian breakfast (plus perfect pancaks) and then headed out. Back to london and then back to Barcelona finally where i got in at like 1am andcouldnt find a taxi.

Pictures will be coming soon, I think i might upload them somewhere else because there are so many and it takes so long to put them up here.

LondresPrahaWien 1

Dear avid blog readers,

I apologize for my absence from cyber space for this extended period of time. I was, however, on a great adventure. The tale begins in London, the great city of everyman who has ever fallen in love with a porteguese woman and learned her language and ran to her door on christmas day to ask for her hand in marriage only to learn that she has also learned HIS language.

My plane descends on a clear morning. My friend Mally and I wearily get off the plane and rush to where we think will be a short time in customs. NOT. once we wait in line for awhile we get up to the front and go to a desk of an angry indian woman. She obviously hated americans and just wanted to make our lives more difficult. First she asked us all kinds of weird questions, i guess just to make sure that we werent imposters. Why anyone would want to steal the identity of a 20year old poor student traveler, I dont know. These questions included what we were studying, how many years we have left of school, our shoe size, how we were paying for our trip, how long we were staying, if we were only friends, what kind of shampoo we used, how many times did we sneeze onthe plane, where we were staying and when neither of us had a concrete address to where we were living for the next few days she became infuriated. Then she asked if we had our return tickets on us. And we didnt. She then berrated us and told us that girls who are studying at university and are educated should know better than to travel without their return ticket (even though the airlines TELL you that all you need is your confirmation number). She also said that had this been america and she was as ill prepared as us, she would have been denied entry. WHATEVER.

I run into the arms of my dear dear natalie at the train station and we walk around a cool part of town for a bit. I knocked over a few bikes with my large backpack I had on, but we made it back to her cute cute apartment alive. Later that evening I saw Mama Mia with Beth. It was only ALITTLE cheesy....but at least the actors werent taking it too seriously. It was a fun show.

The next day, which was a beautiful fall day with crisp leaves covering the ground and a brisk smell in the air that said "enjoy this sunshine and warmth while you can, for soon I will cover the world with a blanket of frost and sadness", we went to Hyde Park and almost got killed by a flock of ducks flying very close to the ground. Then we went to the tate modern where there was alot of art and an installation that was these huge clear plastic slides that you could go down. We didnt however, becasue we were tired and didnt feel like getting tickets.

Sunday we slept in and then walked around camden market which was so crowded, and definitly not as cool as it was when I was 13years old and really liked shirts with witty stupid sayings on them. Then we all had a lovely italian dinner that evening and the next morning I left London.

Onto the Czech Republic where I had no idea what anything was or meant or what that country had in store for me. First of all it was COLD. I had to buy gloves cold. I easily found thr bus from this town Brno to Prague and easily found my way to katies dorm where we were reunited for the first time in months. I met all her cool NYU friends and laughed laughed laughed. The next day I explored while katie was in class. I walked around and just knd of took it all in. The whole place was really kafka-esq. Jsut kind of dark and sad. Not really dark, it was sunny and beautiful, but you could tell there was a dark past. I went to the kafka museum after going over charles bridge and it was a little bit unsettling. It was set up so its more like walking through his mind as he wrote than a little museum. There was this scary cabinet hallway you walked through for a long time that felt like it was going to end and the whole time throughout the museum there were speakers in every room that played these weird noises that were supposed to lead you through.

later I went to the Old Jewish Cemetery which was a little eerie. The light was really great and there was almost a mist right above all the graves. Later that evening katie and I went out to dinner with her czech friend Honza and had a nice traditional meal and then hit some hip czech bars. The next day i wandered around prague castle for a bit and then discovered this little wooded path to the side of it and followed it. It ran parrellel to a dry, stone creek bed that was from like 1300 and had a few stone bridges over it here and there. I walked all the way down towards this stone statue that looked like a woman in a dress from far away and there was this tunnel. I was pretty sure that when i walked through it I would be transported back to 1498 or something. But unfortunatly, no time travel stories, just a big pretty green field on the other side. I would have liked to gone through a time portal though.

On the way home, after not being properly explained the rules of the metro, i was fined 500crowns (about 25$) becasue my ticket had more than one stamp on it, or something. But it was all very confusing because I dont know czech, but seriously, who does? Then, blast from the past number 1, I had dinner with Ellen brooks!!! It was really good to see her and talk about things that no one else I know knows about, like challenge nights and "the guys". and to remember that im so happy im not 13 anymore.

Im afraid a really really long post will be too daunting to my readers so this trip will continue in a second installment.

Paree etc

So paris was pretty great. We sight saw for about 10hours straight each of the two days we were there, but we sure did get alot in. It was mostly museums:

The Louvre
The Orsay (impressionism)
Eifle Tower
Arc De Triumph
Picasso Museum
The Pompidou (modern art)
Montmarte

and a whole lot of walking in between. Our hostel was very scary and the woman who ran it was a distant cousin to the hunchback of notre dame. somewhere along his bloodline. The city had a much different feeling than barcelona, it seemed more relaxed, a little quieter, and everyone was dressed much much better. things were just classier in general. barcelona has this very grungy, super artsy, underground feel to it, which is great, but paris made me want to wear all black and pearls, which its a good thing i didnt bring because the hostel keeper might have eaten them or used them in a spell or SOMETHING. It was all very tiring, nonetheless.

The last two nights my dorm has been competing in futbol and basketbol matches against "evil camp tigerclaw" (remy?) or the rival dorm whose name i dont know. It was alot of chanting and 17 year olds wearing face paint and drinking on bleachers. I went out for a little bit when thegames were here and it just felt too much like being at a homecoming football game in highschool and I had to go inside and read kafka to feel smart again. No, but seriously.

I AM GOING TO LONDON ON FRIDAY!!!!! It is going to be a relaxing few days filled with cooking in natalies kitche and going out for dinner and to plays. And then onto to Prague where my money will be worth so much more, especially after using the pound for a few days. And then katie and I are going to vienna for 2.5 days and staying with mom's friend Bea. And then back to good ol barca.

the air is starting to get crisp here, but not really. it still gets very hot around midday. I am still wearing flipflops 75% of the time. I am very much missing fall, especially when I realize how soon Halloween is :(

lhiam.

pictures first

pictures first

Not much has been going on this week. Just the usual slow classes...

On sunday I went to this Catelleras Competition. It was very exciting. Some of the IES staff know a guy very high on the food chain of the Villa del Franca team and we got to be honorary team members. This means we got to be a part of the towers. No climbing of course. We were at the base, smooshed in between eachother and other team members getting stepped on by the very skilled castelleras who were on the higher levels. Our team won! YAY!

I'm going to paris tomorrow! Aparently its fashion week? So THAT should be fun. Maybe Tim Gunn will be roaming around, or the olsen twins, or other celebs I can follow. And maybe someone will find out that im assistant to the editor in cheif at vogue and give me millions of euros worth of clothing that is just a little too small. But i wont care because im ann hathaway and id rather be a REAL journalist.

seeing as it is the beginging of october and mail takes ABOUT two weeks, I would like to send out a gentle reminder to everyone that birthday checks, cookies, or regalos of any kind can be sent to:

IES Barccelona
c/o Zoe Schwartz
Rhonda Sant Pere, 5-1
08010 Barcelona, Spain

Thank You.