Orifices

On Monday I had breakfast and took my vitamins, as usual. I take calcium since I'm a lactose intolerant girl with fragile bones, and a multivitamin especially for women that want to have babies some day. As I sliced up an apple, I burped, keeping my mouth closed, like a lady, and two little clouds of white powder shot out of both of my nostrils.

I'm pretty sure it was from my very large calcium pill. I have been taking them for several months, and this is the first time that happened to me. I chugged a ton of water as fast as I could to rinse the remaining powder down into my stomach, where it belonged. I blew my nose to get the calcium stuff out of there.

There was no repeat of the above incident, but it took me several hours to regain my ladylike composure. I feel like I can identify with dragons better now. Except while they breathe out fire, I breathe out vitamins.

Bellissima

I show you pretty picture. Last month I ditched school during finals and went to Cinque Terre with another exemplary student. We actually did study for our tests/write our papers on the little break.

I wanted to try to go back to this town (Vernazza) for my spring break but the places my boyfriend tried to book were full. Oh well. Hopefully we'll end up somewhere else coastal in Italy.

Vai-se embora

Haha, I got a dorky new haircut. But you can't see it until I get a decent picture of myself. I look malnourished in the self-pics I took the day of the cut.


I started a language I haven't studied in 6 years and I can't even conjugate in the present indicative! Don't worry, though. I plan on working hard at it.


One of my roommates just found out that's he's interning in Santiago de Chile this summer. I told him he's going to be cold, but that he should visit my boyfriend's family because they are super cool.

Mr. Owl...

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

I need to do some research on owls, because they fascinate me. Especially representations of owls, not so much the real deal. And I like how you say "owl" in Spanish -- "buho" or "lechuza," depending on the type of owl.

Cool owl stuff from Wikipedia:

In the Welsh Cycles of the Mabinogion, the Owl is considered cursed - the first owl was Blodeuedd, a woman born of flowers to be the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes. Because she fell in love with another man and plotted to kill Lleu, Lleu's guardian Gwydion turned her into the first owl, saying "You are never to show your face to the light of day, rather you shall fear other birds; they will be hostile to you, and it will be their nature to maul and molest you wherever they find you. You will not lose your name but always be called Blodeuwedd." The addition of the w in her name changed her from a woman of flowers to an owl.

In Greek mythology, the owl, and specifically the Little Owl, was often associated with the goddess Athena, a bird goddess who became associated with wisdom, the Arts, and skills, and as a result, owls also became associated with wisdom. They are the unofficial mascot of the high-IQ society Mensa.

Denuncio

To the lady and baby that stole my wallet last week:

You got me that time, but never again.

Good thing I have the wallet purse my boyfriend gave me. My cash has a new home.

This wallet is pretty cool though. Owls are the best.

Aray na ko

I ate Filipinos in Barcelona. They were quite addictive. Yummy chocolate covered cookie-donuts. And economical too.

I'm back at school now. My New Years Eve was interesting, mainly because my friend and I were constantly molested on La Rambla in Barcelona. I don't know why strange men thought they could touch us in that very public place with families present. We tried yelling in English, Spanish, and Italian. We tried punching and kicking the air around us so they wouldn't dare come near (that ended up working but we got tired of doing it) and finally my friend just threw a half empty beer bottle at a guy. And then we left. But the rest of Barcelona was great. The best architecture I've ever seen. Note the Gaudi house pictured here.

Speaking of which, I didn't know the Romanov family (Nicolai, Anastasia, etc.) were Russian Orthodox saints!

"Shampain" for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends

After a day of hardwork on the only paper I have to write this semester (everything is tests, tests, tests) I got to celebrate by eating and drinking my 5 euros worth at happy hour and engaging in a holiday sing-a-long with my fellow students. We have two very talented guitar players and singers that made us all warm with holiday cheer. They even played holidays songs from Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie, which was very surprising and pleased me very much. Afterwards, we celebrated a good friend's 23rd birthday at a local pirate bar, full of authentic Italians and retired pirate bartenders.
Back to my paper!

Nobody knows

My boyfriend came to visit a few weeks ago. The first thing we did when he got here was go to my school's Thanksgiving celebration. My house alone made 4 bags of potatoes into mashed potatoes. And we all brought a bottle of wine to wash down the turkey. It was a good time, but it also made me feel truly homesick for the first time since getting here 3.5 months ago. I really feel like seeing everyone in the USA! Seeing my boyfriend for those days just made me want to be home even more. But at the same time being here has its advantages. Like the nutella gelato I had yesterday. And the trip I took to Tuscany (absolutely gorgeous, and the Fall colors at this time!) And my mom's going to be here very soon and we'll get to do tons of touristy girly things.

Speaking of which, I just started watching season 2 of grey's anatomy and it's still awesome. After dinner with some friends we came to my apartment to watch grey's, and one roommate's door was closed. I heard talking behind the door, and assumed she was on the phone. My other female roommate was gone. I tried calling her to see if we could use her cpu to watch the show, but I just heard her phone ring in her room. So I took her cpu anyway, and then couldn't find my dvds. So I finally knocked on my roommate's door to ask if she had seen them, and she, my other female roommate, and another friend were all curled up under a blanket watching grey's! Those little weasels were so quiet about it too. But no worries, they were on the 2nd dvd, I was still on the 1st, and they watched in one room while I and 3 others watched in another. It all worked out. And we do live in the best little grey's anatomy whorehouse in Bologna.

Hot at Hopkins

I think you should know that one of my roommates makes all the girls swoon:

http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:g8n4M96Jdx4J:www.jhunewsletter.com/vnews/display.v%3FTARGET%3Dprintable%26article_id%3D432a19d92c235+%22Bryan+balin%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2

He's pictured with me in our Halloween costumes.

And it's true, he really does talk like a 50 year old man. He calls me and the other female roommates the "peanut gallery." And likes to let me know that he "takes offense" to some of my more offhand comments.

Hallow's Eve, or the Eve of Hallows

Can you guess who I was for Halloween? You can't really get the full effect of the hair, I apologize. The party was very fun. No candy, but good tequila.

Indecency

This is from the heart of Bologna, the famous Fontana dell Nettuno, Piazza Maggiore.
Enjoy.

As for me, I split my time between home and school. At home I cook yummy things, sleep, and read (study) in bed or next to the radiator where it's warm.

And I never get mail, so if you'd like to remedy that situation you can get my address from the bottom of my emails and send me something pretty, or at least written.