hello from may 22nd, 2005! eventually i will have extremely regular computer access and then this won't seem like such a dead place. this is, of course, assuming that the thousands of people who read my blog every hour don't already find the writing to embody everything that goes along wih the words "dead," "boring," "pointless," or "the opposite of interesting and entertaining."
i come to you, my loyal fans, after a few very difficult days filled with shitty airlines and the shitty passengers that are included, long car rides, burnt-out eastern industrial cities and knowledge of a new home. where shall i start?
i flew to boston from lyon via milan on alitalia airlines, which is, for those not in the know, the italian national airline. having said that fact, and since each of you regular readers are equipped with the knowledge that italian transportation is very much below par, i must say that my flight was not pleasant. seated away from mr. hype as well as surrounded by cranky old people does not a happy me make. behind me was an old albanian woman who refused to let me recline my seat. we actually had a sort of tug-and-war with me pushing my seat back and her pushing my seat forward. when i turned around finally to express my displeasure she said something i didn't understand and then gave me a very guilt-free coquettish look. as if that wasn't bad enough, the old italian man in front of me had his seat reclined for the entire voyage. since i have long legs and very little leg room, my knees were (understandably) pressed up against the back of his chair. because this obviously displeased him, he spent the entire voyage slamming his back and shoulder into his seat to express to me a request to kindly keep my knees away from his seat and his person. needless to say i spent the entire 8+ hour flight miserably uncomfortable sitting in a sort of diagonally-inspired manner and most definitely not sleeping. this was somewhat of a problem since i had to spend the previous night in the lyon airport not sleeping either. coupled with the fact that the flight crew were fairly rude and incompetent, i would not recommend alitalia to anyone.
the rest of my short time spent in america included staying with a friend in grad school in syracuse, ny, driving to northampton to arrange cell phones and an apartment, and then back to syracuse to await our move-in date and fret about money and jobs.
at any rate, i should probably close this because i think i have to sit around the house and watch movies all day and i don't want to be late!
i'm still here. in europe, that is.
since i hate french keyboards only slightly less than german, and since i'm forced to type on one since our roommate is no longer our roommate and her laptop has been removed from the continent, this will be a short rundown on the lowdown of my getting down. or something.
1. prague was great, but everybody i talked to built it up way too much and it ended up being more of a letdown than anything. also, somebody please buy that country a vowel or two.
2. vienna = fantastic. thanks to our lovely austrian we were able to stay for free in a beautifully renovated apartment in the center of the city. also got a chance to eat dinner with her very amusing and kickass mother, which always makes the top of the list of things i am pro.
3. italian trains really suck. but then, you already knew that.
4. returning to france was like returning to civilization. all of a sudden i understood what people were saying! i could read the signs!
5. I love visiting my aunt. free food, relaxation, and access to a fantastic shower and washer and dryer. mr. hype has now met all (minus one cousin) of the extended family on my mom's side. and they probably like him more than they like me. naturally i have known about this phenomenon for awhile since all my friends seem to like him better than me as well. le sigh.
6. lyon (for the event "les nuits sonores") has a dj spinning in the street by my austrian's house. it's pretty much the coolest thing that has ever taken place anywhere on earth ever. ever.
we fly out on the 16th of may; thankfully the fabulous farker has volunteered to drive from syracuse to boston to pick us up at the airport, but more likely it is to take her new car on a road trip. works for me.
as noted above this will be short because i HATE german keyboards. although, when discussing that sentence with your fellow carbon-based lifeforms (as fern would say) i feel that not enough emphasis can be placed upon the HATE.
in closing this absolutely pointless and nonsensical posting, i would like to say that i like berlin, but am going to need to ponder the city for at least one more day before giving it a full review. i feel like i know the city, although this is my first time here, because i grew up hearing about it as my parents lived there for a few years. on that same note, it has not met hardly any of my expectations (in both good and bad ways) during my time here.
the final countdown my friends. this is the last sunday i will spend in grenoble, and yesterday was the last saturday. it's true. we are moving all of our belongings next saturday to the apartment of the non-lopsided ms. kibbey and then off to adventures in the east (of europe, that is).
i went to the market this morning, and it has to be said that, though i did not visit it all that often in the time i have spent here, i will miss it quite a bit. all the different local food specialties and fruit and vegetables, as well as the cheap clothing, bags, batteries, coffeepots and wallets (which is what i purchased today) are going to be, i fear, sorely lacking in my regular routine upon returning to the states.
speaking of retuning to the states (or not as the case may be), i have some friends who are just going to bum around france/europe for awhile now that the teaching gig is over, and i wish i could join them. however, it seems that somewhere along the line i've crossed the line to being fully grown-up, if not in mentality then at least in responsibilities. i could, on the one hand, spend my last paycheck and fill up a credit card or two on a fantastic summer and fall in europe, but i have a relationship to consider, as well as the fact that i'm ultimately responsible for providing a roof to cover my head. gone are the days when i could return home to live with my parents, since my mother has moved into a new house, remarried, and finally created her long-coveted dream guest room.
this, however, does not mean that i am not going to travel. i just have to remember to leave a decent chunk of money alone in order to set up in a new area upon return to the US. le sigh. being responsible is so lame.
in other news, i found out yesterday that i am friends with a bona fide film actress. my friend kira (here she is just after waking up) used to act when she was younger (ages 5-15ish), and won a role when she was 11 in danny devito's movie version of roald dahl's book "matilda." she played the role of hortensia, and i cannot wait to see this movie again so i can see her on the silver screen getting locked into a dahlian contraption known as "the chokey."
