Padova -> Berlin

Getting ready to go to Berlin. Geez, I should really know by now that if I pack my backpack easily and everything fits in perfectly then that just means something is not right and I forgot to put in something big.

The last few days my family and I participated in a 6k "race," dipped our toes in the Mediterranean and caught an orchestral concert in Pescia. My attempts to explore this amazing abondoned 3 story house were foiled by a car full of guys that chased me down on my bike. Then I hopped a train to Florence where my feet remembered the way to the market and I managed to buy 5 pairs of sunglasses, arguing the price down 15 euros. Then I headed North to Padova and was almost in tears when I stepped off the train. I had about an hour to myself before meeting Erika so I walked to our old apartment, past the place where the junkie abandoned his orange pants, past the house where big dog and little dog used to live (RIP babies! you are missed), and past our old bus stop where we used to wait every morning before school. I even visisted the old piss steps and wanted to make a ceremonial pee offering but it has been barred off.

Now I'm with Erika and it is so nice. I really love this girl. I got to meet her adorable Brazilian partner Tiago last night in Treviso. Language barriers be damned, we had a fun time.

Lucca

Yesterday my mom and I took our bikes on the train to nearby Lucca, a small city surrounded by a wall. We rode around, stopped at a cafe then she left to go to a castle with everyone else but I had to stay. Lucca is pretty and the bike was so nice, so I rode around all afternoon exploring. Turns out my Italian is not too shabby though. Okay, well my Spanish sometimes passes for Italian anyways.

The day before we went to the small market in town and I got a stove-top espresso maker and an herb mincer, graduation gifts from my mama. Lela made one of the best lunches I've ever had. She has a way with spices, plus the vegetables here are like so ridiculously fresh and flavorful. It kills me! The tomatoes are actually red all the way through! Oh, and I'm totally filling my pack with olive oil and pine nuts before I head home. And cynar, haha. We had a dessert party for my parent's new friends and distant relatives which was pretty awesome, but by the end of it I was so tired I passed out in my clothes and slept for like 12 hours.

The day before that we explored some random hillside village and quite by accident met an ancient Spadoni named Rosa who will turn 100 in October. We were passing her house and while we paused at her mail slot which read Spadoni, her son invited us in for espresso.

Seattle -> New York -> Milan -> Prato -> Pescia -> San Salvatore

I made it, one day later then planned, but whatever, whose keepin score. I'm in beautiful Italy with my parents and brother's family whom I haven't seen last summer! Just as I had secretly hoped they welcomed me with handmade raviolis, local cheese, prosciutto and espresso. Although I was jet lagged more than I wanted to admit, we went to a festa in Pescia and watched some bands play. I had some gelato di melone which was off the hook but the jury is still out on whether Argentina does it better. I need to try the tiramisu and chocolate first but the gelateria we went to was sold out on almost everything because of the festival. I'll also need to do a wine comparison, but I already know that on pasta and the like Italy blows Argentina right out of the water. But thats only because Argentina is too busy throwing down killer asados. Bought a ticket to Berlin and I'm getting excited about it. Prague will happen some other time I suppose, but for now I'm looking forward to buildings pockmarked with bullet holes from wwII.

Can´t sleeeeeep

Ugh, I woke up at 6 this morning and couldn´t get back to sleep. Haven´t gotten a whole 8 hours in quite a while. Whats wrong with me? Hmmm, maybe it the endless rounds of maté I need to get through the day on not enough sleep. Yesterday there was a dead dog lying outside the lavanderia that at first glance looked like it was just sleeping. Eventually someone covered it with cardboard. I hope its gone today, poor thing. My class gets back from Uruguay today! So happy to be reunited. They just went for one night, because we have to leave Argentina every 90 days because of the tourist visa, but I didn´t need to because I spent the last month in Chile. I would have liked to see Uruguay but didn´t want to spend the money on a ferry ticket for just one night. I´m glad I got to be in BA for the end of Carnival. Foam fighting on the street was amazing, even though I got dragged into it by a surprise attack. Katrina and I were walking on the street and some guys came up behind us. They asked Katrina if they could get by us so she turned to them and they started spraying her with foam, straight in the face. So of course I start laughing until they start getting me too. Since we were covered in foam we thought we might as well go get our revenge so we ditched our things, bought some cans and spent the rest of the night running around in a rain of foam. I bought my plane ticket to Prague. So excited but had a lot of trouble figuring out how I will get back to Milan. Looks like my best option is to hop a train from Venice the night before my flight and then couch surf, only I get into Milan a little after midnight so I will have to find some night owl to host me. I spent some time yesterday working on my pathetic couchsurfing profile but I really lack the ability to describe myself. How would you do it?

I´m at the begining of the end in the place that I began.

Oh man, I'm sitting a table away from a guy making a paper mache mask, I love it! Hostel craft time is the best. So my last few days in Iquique were action packed. We rented a car and hit the road for our last batch of tide pool surveys. We found lots of new species including GIANT FUZZY CHITONS seriously the size of my hand, bright blue anemones, big sucker fish that clung to rock faces and would drop off into the water when they sensed our presence, and one feisty octopus that changed brilliant patterns in the flash of a second. The waves in this area could not be trusted though and the beach was jagged rock, so it was difficult to do counts. There were times when I would be like 3 meters from where the waves were coming up and then suddenly a freak giant one would appear and we´de have to make a run for it. The first time this happened I wasn't fast enough and got knocked over onto the rocks, landing on my knees. Good adrenaline rush though. After spending the whole day out we stopped by this beach side ghost town that had a castle up on a rock and a cemetery. We found out later that almost everyone in that town died from a tsunami. The next day Jorge picked us up and took us out into the driest desert in the world. Our day began with a bang, seriously, we were stopped by police on the highway and we weren´t sure why until there was a giant explosion out in the desert in front of us. Still not sure what that was about. Jorge took us to this abandoned nitrogn mine, a sad, spooky place where the Chinese workers were treated horribly. They were paid in fake coins that were only good at the factory store so they couldn´t buy anything down in Iquique. When they protested this, they were fired upon with machine guns and it was said that their blood ran all the way down into the ocean. It was these Chilean factories that really woke people up about worker´s rights. Afterwards we headed out to the geoglyphs which were really so much bigger than I expected. It was indescribably hot and dry out there, I can´t imagine how people were able to make them up on the steep slopes. They are 8000 years old and were the billboards of those times, advertising water, livestock and such. Then we drove through the flat, cracked desert for a while before reaching this bizarre town that exsists in the middle of it, just this oasis of green that looks so out of place in the harsh landscape. The town survives on natural springs and they produce mangos and oranges. We spent the afternoon in a hotspring that was partially underground. You could go back into these clay caves to almost complete darkness. We bought a bag of oranges for juicing and it was probably the best orange juice I´ve ever had in my life. Our last day in Iquique we spent saying goodbye to the beautiful Pacific and getting knocked around by waves but this time on the sandy beach. There happened to be a porteño at our hostel who was an asado master, so we had a bqq then reluctantly packed our bags. At the airport we had the biggest face-off with customs over some presents that we are determined to get home. We were arguing for at least 30 minutes. Security was being so ridiculous but we couldn´t back down and managed to get all 14 gifts onto the plane. I know the guy just wanted to keep one for himself, because thats what it came down to. Although I love Chile, it can seem totally strict at times and I love how Argentina just doesn´t give a shit. Like I got here with a bag of mangos that the dog sniffed out, and I was like here, take em, but security shrugged and said they didn´t want them. Its so funny because I was declaring all this stuff, but they never actually took my declaration paper from me. Anyways, now I´m back in Buenos Aires to wrap up class. Got to see baby Luca last night and he really is so beautiful! Now I somehow must finish my journal and species accounts once and for all, although its insanely hard knowing I will be finished with school in less than 2 weeks. I just want to slack off and play in the sunshine.

don´t dream it, be it

Soooo don´t appreciate whoever randomly put on a CD full blast that opened with the sound of a tsunami warning. Yeah, I know I´m paranoid, but there has been 3 earthquakes since I´ve been in Chile. But things are good. Yesterday I got to live out one of my dreams of running and flying off a cliff. Seriously, I´ve dreamt it so many times it felt like I had done it before. I glided up and over the city with the turkey vultures. I got lots of pictures of my feet. After tide pooling yesterday I went for a swim and got totally taken out by a massive wave. It was enormous and broke right over my head. I should have body surfed it but instead I tried to stand my ground like an idiot and it devoured me. Now my back has a thousand knots in it. I wish I was kickin it with some massage savvy homies, but it looks like my only option is to find some professional stranger and pay them cuz my self massaging only reaches so far. We went to the movies again and saw 127 hours. I cried a lot. Probably more than I was suppose to. Got to talk to Naomi this morning. Can´t wait to do that every morning this summer!

the sun burns!

So we stayed out tide pooling just a little too long yesterday. Ouch...first sun burn in a while, and I was wearing and reapplying sunscreen. Katrina on the other hand, only put it on her face and now has second degree burns on her back. I miss spike, my volumptious aloe plant, cuz the bottled stuff just doesn´t cut it. But the tide pools were so amazing, we couldn´t help staying out so long! I found baby starfish, sunstars, crazy giant fast-moving jumping crabs that would run around jumping from rock to rock, so many different colors of anemones and my favorite creature ever, the chiton! They come in the most beautiful colors and patterns, I´m totally inlove with them.









Last night we took it easy, watched a zombie movie and ordered the worst pizza I´ve ever encountered. It like dissolved in my mouth. No amount of hot sauce could make up for how nasty it was. We just changed hostels for a night, but I grew to like the old one. Check out was at the very generous hour of 11:30. I´ve never known a hostel with such a late check out. I´m kind of worried a bit about my low income burning man application, because I hadn´t realized they had already started accepting apps. Definitely gettin on that tonight, hopefully its not too late. Had a stressful dream where I missed the bus to Buenos Aires, Katrina spent 9,000 pesos on box wine and I broke my mate gourd. I blame the rotten pizza.