babble...

ciao kiddies... did ya miss me? sorry for the delay in posting... we spent the weekend in san gimignano [which i will discuss shortly] and then got back and then actually had work to do... ick. c'est la vie i guess... not to mention that i spent the entirety of yesterday doing a combination of a] napping - as i believe that i am coming down with a cold... but i am still optimistic that it's probably just my allergies... b] doing an ass-load of laundry - our washing machine fits a maximum of one pair of pants, two t-shirts and, if you're lucky, a few pairs of socks... so needless to say, many loads of laundry were done yesterday... c] reading 'the dharma bums' by kerouac - p.s. it's a great book d] cleaning our flat - i swear that the thing is just a scum magnet... granted, we do live on the ground floor - right next to a very busy street - but we're all fairly clean people... and yet somehow, our flat is in a constant state of scummery... hurumph.

anyway, on to brighter topics... san gimignano - two words: GO THERE. it is probably the most beautiful place that i've ever been to in my entire life... sigh. it was possitively marvelous... save for the train rides on the way there and back, it was a perfect trip. story time: so, we hop on the train from roma termini station to chiusi on the way to siena [which was our original destination, but due to the inavailability of lodging, we ended up - luckily - staying in san gimignano...] - we apparently bought tickets without seats... so we end up sitting in these skank-nasty little fold-out seats IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AISLE of the train... now picture an aisle on a plane... now put little fold out seats in there and still expect people to be able to pass by you on a jostling jetting little train car... argh! not to even mention that our particular car had no functioning lights... now here's where the story gets a little interesting: so we pass through a series of tunnels... oh yes, perfect pitch blackness so thick and sticky-hot you could cut through it with a butter knife... with people passing by you... more that they were squeazing in on top of you - i, of course, ended up with creepy dude standing right on top of me... oh yeah, hot-sweaty-non-deodorant-wearing-heavy-breathing-creepy-guy standing in my personal bubble... whimper... it was possitively revolting... but i guess it was worth it.

san gimignano is this beautiful little wine town in the middle of the most incredible landscape i've ever seen with my humble little eyes... ohmygod. it was fantastic... we stayed at this wonderful little hotel called 'hotel le colline' - which you should stay at when/if you go there.... the woman who owns the hotel is an absolute angel... no fibbin' - a bonafide angelic human being. after our terrible day of rude transit employees and rediculous tourist traps, this woman and her family went out of there way to make room for 7 of us in INCREDIBLY nice hotel rooms at the last minute AND THEN, when we were stranded in town with no taxi or bus to get us back to the hotel [as it is a somewhat trecherous path along a heavily trafficked highway for a little over a kilometer in the pitch blackness...], this wonderful person drove up to town - mind you, she is no longer on duty at this time of night and is now spending time with her family... - to make TWO trips to bring us back to the hotel. then she gives us a rediculous discount on our rooms and THEN flags down a bus for us the next day so that we can make our train on time... wonderful, i tell you, possitively wonderful human being.

so, our night in san gimignano was spent listening to a man play the flute to such little ditties as: ave maria, chopin [he played several songs by chopin], and - oh yes - we are the champions by queen.... it was so wonderful... sitting on the steps of a beautiful medieval cathedral eating my rum-flavored gelatto listening to an einstein-looking [speaking of the hair, here] man in a tux with tails play queen on the flute... i swear, i had a little tear in my eye... sigh sigh sigh...

anyway... i have to waddle to class... pictures may be difficult to post, as i have discovered that the firewall the school has activated here will not allow me to connect with the picture-posting server... i will try my best, but i can't make any promises any more on the whole graphic thing... keeping my fingers crossed, though.

nugget time: wayne's world was filmed in two weeks.

schawing...