Alright, so I've temporarily abandoned this Blog. But, never fear, I've taken it back into my loving arms, and am now ready to fill it with my daily malarkey.

Orientation was interesting. I'll essentially be going to school with 5% Chicago-born journalism majors and 95% Missouri-(in)bred farmhands. The campus is fairly nice--it has its good and its bad traits. It seems as though I have a lot of ground to cover in my first four semesters if I want to earn my way into the J-school. If I still dislike the school by the end of first semester, I'm transferring. Any suggestions?

I've had to work an obnoxiously large amount this weekend--and we've been terribly un-busy. On Saturday, we didn't even gross half of our predicted earnings for that day. I'm working practically every night this week.

I'm starting to be forced to see people again...why can I not just be invisible, or have everyone think I'm still in Europe or dead or something? No, I have to choose the Gap as my workplace, where EVERYONE and their monkey shops.

Today, I'm going out for coffee with Christine (obligatory) and then ideally having dinner/North Shore activity with Theodore. I wonder what's going on at Ravinia tonight...

I use "-ly" words much too frequently. (Ugh...)


  posted by Brian @ 14:08

 
Not much time to type right now.

We rented scooters in Rome--very dangerous. Theo acquired a sickly grapefruit-sized cut on his shoulder--but, we later agreed that it was the best "experience" we had the entire trip.

We're now running off to try ABSINTHE, a mysterious alcoholic beverage that is illegal everywhere in the world, aside form the UK and some third-world western European country. I'll be careful! (Note to film buffs: Absinthe = green fairy product consumed in "Moulin Rouge.")

We made it to London successfully, and I will talk to/see all of you when I arrive home safely to the trashiest continent in the world from the classiest continent in the world.

  posted by Brian @ 14:37

 
Aah, Roma. Rome. How dirty she is.

The past few days have been interesting. I woke up as we crossed the threshold between switzerland and italy. Apparently, Theo decided that we were going to stay in Geneve, instead of the pre-planned town of Zurich. Hmm...

Geneve is right no the border of Switzerland and France, so it wasn't very "exciting" or "new." Its main attraction was a huge waterspout, which lost its appeal after...how much time pases between two blinks of the eye?

But, Switzerland prove itself worthy--the climate wass very pleasant the entire time. Lots of rain. Lots of good food.

We missed our train between Culox, a bumblefuck town in the GORGEOUS Alps, and Aix-Des-Baines. Oops. So, we rescheduled and got a more direct sleeper train from Chambery, a small college town situated in the asscrack of the French Alps, to Roma. The only problem was, the slow, SLOW agent at the bu-fu train station didn't give us TICKETS, just an itererary. And while we have eurorail passes, we need a reservation for night trains. So, we waited around until midnight in the Chambery train station, in the frigid cold (oh, I lost my favourite Gap jacket in the Milano hotel we stayed in), and the TWO sleeper trains to Rome that were passing through the train station were all booked.

Fuck.

So, we stayed a night in Chambery. For $80 EUR.

Fuck.

We finally arrived in Rome last night at 11:00. With no hotel to claim ours. So, between dealng with phoolish phone card issues and fending off the hord of hostel agents pestering us for our patronization, we found a hotel for...80 FUCKING EUROS...called (shut the fuck up, I know what you're thinking) Hotel Aphrodite.

Now, I'm not a Greek history buff, but I can tell you no god, regardless of denomination, would've stayed in this godforsaken office building-turned-shithole-hotel. The shower, you ask? Just a hose out of the wall. The entire 4-square foot bathroom just turned into some sort of locker-room gang shower. Or carwash. I didn't use it.

I miss the comfort of hostels, I really do. Thank god for London.

(Why, you ask, didn't I just go with one of those friendly agents from the hostels in Rome? Well, I reply, because they are frequently fakes, who don homemade "badges" and lead you to far off, epensive shithole hotels...like the one we atayed at. Ugh. I hate thinking out loud.)

So, after visiting the Vatican and purchasing a REALLY high-quality Gucci-knockoff purse for my unappreciative sister, I'm sitting in the most inventive and practical enterprise I've run into while here--a computer lab/laundromat. Yay!

Off to play with my clothes...I come home in a week!

  posted by Brian @ 11:16

 
Hmm. Well, we're in Florence now. I'm sorry we haven't blogged...or, since Th. decided to not use this beautiful thing, I havenàt blogged.

à = ' for this blog, by the way

Weàve had our good days and bad days. Good hours and bad hours. But, for the most part, itàs been really great. Paris was beautiful, save for the abundance of dirt. I really enjoy the clothes in Europe...but I have no money to buy them. I think Iàll be doing some H & M'ing when we get back to London.

Nice was so gorgeous-my favorite destination so far. I acquired a tanned stomach, while Theo attained a sunburn as red as a lobster, and with just as much bite.

We stayed in Marseilles and Monaco a day each''marseilles was disgusting and I didnàt enjoy it at all. We have stayed in some horrid, disgusting, hot, Catholic hotels. ICK. Monaco was majestic in its 1970s bourgeois glory. We had some issues up to that point, but after Monaco, I think all should be well for the duration ogf the trip.

Italy has been...well, as my friend Shannon (who will never see this) stated after her trip, dirty. Itàs the least accessbile place weàve been so far, as far as trains and langusge go. We had a 6+ hour, un'air conditioned train trip from Monaco to Milano yesterday. (Two days ago? Fuck.) It was horrible, and Theo was clarly not happy. The train stopped unexpectedly for 15 minutes in between Genoa (scummy beach town) and Milan(o), for no particular reason. we were then "towed" by another train to Milano. It was horrible. Definitely not the greatest way to start our Italy experience. the langusge barrier is unavoidable''most people speak some applicable english, but at least we knew French in France. This is rediculous.

It looks like weàre taking an unscheduled trip north tonight, to Zurich, Switzerland. It should be much more climat-ically pleasant in Zurich. Then, off to Venice and Rome, and a trip from Rome to London. Iàll hopefully post in Rome, and definitely in London at least once.

Hmm...fun stories...

I was shoved by some beggar outside of the Gare du Nord (Parisian train stop) because I wouldnàt give him any money.

I canàt think of any more right now. I have 20 mintes left, so perhaps Iàll be back. Au revoir for now.

  posted by Brian @ 10:03

 
I would reccommend skipping this anecdote for now, and reading my airline atrocities first. Chronological order is splendid!

New York City : The Bronx ; London : Wherever the Fuck I Was

Being the eager little tourist I am, I insisted to myself that, even though I was dead bloody tired, I would spend as much of the evening as possible travelling around town, hopping from bars to bars and clubs to clubs and whatnot. So, I walked a bit, played with the Tube a bit (London's subway system, officially called the "Underground"), got lost a bit...no, correction: got lost a lot. After about 12:30, the Tube shuts down for the evening, leaving any nighowls to play London's answer to russian roulette, called "THE NIGHT BUS." These night buses, as far as I was concerned, were worthless, directionless, and foolish. I wouldn't have even caught one, except while I was stnding in a grand doorway waiting for a classic case of London rain to cease from pouring, a gentleman approached me literally out of nowhere and handed me his umbrella. I lost that umbrella, as well as my dignity and sleeping time, on N25: Chariot to Hell. N25 just happened to be the bus I stepped onto at about 1:00AM, and remained on for the next 1.5 hours.

World lesson: London's grand old mass transportation systems are all set up on a zone plan: central London is Zone 1, and the further you travel from London's main hub of commerce dictates which zone you end up in. The zone go up to 6. I know this because I was IN zone 6. I stayed on this mystery bus because I figured it would eventually have to return back to central London in a matter of minutes. BUt no--it just pressed on towards the east, until I was no longer in London, but a Bronx-like suburb of London.

At the second-to-last stop, a group of three clean-cut-yet-reminiscent-of-Trainspotting young Brit boys (That's boys, not "bois"--they were decidedly and proudly in favour of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, and even the late Aaliyah. And not for their talents either.) boarded the bus. They were freshly snoggered, and not nearly ready to discontinue their evening of debauchery and misconduct. It was clear who was whom in teh group: David, whose 22nd birthday was the cause of this revelry, played "Leader." Michael, his younger brother (I'm assuming younger) played the attractive sex-going alcohol fiend. He later was sick for a bit and recovered, not remembering who the hell I was. (I'm getting to that) The rebel-rouser and comedian of the trio was aptly played by Kev. Kev was an outgoing, no-holds-barred fat boy who just liked chain-smoking American cigarettes and reenacting scenes from movies that were rather popular maybe five years ago. They were loud, obnoxious, odoriferous. Their "flat" should have been "flat"tened after the dawn of anti-bacterial disenfectants. But more importantly, they were kind, funny, sometimes intellectual, and more than hospitable to me.

You see, because I had no idea where the fuck I'd gotten myself, Dave invited me to stay with them at his mother's house, which was at the next stop. It was really more like this "Pue47se s&$ay a£ 8my m*m;s h~#'e with oos." I could barely understand their goddaned cockney--it was then that I rememberd why I had to put ubtitles on for "Trainspotting."

So, we talked about politics, American things, sports, and girls--half of which I had no real grounds for coversation with them, but played the part magnificently. They insited I stay for the football game (England v. nigeria), and then go pubhopping with them, drinking "Britney Spears" (Non-Cockney English: beers) with them and having a regular old great time. I was supposed to not sleep, AGAIN, and pick Theo up in teh morning at Victoria station. (Running out of time)

I didn't sleep at all last night ,as the song goes. They decided to stay up all night, but then passe out all over the house, leaving me with the dilemma: do I turn teh blaring BBC off, or just ignore it and try to get some sleep? Well, if you know me, you know what I did.

After I came off the tube at 1:00 this afternoon, I realized that that may have been one of the coolesst and most interesting experiences I'll ever have.

  posted by Brian @ 14:36

 
I utterly despise this computer. Or rather, the keyboard.

On to the stories.

Preparing for Takeoff Moment No. 743

I have never been delayed at O'Hare for more than, say ten minutes tops. Until Monday afternoon, that is. Because of severe weather, i.e., a microburst on the runway, my AA flight to New York-La Guardia was delayed for six hours. Now, what could one possibly do for six hours in a claustrophobe's nightmare, you may ask? Well, the thirtysomething divorcee seated next to me answered that question. Being a CEO for Smirnoff vodka, this woman (Mary Ann?) decided to prepare me for Euope by, what else, feeding me cheap bottle after cheap bottle of some terribly terrible white wine. So, needless to say, the wait hradly bothered me. Especially when one considers the $20 the gentleman to Ms. Smirnoff's right slipped me as we exited the tin can of hell. "For wine," the TV station exec. chuckled to me.

Naturally, I missed my connecting flight from NY-JFK to London. By three hours. I was pleased to find that the reservations officer was more than happy to book me a complementary room at the local Ramada (Hey, it was free...). He was also able to give me a complementary dinner and breakfast, as well as cab service to and from my hotel and the airport. I didn't sleep much--about three hours--because my next flight was at 8:30 AM.

  posted by Brian @ 14:11

 
I had written out a very, very long summary of the past forty-eight hours, and went into amusing detail about all the adventures I've already had, but then the computer shut the browser window down because it ran out of £s, and for wahteer reason I couldn't put them in nearly fast enough. Bloody bollocks. When I'm not as angry, I'll be back. This keyboard is sticky anyways.

But, to reassure all of you--I'm fine, just very tired (three hours of sleep in forty-eight hours sound healthy to you?). I am having a good time, and will have fun stories to post later on this evening. (I suppose it would be your morning, wouldn't it?)

  posted by Brian @ 08:37

 
Alright--suddenly, the prospect of being in a foreign country by myself does not appeal to me. I'm just glad I let someone get the foolish idea out of my head that traveling alone would be the most optimal way to explore Europe. I'll only have 48 hours to spend solo--it shouldn't be THAT horrible.

I have a dreadful amount of clothing to pack. I may not be sleeping tonight.

  posted by Brian @ 23:55

 
I depart in 23 hours and 45 minutes. Scared? Yes.

  posted by Brian @ 15:12