"Actually, its quite common" -Dumbass

Today is my last full day in Europe. Ummmmmm, how do I feel? I don't know. For a few weeks I was so exhausted and excited to go home and missing everyone tons and yadayada...Now I want to shout WAIT....though I'm not quite sure what would follow that exclamation. I do still want to go home, I am done living out of a suitcase, but I wish Europe wasn't so god damned far away. I want to be able to come back for a weekend or a short holiday. Oh how I will miss hostels and having my daily meals look a little like this:
      Breakfast: Stuff my face with as much food as can fit in there from the free hostel bfast buffets. This usually means two bowls of cereal and 3 pieces of bread with jam.
      Lunch: Skip it? Maybe gram a 50cent box of custard cream cookies, if I feel like splurging.
      Dinner: Eat early, because I skipped lunch. Grab the cheapest thing I can find in a Tesco (european Longs), usually something on sale because its slightly old or lacks any taste. Search for the cheapest possible bottle of wine to make you forget that what you are eating really isn't that good.
And then Dan and I would find a stoop on which to consume our meal...all in all, it was great fun to do this. One days worth of food could cost only 3euro! If that doesn't make all the crappy food taste better, I don't know what would.

So I am residing in Edinburgh right now, waiting for my long ass bus ride that will depart for London this evening. I lovvvve this city, and can see why Ratchel would not cease to talk of it for an entire year. Such beautiful buildings and awesome pubs...but my favorite part was all of the old graveyards. You can't walk more than four blocks without hitting one, and they are all twice as beautiful in the fall with autumn trees just blinding you with their ability to be 100 colors at once. Why can't I do that? Uncool. But the hostel we stayed at...haha. The first day we get to the beds they assigned us, lock up ALL of my stuff, literally everything I have accumulated on this european adventure, and we head to town. When we return, my stuff is out of the locker and has haphazardly been strewn about by the intruder. SHOCKING! My laptop, my expensive shoes, all of my clothing...all still there. What a silly robber. Either way, I'm obviously not down so I head to the front desk to cancel our second night so we can stay somewhere without lock cutters roaming around. And the guy at the desk...this guy....THIS GUY was like oh yeah, that was me. UM? Yeah, your stuff was in the wrong locker so we cut it open because that locker was for someone else. Oh, well in that case I am definitely leaving because 1. You told us those were our lockers and 2. You dont even feel bad about this!! So his explanation is Oh well, actually its quite common. Oh ok, as long as its common for you to break locks and throw peoples belongings around the room, then maybe I'll stay? What a putz. Twist end of story: We decided to stay the extra night anyway and they gave it to us FO FREE. Best turn of events ever.
Anyway, back to California tomorrow, assuming that all goes well in travel. Keeping my fingers crossed!

If its Tuesday, we must be in Brugge....right??

Where in the world am I? I can hardly keep track these days, as I never seem to stay anywhere for too long. It’s always a bit heartbreaking to leave a city that you just met; I am always so dramatic with my goodbyes. Ciaaaao, Italia-ti amo! Au revoir paris…I don’t know how to say anything else in French, but I can do a little wave with a French looking blown kiss. I have finally figured out the metro and rail maps, decided my favorite place to eat, discovered the perfect place to drink wine in public (how is that not legal in the US??) only to be ushered off to my next destination. It’s not a hard life, but it’s not a permanent one either. Oh, how I miss living out of closets and dressers! Life is not meant to fit in a few of those airtight bags that suck all of the life out of your clothing and replace it with wrinkles.

Anyway, I figured I needed to remember all the places I've been and what I've loved about them. Also, I know there are a few people who are planning to pop over to this ancient continent soon (seriously, even the toilets are older than California here) so I thought I'd compile a list of where I went and what I loved. This is a partial list, as I have written it and now I'm bored of this, so I'll finish it later, perhaps when I have no life in Petaluma.

Barcelona: One of my favorites. Churros dipped in hot chocolate sauce at 4am really is the best and worst idea ever. Barcelonians are possibly the most helpful people I’ve met on this continent, but also the ones who don’t seem to know left from up. It’s shocking how many people were always willing to offer directions, and even more shocking how many of them were not even remotely correct. Guell park made me feel like someone had granted my childhood wishes and finally brought me into a Dr. Seuss book, all that was missing was the Lorax. I am beyond jealous that Morgan gets to stay there through at least the rest of the month, and visit again throughout the year.

Dublin: Exactly as I pictured it, but with a little less rain. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely rained every day. But not all day every day.  Which was nice, but then you have to do the raincoat dance every hour or so. Oh shit, its bloody pissing rain, on with the coat. God damn, its hot- now I have to carry this wet fucker. Every other door lead into a pub, that was somehow packed at all hours of the day (and Dan says the French never seem to go to work). Inside you would find a drunken/oddly talented guy showing off his skills of not taking a breath for what seems like 5 minutes while he spews out lyrics in an unknown language- unknown because its literally so fast and slurred you can’t really tell if its drunken English or Irish. Guinness flows like water and everyone loves to drink, including all of Dan’s aunts, uncles, and thousands of cousins, most of who seem to be related in more than one way if you catch my drift. Also, CHOCOLATE. If you see me within a week of my getting home, make me bring you an irish chocolate. Deeeelish.

Cardiff: That’s in Wales, by the way. Yeah, I didn’t really know that either (I believe I even thought Wales was part of England, not even its own country. Oops) until I met Simon in Maine 2 years ago. As soon as we arrived we witnessed two guys drunk off their ass (hopefully) jump into a river that was just sparkling with the thin layer of oil and soda cans floating on top, and swim out to a big wooden structure which one proceeded to jump off of, while the other pussied out. We proceeded to have fish and chips with Simon and his lovely girlfriend; and although they were are age, you would never know it. Simon and Ceri just bought- BOUGHT- a beautiful welsh condo which they have completely decorated, filled with pictures, real sofas not acquired from street corners or good will, and stocked with real adult food. They both have jobs with salaries and enjoy spending time with their families…how crazy, to be 23 and already be all grown up! Anyway, Wales was cool, we did a little pub quiz, didn’t embarrass ourselves too badly. Turns out I know about 2/100 random UK facts. Honestly, not as bad as I thought.

Paris: My favorite!! Bella citta! I still speak no French, and the French still seem to hate me for it, but I don’t even care. In 4 days we managed to go to (fo free) the Louve (or as much as you can do in 3.5 hours, which seems to be about a third of it. It’s a beast), Notre Dame where I swear I saw Quasimoto, Sacre Coeur which you can see the entire city from…and then not fo free the Eiffel tower at sunset, que romantique, and the Catacombs, which are like nothing I never knew even existed. Oh, and guess how many scarves there are in this city? MILLIONS. On every corner, every alley, every little store sells scarves. It’s amazing that I managed to not buy one, but Dan’s ridicule of the other 4 scarves I have bought so far stopped me, so I bought my mom one instead. Every lunch consisted of a different kind of cheese and bread or a crepe along with a cheap bottle of wine, and every street you walked on was beautifully decorated with rot iron balconies, trees with autumn leaves, and couples sucking face. The most PDA I have ever seen in one place. Kinda gross, but hey-if you can't beat em, join em!

Brugge: If you have seen the movie, then you have no idea what Brugge is like. Not only can you wonder along cobblestone while eating THE BEST french fries in the place where they were invented, but you can sample hundreds of different kinds of amazing beer, most for under 4euro per glass. 72 Chocolate stores in the city center, with a population of only about 20,000. We had to stay an extra night after visiting the De Garre pub which is the only place to serve the deliciously creamy Garre beer, with a complementary cheese snack. Unfortunately, the only people we met in Brugge were from the bay area, San Diego, and Pennsyvania. Ewww.

Now we are in Amsterdam and its too overwhelming to discuss now... Great place, but its a bit like Las Vegas...2 nights will be enough. Miss you all, can't wait to hear about where everyone else loves to go so I can expland my list of places to visit for my next adventure!!

Caitlyn Morgan Barcelona

Ohhh Barcelona, what a beauty she is! This city is amazing. Shall I take you through my journey here thus far? I shall.

I arrived in a caffeinated haze after not sleeping a wink in my airport "hotel" and ingesting a redbull and an accidental latte. I looked around excitedly for Morgan, but didn't see that beautiful face anywhere. But YIPPEE my bags are here, thats a huge improvement from my last flight. I wandered toward the arrivals area, where I hoped she would find me...no Morgan. I did a little dance in and out of those giant turning doors for the next half an hour, trying to cover all the ground in arrivals without missing her in another part...trying to find out if her flight had landed on time by way of speaking terrible Spanish, a language that I have not used since the 10th grade. I think I'm even more confused about languages than I was when I got here...Anyway, I gave up actively looking for her and decided to sit in one spot and hope she popped by and DUN DUN DUH DUH there she be with 3 of the HUGEST suitcases I have ever seen in my life. That girl really is moving here! After ecstatic greetings, we exhaustedly took a train and then a cab to her apartment. After the nice shop lady from next door helped us get in, as we are incapable of using keys apparently, we found ourselves in her cute little apartment! But she will tell you all about that I'm sure. Ok, lets go to bed we've been up forever. What time is it? 10AM?!?!? Fuck our lives. I honestly have no idea what we did that day, but somehow we managed to put off sleep until 9pm. 

Morg was a bit worried about making such a huge change in her life, about how difficult it was going to be. If you've ever watched Little Miss Sunshine, there is always a quote that comes to mind with these kinds of dealings: 

"he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing." 

I don't know that years happily spent are a waste, but I do agree that you learn the most about yourself and grow the most when things are difficult. And that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing with our post college years, right? Figuring ourselves out a little more...pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and into the real world. The world is a huge, amazing place and if you are always too afraid to leave the comfort of your cozy bed (as most of us are at one point or another), then you are never going to get to see stuff like this:

Which reminds me...Barcelona is amazing! I am so jealous that Morg gets to spend so long here. The Gaudi architecture (like above) reminds me of Dr. Seuss, and hiking in the park surrounding it leads to beautiful views of the city. There are street musicians everywhere, except they are all really good, and it just makes every situation seem like something from a movie. If you get the chance, visit Barcelona. Visit morgan this year! Or later...some time before you die, at least. 

Wishing you all were here...

Cait

Diaries of an airport (non) sleeper

3:31 am. 4 hours after arriving at Milan Malpensa airport, and 3 hours before my flight leaves. No, theres not cruel and unusual amounts of airport security in Italy, I just didn't want to pay for the ridiculous combined cost of a hostel, a cab, and an early train. I had many preconceived notions about airports that have been disproven by this experiment.

1. Airports do close down completely. I thought that there were always busy little airport workers checking luggage at all obscure hours, like ants. The only workers here are janitors and a guy who drives around one of those awesome zomboni type things they have at ice rinks. Thats probably the second best job ever, only behind dog walker.

2. Tons of people sleep at the airport! I thought I might be generally alone in my overnight exploration of life as a bum, but the place is packed! From midnight, people started showing up and chatting, then sleeping on benches, then chatting some more.

3. Airports are not required to have those cushiony seats that I have always seen before. The seat I sit on is metal, with a little blue pillow at the top that makes a surprising difference in my comfort.

I have also learned that this is fun! Fuck hostels and hotels, I'll just chill at airports wherever I go. Its free, you just have to pay the expense of feeding yourself at hours in which you would normally be all curled up like a nice warm bun straight from the oven; a small price to pay. I have spent my alone time reading The Shadow of the Wind, which my dad recommended I read in Barcelona (where it is set) and of which I have already completed 200 pages. I'll be finished before I even get to Barcelona. You know you can be amazingly productive if you don't sleep (obviously that wasn't directed at you, Rula, because you know this well). I have painted my nails, much to the confusion of the Australian guy sitting near me who looks bored to tears. I have gotten high scores on all of my ipod games. Did I mention I drank a redbull? YUP. Its like the DivLib all over again.

I don't seem to be joined in my joy of airport non-sleeping. (The cheese stands alone, as usual). There is a baby who whines about god knows what, because nothing is happening. The Italian soccer team next to me sleeps most of the time only to awake and grumble something unpleasant to their fellow teammates. The poor swedish girl near me has been stalked by the bored Australian man, and I think has been feigning sleep for the last two hours to avoid his odd conversation. If you ever met Ben from the book store (Elisabeth, Kristina...you know) this guy is pretty much the Australian version of him. Thats right, there's more than one.

Unfortunately, in 3 short hours I will be leaving Italy. When I will be back to this beautiful country, I don't quite know. The family I was with offered me more money to come back next summer, as well as paying for my flight (and no doubt another designer bonus). Its probably the most tempting offer I've ever gotten, but for some reason I feel like I can't. Like I have too much to do, to get a job, to get ready for grad school...etc....i don't really know what the etc, but I'm sure theres other stuff. I also missed a lot of stuff about summer while I was away- camping, bbq's, summer nights in santa cruz/petaluma, having friends... I've spent a summer as Lindsay Lohan in the beginning of Mean Girls, something I've always dreaded. But it wasn't as bad as I thought. Apparently I am pretty good at entertaining myself now. Look Ma, a new skill!

Anyway back to important airport business... business looks like guiness. Weird. More redbull Caitlyn? Why yes, thank you.

You know you love teriyaki chicken,

Cait

Can I get a pair of waterproof shoes for my life please?

Waterproof shoes are surprisingly handy. You buy them thinking, damn this is a crazy investment. The sales guy tells you, "It will be worth it. One day you will be laughing at everyone else with wet feet and think, that sales guy was right." Today was that day.

But I'm getting ahead of myself a little. I think the more important thing to talk about is my new "read it forward" idea. Yes, i know that this phrase does not exactly make sense. But I'm also pretty sure that you figured it out. This summer I have been reading my books and been unable to keep them with me do to a shopping addiction that has lead to not one extra inch of packing space. So I finish them, write a little note on the inside that I think sums up the idea of the book, or relates in some way...and then I pass it on. I generally do this back home, especially with Pam, but here I don't know anyone who reads in English. The first book I finished I left at a house we were staying with figuring it would be snagged by the future au pair. The last book I left outside of the train station in Venice. I refuse to believe the possibility that these books are simply thrown away by the local garbage man. These books definitely change lives. 

So, today I was wandering Venice da solo, as usual (alone, for you non italian speakers...aka everyone- why did i chose to study italian again?). I wandered right into the pouring rain, which inspired some beautiful italian dances of people leaping from shop to shop to stay out of the weather. I had remembered to wear my rainproof REI shoes (best store ever), and was feelin pretty good about that in the rain. It let up, and I wandered toward the main square where I noticed some strange activity. People cleaning their feet...what are these freaks doing? I've never seen so many foot fetishes in one place...how odd. After exploring the beautiful church San Marco's Basilica (that guy loved his bling, even after death), I wandered toward the main area of the square. Oh whats this?? The square is under water. About 2-3 inches, to be exact. The number of bare-footed people fondly reminded me of Santa Cruz. I began to treck through carefully and then looked down at my feet....

WAHAHAHA bitches, ive got waterproof shoes?? Who's laughing now....ME! Thats right, I am cracking up all by myself in Venice. I don't care, my feet be drrrrryyyyyyyy. and yours be wet. HA.

My feet, repelling all the dirty water all around. Staying happy, even in the rain. Why aren't there waterproof shoes for life? I could really use some right about now. I would love to repel all of the ickiness, all of the unwanted and just stay warm and dry in my own little Caitlyn Hut. Ooh, a waterproof Caitlyn Hut. I hear the sound of large sums of money being thrown in the air, or swam in in a bathtub. Better yet, a hot tub. 

You know you love teriyaki chicken....

Ti amo <3 

Cait

and then there was a blog.... errr wait, was there?

Why is there a blog, you might be wondering. What is Caitlyn doing making a blog at the very end of her trip? What a silly decision to make. Well thats where you are wrong; it was more of an ongoing indecision. For the last two months I have been pondering the "blog" saying tiny "errrs" and "ummmms" in my head until I finally panicked and just got one. Its hard to really explain why we do the things we do, and that is what I will try to explore through this virtual thought vomit that I will spew onto you whenever I am feeling a little to word drunk. This is part 1.

Part 2 is that this will be a place to catalogue my home, goals, plans. If you have met me or know me at all, you will know that this, often occurring at Borders, takes up a solid amount of my time. The combination of a nice warm non-fat decaf raspberry mocha, a tall round table, and all the books that will fit in the giant American miracle that is Borders just makes me feel like a little kid on Hanukkah. But now that I have left Santa Cruz, and to be honest, the best Borders there is with a second story loft cafe that gives you a general God-like feeling, I need to create another haven for my planning. My virtual borders!

Part 3...book club anyone? eh eh? Since graduating a large 11 weeks ago, I have realized how much I truly enjoy reading for pleasure. Remember that? When no one was quizzing you on what happened on page 241 or telling you that you must finish enjoying this wonderful book by October 5 or you will fail. Way to take the fun out of reading. Because of my new found love of reading (and my lack of friends in Europe) I read 4 books this summer. The two that were most notable: Middlesex and The Womens Room.

I want to talk about The Womens Room. If you are a woman and you have not read this, do it. If you are a man, read it. Educate yourself. The book paints a picture of the American woman from the 1950's through the 70's. Its most things that you knew existed taken to a depth that makes you wonder about the inner working of your own grandmothers mind and past. Its devistating and brutally honest and makes you consider becoming moving to a planet with no men. In my honest opinion, a lot has changed since the 70's, and we do not live in the world that is described in this book. But it would have been impossible for all the sexism and prejudice to completely disappear, and of course it hasn't. This spotlights all of that, and is enough to make Elaine Dowd go feminist for at least a year. 

On an anti-feminist note...look at my pretty new shoes!!!

oooh baby. What a lovely present to get, worth about 4 weeks of work! Ha, I sure outsmarted that family. Anyway, what else can I say except: Dolce. Gabbana. These shoes shall remain in my backpack for the rest of my trip to make sure that nobody swipes them. I might even sleep with them on...better safe then shoeless. 

Until later...you know you love teriyaki chicken.

xoxo

Cait