some thoughts

+ i still fear that i may have hoarding tendencies. . . maybe not as bad as this, but still. . . i save old clothes just because the fabric is cool {who knows maybe i'll pull out my sewing machine and make something extraordinary! : ) }

+ this wedding must have been lovely in person {more here also}. also, i wish i could have been a guest at this one {so fun and classy}

+ tennis. i don't know what to think of it. dad and i played for about an hour this afternoon {i got to wear my new $2 tennis skirt - thank you goodwill for all the love and fun times. . . sarah, i still want that pink jumpsuit}

+ venice when it rains & tuscany {can't wait to share my own memories of these places! . . . i want to post in a somewhat chronological order for my own sake though}

+ davidson worship started up last night! i've missed it so much. as soon as i walked in i noticed someone who looked almost identical to matthew p. i was so excited to see him there. . . until i remembered. . . oh wait. . . that's right. . . he's in minnesota now.

{pics from this desert wedding inspired by three favorite things in life - georgia, alfred, and poppies}

five reasons i'm already loving the big bad gap year:

1. books! abs made me an intense "gap year reading list that will change your life" and i spent almost an hour at the library borrowing and purchasing my own books. i finished all 600 pages of the girl with the dragon tattoo in less than a week. i read three hundred pages in just on sitting! never could i have done that during school. i wouldn't necessarily recommend the book, but if you want a really dark and uncomfortable thriller, stieg larsson is the man to go to.

2. an entirely new appreciation for food. after pondering ways we could keep in touch, kelsey, dana, and i decided one night in florence to start a food blog. it is my pleasure to introduce to you, a little taste of . . . {note: i still appear to be the only blogger at the moment, but k & d should hopefully join in the fun soon. our goal is to make this blog accessable to everyone and anyone who is interested in sharing a funny story, a good recipe, or just a beautiful picture of their time with food and/or friends. beacause the three of us live very far apart, soon to be ever farther {eek!}, kelsey in chapel hill, dana in oregon and vermont, and me in good 'ole davidson, we wanted to stay in touch though our common bond of - baking/ cooking/ eating. if you are interested in contributing, let me know and i'll send you the information!}

3. working on finishing paintings i started ages ago. i've missed my blue and green stained fingers and the smell of oil paints.

4. working an odd number of odd jobs. even though it might seem a bit boring, i have enjoyed my unusual working situation with a handful of *sitting jobs {*i'm watching people from the age of two all the way up to ninety-two! no joke, that's why i can't really say babysitting}, the beehive, mainstreet books, and other random jobs. one of my biggest goals is to finally find a place and time to start teaching my beloved yoga. there are so many opportunities, but to be honest, i still don't feel incredibly confidant with my ability as a teacher. i really look forward to getting out there and trying it out part time!

5. dreaming of all the possibilities. . . {another reason i love the gap year: dinner/movie dates with mom on weekdays. man, i know, i'm really going crazy now : ) no, but, for real, mom and i went to see this last night. the movie was good, not great. what i enjoyed most was seeing italy & india on a big screan like that! k, you need to see it solely b/c the first scene in rome is on top of castel sant angelo. i almost screamed out, i was just there a few weeks ago! too cool. . . now i just have to make it to bali some day {the rice paddies, oh, they kill me!} . . .

buckingham palace folks!

reflections

pictures from one of k & my first days in london. . .

* warning: i'm going to have a dozens of posts like this. . . few words but beaucoup des photos! after i came home to absolutely no record of photos from the past two years {other than fb, flickr, prints, & this blog}, i've decided that i need to post more pictures in order to have some sense of security.

famous people in london

on the days k had interviews i would always wander. one afternoon i walked past our hostel & into an area right outside of victoria station. in just a few minutes, i passed by all of these apartments.

waiting

kelsey & i are home!

we had no trouble overcoming the jetlag on the way back {thanks to lots of movies on the flight & the excitement of seeing loved ones!} as soon as we got back, we - ate cookies, took showers, & had a dance party with ally & kate.

it is really hard to imagine we've been home for a week now. abby, guion, & alex all came in on friday afternoon. on saturday, maria, matt, & erik come over & we had a party tubbing on the lake with aunt b, ems, & uncle jeff. also, we threw another party saturday night to celebrate the end of ma-maw's chemo & radiation treatments. the whole almond, johnson, farson, & now pratt family sector were involved. on sunday, eva & peter came for lunch {these two got me so excited about new zealand!} & by 5:00 p.m. aunt shelly, sheridan, & michael had arrived. it was a weekend full of entertaining, but we all loved being together/ seeing friends & family we hadn't seen for a long time.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

today at work i thought to myself, i took a gap year to do what exactly? i was working on pricing these little christmas elves, wondering what i got myself into! these next few months will certainly be interesting & i'm so curious to see what it's going to be like not having school in the fall.

i feel like i'm at a weird place right now, but i feel good about my decision. i'm just waiting. . . waiting to see what happens!

{photo from jfk airport}

p.s. did you know that more american zookeepers get injured by zebras than tigers each year? {thanks jared diamond of guns, germs, & steel for the random fact of the day. i'm working on finally finishing this book - after an entire year now! i'm not going to lie, sometimes it's just so hard to want to read about seeds for some-140 pages!}

sum of everything

this will most likely be my last post before our final departure . . . so. . . here's what all this euro trippn' totals:

• # of days: 40
• # of countries: 5 {england, france, monaco, italy, & the vatican!}
• # of cities: 16 {london, dover, calais, paris, lyon, nice, monte carlo, venice, lido, murano, florence, fiesole, rome, cinque terre, orvieto, & oxford}. we also spent a little time in ventimiglia, milano, pisa, aimens, & marseilles, but not nearly enough time to say we actually went to these places!}
• # of modes of transportation: 10 {plane, train, taxi, ferry, waterbus, rowboat, metro, city bus, double decker bus, & WALKING} sadly no moped, motorcycle, or bike. . .
• # of nights we went with 2 or fewer hours of sleep: 4, soon to be 5 {trip from clt - nyc -london, a certain miserable night in lyon, shared twin bed in florence hostel, stanstead airport all night, & the trip home most likely}
• # of notebooks filled: 2 {i love my moleskine sketchbooks a little too much}
• # of books finished: 3 {me talk pretty one day, extremely loud & incredible close, & the heart is a lonely hunter}

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the journey is everything

"montaigne believed the journey, in itself

was the idea. yet from this moving plane

i look down on the dazzle of the world,

conscious of his words but wondering

when, when shall i be here, at journey's end?

the journey, said montaigne, is everything.

two hours ago the setting out began

with words of love. it is too soon to be

in love with landscape, altering below-

the flight upriver and the dwindling hills-

as if i came for this, a traveler,

and every wisp of cloud were an obsession.

it is too soon! the journey is myself,

concerned with where i was, where i must go,

not with the clouds about me (what of them?),

not with the morning skies - nor would montaigne

have noticed them, his mind on other things.

the journey is my heartbeat in this plane.

yet with more time? were the excursion longer

to the cote d'azur et d'or, perhaps, la mer,

the hyacinth fields of haarlem, tanganyika,

the river lethe or the serpintine,

the fortunate isles or nepal- anywhere,

i might discover what his words still mean:

the journey, in itself, a thing apart.

but no. these words are older than montaigne's:

the sky changed. i have not changed my heart."

- helen bevington

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au revoir-

g.

{p.s. i think i would like to study drawing at oxford for a year or two one of these days. . . i kinda fell in love with it yesterday}

homeward bound

in london again! in order to fully appreciate the wonders of this city, it is necessary for one to go here twice in one trip. we're really enjoying our time here the second time around.

the more & more i travel, the more wanderlust fills my heart & head, but the thought of home right now sounds wonderful too. whenever we missed home we would sing this to each other & it's true, "home is wherever i am with you."

a little list of what i'm most looking forward to right now:

* a clean bed - a place where i don't have to worry about bed bugs or lice every night! {there have been loads of bed bug scares in each of these hostels, but thankfully other than a million mosquito bites, k & i think we're safe}

*good-smelling & clean clothes

*mommy's amazing cooking

*uploading all of these photos

*seeing my loved ones & sharing stories/listening to there stories

{the lovely photo is from our london trip no. 1. k deleted the one i had planned to use, so this will have to do for now. . .}

update

happy birthday mom! sorry k & i cannot be there to celebrate with you today. i hope that you spend today doing the things that make you the happiest. we both miss you & love you so so much.

we leave rome tonight for london. our flight doesn't leave until 10:00 & it should take us about 1.5 hours, so. . . that means we will not be getting into until midnight-ish. we previously booked a hostel for tonight, but considering stanstead is over an hour away from the center of london, we might just end up blowing a lot of £s on a hotel near the airport.

our time in rome has seemed brief it's hard to believe today marked our fourth day here. the heat along with the sweaty & annoyed tourists makes rome difficult at times. (i'm begining to think that every dutch & german teenager is touring rome this summer. . . we've had way too much fun watching them crowd the metro, the mcdonald's bathroom line, & every other hotspot). k & i have seen almost all the big sights now & have enjoyed our time in this old city (it is hard for me to comprehend just how old this city is), but i am getting excited for london again.

today, k & i got up, enthusiastic about going to the vatican museum (sistine chapel, etc), but once we got there, we realized there was no way in thanks to the some 80,000 people in the square! yes, it was a nightmare in this heat. even though we couldn't get in, we got to see the pope! he was speaking about this year's pilgrimage to the vatican. it had something to do with the "coetus internationalis ministrantium" movement. . . his whole speech was translated into german, so neither one of us could understand much. . . & although she was excited to see him, k was disappointed she never got to see the "pope-mobile." after fighting the crowds, we found the castle sant angelo & got to watch the end of speech from the top.

thanks to this trip, k & i have now visited the two smallest countries in the world (1. the vatican & 2. monaco). leichtenstein & some of the other little ones are still on the list.

kandyce, i thought of you all day yesterday b/c k & i spent the afternoon in orvieto. we're so thankful for your recomendation & it was the perfect day trip from rome. i cannot wait to share pics with you!

other than missing out on the vatican museum, i am truly amazed at just how much we have been able to see & do this trip. i got to everything on my list (the tate, dover beach, the louvre, versailles, l'orangerie, notre dame, monaco, venice, uffizi & accademia, the pantheon, orvieto, etc) & we're excited to see what else is ahead of us in london. only six days left!


i need to go finish packing my bag, but i hope to write again soon. . .

g.

p.s. italian keyboards make my head spin.