I got about 400 pics out of this whole experience; obviously I'm not gonna put 'em all here-- a few more are on my Flickr pages, most I don't have the space to upload them, and a lot of good ones should be up once Annie puts 'em up! But without further ado, here's a small sampling of Italy:



One thing that made Capri so relaxing and amazing was that the people we hung out with turned out to be really chill and fun to hang around... I sometimes have the problem of being too absorbed in the socialness of things and thus feeling shortchanged of the whole "experience"... like I'm too worried about the bullshit of smalltalk and "being cool" with the kids (the way I see most kids studying abroad are) than actually looking outside and absorbing and experiencing the whole situation around you. I felt this way constantly in Russia, but in Italy, we just had fun with each other and around us-- good group.





And everything in Italy was green. GREEN. Amazingly green. Everything in Russia was dirty. Italy was green.



One of my favorite pics of Annie. Our ridge/church apartment is gonna rock righteously.







We had a livestock experience quota to meet each day. We only made it to three days, but we touched a sheep and befriended some goats!







Oh God. We were bums for most of the trip (sleeping on the beach, loitering as a lifestyle), but we fancied up in public toilets and made sure we ate right. Do you see that pizza? I could cry thinking about how good that pizza was. So good that with wine and hours to kill, by the end of that pizza, we were talking wistfully of long lost loves and future dreams. Yeah. That pizza was unbelievable.



As shocked as I was to find that Russians really do wear fuzzy hats and are mean, I couldn't believe that the Italians we met really did say "MAma MIa!" and talked loudly and passionately about everything. Weirdly, it made things more surreal than familiar.





We sat on a grassy knoll by this castle, where I read about MF Doom and Annie tried to get more sun. This was one of the few picturesque parts of Napoli... other than their pizza.



What we had to do to chill wine.



What we had to do after chilling the wine.







Someday, I have to come back to Sicily, rent a scooter vespa thing, and drive down all this sicilian countryside myself with a trusty comrade. One of the most beautiful and incredible places I've ever seen... needless to say, I've got the post spring break blues (but that might be exaggerating a bit, cause Copenhagen's never been better). Once I get space again on Flickr, I'll try to post the sketches I did during the trips (hooray for drawing on a regular basis again). I've got only a month and a half left of classes, but I really want to travel around some more... if only I can find some fellow backpackers and some $$$ of course-- we shall see...



"Ciao bello"

Spring Break!



So, like I said, I got my sister's digital camera and snapped up a wheeheezy of pics to share from all over the place. I'm exhausted but envigorated at the same time, a very alive kind of tired, and the only thing I really wanna do is go back to Italy and keep backpacking. I love Copenhagen and all, but I'm gonna need a day of adjustment, as you'll see...



But first, ROSSIA. (This is gonna be a pretty long post, if you wanna just go straight to the pictures' source in Flickr click here and here.)



Some observations about Moscow: everybody made such a big deal how completely different Russia is from everything else, totally alien, but I thought it was all bogus. Yes, I probably have never felt farther from home, and with the heavy and low grey skies I really felt like I was near the end of the world. But it seemed to me like every other sprawling industrial messy city, just a whole less inviting than say, Caracas or something. Every other billboard is the Marlboro Man (that's where he went), or either a Samsung ad. Slumlike apartment complexes stand dirty and unkept for everywhere, and its only in pockets do you see a true beauty... but it just made it seemed more random than awe-inspiring. Yes, the Kremlin was amazing, and the Red Square surreal, but doesn't St. Basil's Cathedral look like Disneyworld to you? We couldn't get over how plastic it looked, as if in a 1000 years, Cinderella's castle in Orlando will be dug up and be deemed one of the wonders of the world, with Mickey Mouse our most revered king or god...



Yeah, so that's pretty much how you would picture Russia would be, and that's pretty much what you get. I couldn't get over the fact that Russians actually DO wear big fuzzy fur hats! All the time! And, also, Russians ARE rude and the most uninviting people I have ever met... I never saw a Russian smile or tell a joke.







The water is so bad there, they actually do recommend you to brush your teeth in vodka. This was also around the time where I slipped on the ice (my FIRST time this winter I promise!) and gashed my right pinky. It bled like crazy, and I kept cutting my hands so I left Russia with bandanged fingers. Still looks kinda nasty...





We got SO lost in here, all of us seperated into tinier and tinier groups. We literally could not for the life of us figure out our way to our entrance, and it took 45 minutes to get to the bus! Like most everything in Russia, everything seemed to be a hassle to do...



We stayed in HOTEL ROSSIA which is the biggest hotel I have ever seen, housing a supposed 5000 guests at any given time. It literally took 20 minutes from the nearest entrance to the door of my room, and it reminded me of a bad Hunter s. Thompson/ Terry Gilliam mindtrip, passing by small bars and smoking areas of huge cigar chewing businessmen, old russian hookers, small mousey bartenders, garish and loud colors, and terrible russian pop songs. Just to get to my room. There were also statues of pirates near the west gate.





Also, I wasn't expecting the whole trip to be as touristy as it was, but it wasn't exactly like I was feeling frisky and wanting to go off the beaten path. Each day was swamped in tourist traps, which got tiring and annoying after a while, with bus tours and droning guides, but it was ok. I have never felt more paranoid and unsafe, with all the stories they tell (like, stories that happened last week), with the police being the most corrupt of them ALL. Yep, that was Moscow in a sketch...

St. Petersburg

Speaking of sketches, ran out of batteries in my camera eventually and kept forgetting to recharge. So, thankfully, there were many architecture friends that had to sketch all the time anyway, making me feel less dumb and show-offy carrying a sketchbook around. I'll upload these sometime later, they're a lot, but this is getting long enough...







St. Petersburg was a lot prettier and nicer than Moscow, it being a more European city and resembling Venice bizarrely at times. Good times.





But it got annoying after about the 18756th russian palace we would see, seeming to say once again that, boy, Russian royalty sure had a lotta money. Gold plated EVERYTHING, while thousands of their countrymen died from starvation... there's only so much palaces you can see without thinking about these things, you know?







Ah, the Crimson Coach. Remember middle school fieldtrips, shuffling in and out of the bus, and all that business? That pretty much was our trip, with bus culture and everything. Russia was an amazing place to go to, really a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm 100% glad I went, but I'm also pretty glad in knowing that I probably will never be there again. The kids were cool, most of them I didn't know previously, some sights were insane, but it feels like the whole world is just... stuck there, the only thing bringing it all together is an incredible history. Otherwise, it's just a sad outpost of life of depressed people and fried food, absorbing all the worst aspects of globalization and none of its better ones (the 2nd largest mcdonalds in the world!! in the heart of moscow! definitive proof that Russia lost the Cold War). After being lost in St. Petersburg scary slums, a friend and I basically praying for our lives in a van from the early 80's in the middle of nowhere, I was ready to leave, and needed a definite change. Thus...



ITALY! Spring Break pt. 2 coming soon, maybe tomorrow...

P.S. Oh! And I almost completely forgot: not all Russians were awful, as this photograph attests, being one of my favorite pictures of all time. His name was Valentin and had been doing photography for 30 years... we talked about how he set his basement darkroom and his family and his craft, he was so cool. So cool he let me take a picture of him dancing in front of his stand. Valentin is badass.

A Quick Note to say a Few Things: As of this moment, I'm OFFICIALLY done with half of the semester (gracias a Dios) and my family is here for the first week of mighty spring break. Here they are on a reflective moment to Albertslund, or in their words, "the end of the world."



I probably won't be able to respond to emails for a while, so, no, I'm not ignoring you, of course. Emails get buried under more emails (sorry Ben), and I'm sure I will have lots of more interesting things to say after this month... Russia's a definite set and I got my sister's digicam for the rest of the stay here (as you can probably tell by the snazzy photos) and no Morocco for now, but hey, a tour of Italy should be still amazing (if not more!) with Annie. Ok, I should get some sleep, before Copenhagen swallows me whole. See ya in the otherside of the world

Best part of the Danish Language? You know those "Swedish" meatballs ("Swedish" with quotation marks because we all know those swedes hog all the scandinavian glory) they serve at Ikea? Well they actually have a name and its "frikadeller," and it sounds almost exactly like "freakadelic" with a cockney accent. So you say:

"Hey, what are you cookin?"

"Frikadeller."

"Right on!"

(the word arbejdsløshedsunderstøltelse is pretty good too)

I've been having these straaange dreams lately, the kind that mush and weave everything in your head together so at times I'm walking around and I can't seperate fact/fiction/musings/wishes when I hear a song or see a place... my brain just freezes. And trying to unpeel subconcious layers through Kierkegaard, late nights, and readings is puttin my head through a total headspin right now. But it could also be midterms, too.

But first some (very) sad news: my favorite shawarma shop here has closed for business. I knew the guy was waiting for word on his visa anyday now, but, dammit, I need delicious shawarma closure. I wish him the best of luck in San Diego, and any San Diegoans there should keep an eye out for City Falafel in August. Other things I miss: my speakers, Colita, the ol' CRV, and of course temperatures above 30. I'm also missing maduros but, really, when am I ever not?

But some good news! After this second week of cramming and all nighters, Mama, Papa, and Tatana will all be here and it will be SPRING BREAK. Now, Danes here take their vacations very seriously, and as such I will have a longer SB than I usually get for Christmas. I'll be with the family for most of the first week, hopefully squeeze a weekend in Amsterdam before spending a week in Russia and then flying off for a week in the Mediterranean (soon to be my favorite place) with the much-missed Annie, touring Morocco and the Isle of Capri. Yes, be jealous. You know you wanna.

And then, all of a sudden, it will be April. But of course April can never be as cool as March, and thank y'all for all the emails and messages for the b-day. It was quite a blast, a good and worthy followup of Birthdaypalooza; the entire dorm was throwing a huge party, Tour de Bloc, in where everybody drinks from block to block (they're like tons of them) sampling everybodys liquor, ending at the bar in Albertslund. Needless to say, it was a doozy, and I made it to 25 (sharpies and witnesses to prove it!)... saw tons of people and friends and woke up with mysterious bruises (always a good sign).

But, the flipside of this wholly unproductive weekend is four midterms and a paper all due before the end of the week. Rock it. Will be posting more visual stuff soon, the digital camera will be here just in time for Russia, and by that time I should actually have some cool stuff to show yall. Til then, vi ses.