our foreign correspondent

this is essentially a letter that i sent out to a bunch of people earlier, but i don't really have everyone's email, so i thought that i'd just post. sorry if you're getting this twice!

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Hello my dears! =)

Well, I'm home!!! Hurray!!! Of course, I think Rozzy is the only one in the Bay Area right now, so I guess that doesn't really matter to the rest of you.
So, Europe. Yeah. It was fun. Fun.... yes. I think we hit (or at least tried to hit--sometimes we overslept) all the major sites, but that's too much to go into detail here. I guess I'll just list the countries and some of the positives and negatives for each one... if you're not interested, I understand... I think backpacking through Europe, however much fun it can be, is also a bit overrated. There I go again: Gar, the eternal pessimist. If you don't want to read about my trip, just skip down to the bottom in case I left a note for you. *Muah* love you all!

England:

Pluses~ People speak English there (*duh*), tons of fun tours ("Haunted London", Stonehenge, and Bath), British Museum ( you don't even need to visit the other countries, the Museum has already stolen all their artifacts! bleh)

Minuses~ prices, and the air has not yet seemed to get over the industrial revolution. I think I'm going to get black lung or something.

France, Paris- Where I attended Friday Mass at Notre Dame (You~ Mae'r Eglwys Iesu Grist Saint y Dyddiau Diwethaf, yn dal i fod yn wir... if you even remember what that means anymore):

Pluses~ seeing my sister freak out on top of the Eiffel Tower ("No, Yin, I swear that it's swaying!"), going to the Louvre and seeing the Venus de Milo (the Mona Lisa was way too crowded to really get its full effect), and the Queen's Hamlet at Versailles

Minuses~ I swear that the metro uses the Parisian sewers as tunnels... no. seriously.

Switzerland:

Pluses~ this was my favorite place. it was absolutely gorgeous and peaceful, we spent the whole time hiking waterfalls and visiting little towns that I swear were built for tourists. I guess I just liked it because I've never really been a city girl. There was one town with only 130 people and only produced enough hay for 3 cows every year. *cute* Hearing my sister tell us that she's, "going to get two goats, one of them is a sheep"... classic

Minuses~ the smell of those 3 cows was way powerful....

Italy:

Pluses~ the trevi fountains, seeing my uncle trip on the Spanish steps ("Hey, there are steps here"), the mouth of truth, seeing the glass blowers on Murano, gelatto, cute guys from Alabama (there Madelyn, you can tell Brian that I was not attracted to any of those crazy Italians. Let's stick with good homegrown boys, shall we?) on the 4th of July, lots of awesome art exhibits

Minuses~ no offense to anyone meant, but Italians were like... really lazy. My uncle says that its because it's so hot and Italians are so hairy... yeah. more smoking than in other parts of Europe, really awful pickpocketing, hairy fat european men sweating profusely while only wearing speedos and a fanny pack (*traumatized*), way too many pigeons at St. Mark's Square (one of them went on my shoe... *so* glad that I didn't wear my sandals that day. seriously though, I wanted to pull a Hemingway and "hand hunt" them, but I was in the wrong park, not to mention the fact that I don't want to touch those flying sacks of disease). lots of not so awesome exhibitionists

Well, that sums it up. I'm sure you'll be getting sick of my Europe stories in times to come, so I won't subject you to any more of it right now. I'm just glad to be home, even if my sister insists on waking me up at 7 am when I went to bed at 2:30 last night (I didn't get home until 11 or so) so that she could make us pancakes that happened to be a crime against nature. I ended up making my own because her batter was way uber thick and even though the recipe box said that it should yield 10-12 pancakes, she only managed to make four. So essentially, she ate about 10-12 pancakes. Sick. (my Beluga, I thought you would appreciate that because it had just about reached the consistency of our crack rocks. gross).

Well, that's it. I'll see/talk to you guys soon. (Hey, Sandy and Char, did this rival your email lengths? I can't tell).

Sorry for the length of the email, and the mess below. Plow through it, will you?

Love you all,
gar*

rozzy~ will you play with me? i'm bored. no, seriously, i'm watching matlock right now and was just watching the Andy Griffith show. i'm not joking.

stephi~ please please please do not die in australia. eat real food. not just crackers... you might as well be eating cornstarch directly from the box. so eat real food please. so says the serial cereal girl

sandy~ i have to agree with you. i was way uber ready to come home. sad that i didn't get to see you while i was over there =(

char~ ack! I sent a postcard to that address too. sad. I hope things get better for you.

jenn yeung~ i sent a postcard to the old address listed on stalkernet. i hope you got it! I love you too!

annamaria & suzanne~ plant identification was way fun over there. it was hard to find nice gardens though.

madelyn~ are you still at applewood 1? I hope so, because I sent a postcard there. How long will you be staying? let me know =)

rissa dearie~ internship going well? talk to you soon.

carolyn~ i wish you could have been there to explain the art to me. you're a genius! talk to you soon.

beluga~ saw sunflowers in Tuscany and thought of you.

laura workman weirdo lady~ ahahahahaha... *poke*.. *run away* why do we hurt each other? ;)

cheesestick & lm~ has cheesestick run into any trees lately? run into the redwoods. those are spongier.

liann~ are you ever home??

danny~ *bleh*

edgel~ i saw something and thought of you while i was in switzerland. sorry about the sushi. we'll go when we get back to the bubble. talk to you soon!

You, nerd, happiness monkey kid~ i saw the welsh mountains and heard welsh radio! school does not prepare us for real life. it really doesn't. got your letter from 6/14. still trying to figure out happiness and how to compose a good letter on it. maybe i'll just use crayons and draw a picture a big sun smiling menacingly. would that work?