Frog Blog

M wondered if we would visit jim morrison's grave when we're in paris this february. i thought that was a kick. i had no idea M liked ol' jimmy -- enough to see his grave. the last (and first) time i went to the pere lachaise (sp) graveyard i hunted for jim in the pouring rain. it wasn't too hard to find; i just followed the hippies. when i arrived there were about 10 people at the foot of the grave. we all watched this dude in american flag pants clean jim's grave with a dirty toothbrush. a couple arrived soon after and one said to the other, "dude, when we got here just now, it stopped raining!"

it's raining and cold and blustery today. a good day for a tea. i've been eating too much sugar in the form of gummy candy from gloop's and chocolate-crunchy-rice milka bars. i'm headed toward overload.

B arrives in about 36 hours!!

test test test

i have no idea if this post will post or not or if anyone will be able to see it. i checked my blog today after about 11 days and it was totally blank. can people see it? it's like a whiteout, like a ton of snow, like the snow it's cold enough to snow here but the snow we don't have yet. i'm frustrated.

sorry if the blog was empty for a few days. just needed to tinker with a few things to get it all straightened out.

so B is here and we're having a grand time. paris was fun but wicked, wicked crowded-- it is christmas season after all, but it was so crowded that it was unpleasant at times. so crowded that we couldn't see where we were going, we were just part of the mass of people. crazy. our hotel room was small but had a kick-ass view of the eiffel tower and i got to see it sparkle every hour on the hour for ten minutes each night.

there are a bunch of american kids here on exchange from las vegas so B and i have been invited on their day trips. last week we went to bouillon, belgium, for the day, which is just across the river. there's a big castle there built in 1060 or something and we took the tour-- fascinating!! most of the town was shut down for the season but B and i did enjoy some cheap belgian beer at a local pub. we were tempted to find bouillon cubes in a grocery store but ran out of time. but we did buy a lot of belgian chocolate for cheap!!

we also took a tour of troyes, a city nearby that has half-timbered houses. it was so friggin cold that we hopped from bar to restaurant to bar again.

tomorrow is veuve clicquot and wednesday is versailles. B is actually tasting wine in colmar right now, cool for him. but he told me it was so cold that he might wear his flannel pajama bottoms under his jeans when he's outside.

monday we leave for rome! hurray!! i hope it's warmer down there...

the whole town is decked out. it's nice though, not annoying, and not too much. there are lights everywhere and the christmas market downtown is very festive. everything all holiday-like makes the weather a little more bearable. it's so, so cold, like new england cold, which i'm just not cut out for. give me rain and 40 degrees any day over cold cold cold.

another thing that's great during the holidays is that many of the stores are open sundays through christmas. i have a love-hate with sundays here-- in many ways i love how nothing is open; it forces you to meet with friends for a tea, read, spend time with the family, or just RELAX one day a week. but i do a lot of walking on sundays... and when it's cold out, it's nice to dash into a store to browse and warm up. i think it's habit-- usually on sundays back home i'd meet up with dad or B to walk to town, browse and window shop, have lunch. it's my own way of relaxing and spending time with loved ones.

typing on an american keyboard for the first time in about 3 months. i'd become quite proficient at my french typing-- now i'm slow again.

rome is rocking. there are more americans here than anywhere else i've been. most italians speak in english to us even when we try our terrible italian. the only time that hasn't happened was in this little cafe way off the beaten path today where we bought sandwiches. we're pretty sure we've been ripped off a few times and B felt someone's fingers in his jeans pocket yesterday on the crowded subway -- so he reached in, grabbed the fingers and bent them back, hard. no one yelled out in pain, so there you go. luckily there was nothing in his pocket anyway but oy.

we're pleasantly tired and grumble occasionally at each other but tasted some of the best gelato in our lives this afternoon. i had a scoop of pear and a scoop of honey with fresh cream on top; B had two kinds made with dessert wine. we decided after three bites that we're going back tomorrow. some of the other flavors were: plum, cinnamon ginger, pomegranite- spelled wrong, i know-- chocolate we're positive is made with actual chocolate and not cocoa powder, dried fig hazelnut. can't wait.

our shared apartment is huge and echoey and the oven doesn't work, but our neighbors are nice. everything--- and i mean EVERYTHING-- will be closed sat and sun for xmas and the day after-- so we're going to hit the grocery store and make an xmas feast with our apartment mates. we may even walk up to the vatican to see the huge manger they were setting up yesterday. it's a big day for jesus this weekend and this is one big catholic town. kind of cool. i was here at easter and now xmas. rad.

did i mention how fantastic the cappucinos are? italy is the only place i drink coffee...

we leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 for lucca, which is right near pisa. we've decided to forego pisa because we're a bit finished with the touristy things. we're actually a bit finished with rome in general.

i love rome, truly. but it's a big tourist town filled with signs saying, in english, hot beverages here! cheap pizza! cash money exchanged! once you've seen the sights, it gets a little old. rome is huge, and one step off the beaten path can lead you to a cool cafe or restaurant, our lack of italian is makes enjoying these places a little limited. i really hate americans who waltz into a place speaking english and acting all entitled, but even when we try our terrible italian, we get answers in english. it takes the fun out of it. i can't blame the italians, though. they want to get us in and out of the coffee shops with little hassle. but it's tiring.

i feel like we've been ripped off a few times paying for food or fruit or stuff. we asked a vendor downstairs from our apartment for 10 oranges for 80 cents a kilo and got 12 oranges for about 1.60 a kilo. but it all happened so fast and we don't have the language skills to say, "hey, wait a minute..."

but, some highlights-- we've made friends with three adult travelers in the room next door who are from leavenworth, washington. in fact, B is making dinner for the five of us right now. there are two other girls from washington here as well, but they're young and so highly annoying i don't even want to waste space or energy typing about them. let's just say that one of them was in our only bathroom this morning taking a shit shower and shave for AN HOUR. i think all of us had to go pee.

the coffee is rocking and B and i had some of the great gelato today and after finishing we went right back in and had another. we each get two scoops and have been four times. here are our 16 flavors:

B: marsala wine custard, dried dessert wine grape, ginger and cinnamon, dried fig and nut, hazelnut, chocolate-- bittersweet!-- meringue with bits of grand cru 70 percent cacao chocolate, apricot.

me: pomegranite, plum, pistacio, crema, orange and mandarin, honey, pear, chocolate chip.

it's the best gelato i've ever had, with the possible exception of the rice flavor i had once in florence.

B made xmas dinner last night for all of us, highly annoying girls included. they were on the phone the rest of the night, telling the same stories to all of their highly annoying friends back home.

the leavenworth people bought a small poinsettia. apparently after they bought it they left it in a cafe but went back two days later and it was still there.

B has been pickpocketed twice. or, felt up twice, but there was nothing is his pockets both times. he also stubbed his big toe in the bathroom a few nights ago at 4 am and split the whole top of it open. no stitches required.

we got to see the pantheon just after it rained today-- the floor under the big hole in the dome was all wet.

every corner is filled with fresh spring water spurting out of fountains and it's drinkable. it's so refreshing to fill up my water bottle.

each corner is also filled with men trying to sell us shit. knockoff louis vuitton and gucci bags, fake mont blanc pens, change purses, bubble machines, remote control cars. the moment it starts raining, the shit magically turns into umbrellas. they say, hi, hello, umbrellas, five euros. hi, are you friendly? umbrellas for sale. hi, hey, would you like umbrella?