Category: Uncategorized

No “soup” for me. :-(

Yesterday Jon and I decided to watch a movie.. Shocking on a Saturday night right? Well… except for the fact that since the proliferation of cell phones in modern society, I refuse to see movies in public on Friday or Saturday nights.  I’ve had too many experiences with A-holes getting cell phone calls and answering them to believe that there’s any humanity left in the world- at least on these particular nights. (I’ve even experienced some jerk getting a NEXTEL page in the theatre and ANSWERING it on a TWO WAY DURING the movie!!! Ugh).

Anyway, on this particular night Jon and I realized that we had forgotten to return our Netflix movies in a timely manner. We have become addicted to “Dexter” and have unfortunately just completed the last episode on DVD. So we decided to head to our local Blockbuster which is literally a 10 minute bike ride.  Once we turned into the parking lot, we first passed a Target- totally normal, and then a “Linens n’ Things”- which had a barrage of “Going out of Business” signs hung throughout its entire area.  I didn’t really think anything about it until….

We pull up outside the Blockbuster, and head inside without thinking twice. Once through the first doors, however, we were presented with a hand, Sharpie marker written sign that said:

 

NOT OPEN FOR RENTING MOVIES DUE TO STORE CLOSING

WE ARE ONLY OPEN FOR BUYING MOVIES!

Jon and I looked around in confusion, as we had just been there a few days ago and didn’t notice any indication of trouble, and proceeded inside.  

All of the rental shelves inside were blocked off in yellow caution tape! And were virtually empty! We turned to the counter and there were two young men hastily putting DVD’s into a box. I asked them “Are you guys going out of business?” and one of the boys responded solemnly, “Blockbuster is still in business, but we just closed”.  They seemed so sad that I just said, “Oh, okay. Well… I just returned a movie and it’s in your box…”. And we walked out empty handed.  We then went to the next nearest Blockbuster, according to Google Maps… only to find no trace… and then finally found one that actually existed a little farther. Not only am I devastated that the convenience of my neighborhood is being compromised by this stupid financial crisis, I am……  well…. okay…. mostly I’m just annoyed that the convenience of my neighborhood is being compromised by this financial crisis. 

On another note, Jon and I went to a liquor store and bought two bottles of Champagne and had a really fun, lazy Sunday.  I can’t believe the weekend is already over….  I also can’t believe that MSU choked so badly! But really… who cares as long as they wallop Michigan next week?

 

P.S.

I’m drunk.

Crying over consumed milk.

This whole melamine in the milk scandal in China makes me think of The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.  What a haunting work!  There is a moment in the book when the main character is contemplating the state of the company “town” (it was actually a section of Chicago) in which they lived.  The stores in their neighborhood were owned by the company as well, and he was trying to reconcile himself with purchasing the milk that had a “blueish tinge” to it for his new baby boy.  He knew that they were adding something to the milk to cut their costs, but he couldn’t complain without fear of losing the job he desperately needed, and they didn’t pay him enough to buy it anywhere else.  

Is this book the modern day reality of life in China?  Is there no accountability?  Or is the situation so bad for the milk farmers too that they feel in order to survive they simply have to make the milk go farther and are compelled to disregard the risk?  I just can’t believe that it would be the farmers, and not the distribution companies that would be able to dilute the milk on such a large scale. Corporate greed sucks. That’s the end all truth of modern society.

Piece A Pisa

From Cinque Terre we headed to a quick stopover in Pisa. You have to see the Leaning Tower when you’re in Italy right? I had been years before but I had been incredibly hungover and visited during August when the temperature was in excess of 115 degrees. It was amazing how little I remembered about the actual city. I must have been a zombie the last time I came. Pisa is actually a pretty big, nice city. And they have amazing gelato… but I guess pretty much everywhere in Italy does. I’m addicted to pistachio gelato. I pretty much want to have an IV of it inserted… but not in my veins… maybe a Camelback of pistachio gelato I could wear on my back and just suck off of whenever the mood struck… Mmmm…..

 

From there we headed on to Florence for the weekend.  Unfortunately we didn’t think about how hard it might be to find accommodations in Florence for a Friday and Saturday night. When we arrived around 10PM that night, it seemed that every reasonably priced hotel/hostel was booked full.  We ended up going to a computer lab to try to book something online instead of wandering aimlessly, walking in to random hotels and wasting time.  As we were checking in to get a computer the man working there said to me, “You’re not a real American”.  I was a little confused, but then I realized that he was commenting on my ethnicity.  So I told him that I’m Afghan and he was very pleased.  Turns out he was Pakistani and started in on this whole spiel about how if we needed anything just to let him know because we are “neighbors” and being gracious hosts is very important in our cultures. We thanked him and got on the computer and booked the most affordable place we could find… which wasn’t really all that affordable at all.  We ventured out to walk what, according to the booking site, should have been a .3 mile walk to the hotel. When we arrived at the location though we could find no trace of the hotel. We looked around for a minute and then raced back to the Internet spot because it was the only one open late (it was now just after 11) and the man working there had been so nice to us.  When we arrived they were getting ready to close but once we told the man working there about our predicament he immediately asked for the phone number of the hotel. He called them and it turns out that the map on the booking website was completely wrong and the hotel was actually located 28Km away! I spoke to him on the phone and he seemed really nice but we had to cancel the reservation because of the mix up.  So then we were left back at square one with no place to stay and it getting later and later.  Knowing the situation was getting rather dire, the man working there (who we found out was named Avri) invited us to stay with him in his home! It was so nice of him that my eyes instantly welled up.  We thanked him profusely and told him that we would just take a quick look to see if there was any other hotels available in town so that we didn’t have to put him out.  (Not to mention the fact that were exhausted and just wanting to pass out… ).  The fact that he stayed open late for us to help us and made phone calls and everything for us was so touching, and at the end he gave us his cousin’s kabob store information so that in case we had trouble we could stop by there and use their Internet all night.  (Being ambiguously brown has really come in handy on this trip. The Spanish thought I was Portuguese, the Portuguese thought I was Spanish, the French thought I was Italian and the Italians think that I’m Spanish).  It turned out there was a Holiday Inn available a little outside of the city center. It was an amazing gesture on his part, but seriously I have never been happier to see a Holiday Inn in my life! It was by far the most expensive place we’ve stayed, but it was a nice respite to have a room that reminded us a little more of home- big rooms, big shiny bathrooms, hot well pressurized water, cable TV… It was so nice!

So, we’ve just been hanging around Florence for the weekend. It’s really nice, but the crowds can be overwhelming at times. The weather is great- it’s the hottest place we’ve been. My shoulders are actually peeling! I don’t think that’s ever happened before to me. 

The craziest thing happened yesterday on the bus though.  We were trying to take the bus back to our hotel so that we could drop some things off and change before going to dinner.  The bus was insanely crowded and we were seriously packed in there like sardines.  I had some man pressed up against me like we had been dating for years… Then at one stop these people who had been standing by the door were getting off when this rather large woman (probably in her 60’s) barreled through the crowd and shouted “GO!” and seriously shoved the other lady off the bus! Then the other lady who was probably around 40 turned around (after landing) and shoved the old lady, who in turn ran back at her with her arms flailing! Then the 40 year old’s son shoved/punched the old lady! Then everyone started yelling at each other in Italian… And the younger guy was like “Es me Mamma” and started gesturing emphatically. It was crazy!

Gotta run!

5 Lands

Hey, hey, hey! Thanks for sticking it out…

I only have a minute but just thought I’d write a quick note to tell you that we had a fantastic time in Cinque Terre (Five Lands), Italy! There are five villages perched among the cliffs on Italy’s Northwestern side. They are about 12Km apart in total and for many years this coastal path was the only means of connection between the villages. Today there are still few cars, because accessing the towns by road remains difficult. The trails on the otherhand, have been fully discovered. I can’t imagine coming here during the summer. It must be loony toons! Since it’s still the off season though we managed to enjoy some very lovely hiking between the villages. It was absolutely spectacular! We first took the train into the third village, figuring that we could split the hike easily that way over two days. We started to become concerned about finding lodging though when we had to physically fight our way onto the train and then stand with our packs for the duration. Upon our arrival we headed to the shuttle bus stop only to find another crowd of people pushing and shoving for position. Corniglia is the name of the town and it is the village located at the highest point of the five. The train station was at sea level so no one wanted to make the trek on foot up to the village. Not wanting to fight another group though Jon and I instead opted to go up the 356 steps up to the village ourselves. Ummm…. it wasn’t exactly fun, especially with packs, but we made it and headed off to find whatever accommodations we could.

Here is where we really lucked out: Virtually everywhere was booked, but the first place we stopped I was able to speak enough of my Spanish/Italian hybrid language to have her agree to let us stay at her rental apartment for a night. We were so pleased that we wouldn’t have cared if it was a shoebox. We just wanted to get those fucking packs off by that point. When she opened the apartment doors though we were blown away! It was HUGE! Probably the size of our place in Chicago, with a kitchen, bedroom, living room and unobstructed view of the water! All for the price I paid for a Motel 6 next to a homeless park in Southern California!

Here’s the view of the sunset from our window:

After we threw down our stuff we got a quick bite to eat and then headed for the trail. It was not a trail like I had imagined- it was cleared, but cut right out of the mountain and had jagged rocks for the path. But it was absolutely beautiful! We hiked a big chunk of the trail heading North that day and then the next morning hiked the more traveled “Lover’s Walk” in the Southern portion. The Lover’s Walk part is the most famous and it was therefore much, much more crowded. It’s also a much easier, shorter hike on a paved path… It’s more like a stroll on a sidewalk that just happens to be on the edge of a mountain. There were full on tour buses pulling up and unloading people at the trailhead. I highly recommend going, but do not bother unless you are going in the low season! It was wonderful, and beautiful but it won’t hold the description of being “undiscovered” for much longer, if it even does anymore.

 

“Bonjour Adrienne!”

Our time in the South of France is reluctantly coming to a close. We are heading to the train station in a little while to make the trip into Italy.
The night before last we went out for a couple drinks and then decided to head home so that we could get an early start on heading to Monaco the next day. When we made it back to our hotel we started flipping through the 8 channels on our TV, which seemed a bit pointless since the only channel in English was CNN Europe. But, we happened across Rocky dubbed in French. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you have heard Rocky referred to as “Monsieur Balboa”. It was totally hilarious to hear a French translator attempt to capture an Italian-American meathead dialect… and I probably should have just had a laugh about it and moved on… But as Jon started to drift off to sleep, I became obsessed with how they were going to translate the quintessential line from Rocky, “Yo Adrienne!”… Would he say “Bonjour Adrienne!”?… “Excuse Moi Adrienne!”? It played on my mind and I couldn’t avert my eyes… I watched the entire Rocky movie in French and in the end when the line was finally uttered, they removed the first word altogether and he merely exclaimed “Adrienne!”… I guess there’s just no way to translate some words…

Monaco was really nice! But it was sooooo richy rich. There were Ferraris and Lamborginis and Bentleys everywhere… And the marina was exclusively filled with yachts of varying sizes and stature. There were no fishing dingys in this port, that’s for sure.

Jon and I had an agenda though- we each budgeted $100 Euro to spend in the casino, in the hopes that we would walk out with much more. After blazing through $20 Euro each on the slot machines we moved on to Roulette (which I have found out definitively is pronounced Roo-Lae and I’m not a total idiot for calling it that all along…). The Roulette table were soooo confusing! Everyone has the same colored chip, the difference in colors only accounts for the different denominations being bet, not who is doing the betting. There were three workers at the table watching who placed what and moving bets around with these long sticks when beckoned by the patrons. I thought my brain was going to explode trying to keep track in my head of all the numbers I had bet on during each turn. Finally I took out my notepad and started writing them down… It was seriously just me and this elderly man who had our notepads out. It was a little demoralizing. I couldn’t believe it- it’s totally different than Vegas! High rollers were buying in with stacks of $500 Euro bills and then tossing their $100 Euro (there is no Euro sign on this keyboard) chips onto the table willy-nilly from 10 feet away and just calling out to one of the workers as to where they wanted the chips placed.

I was sucking pretty bad, but I was able to pull it out a few times when the chips were literally down (I had one left when I hit and won 40 Euros and stayed in it). Jon was hot though! He hit straight up on the 17 on the first spin! (The chip minimum on each chip was 5 Euro). We ended up playing for a few hours and came out of there dead even, which is about all you could hope for. (Well, I was hoping for way more but I wasn’t sad to come out of there with as much as I went in with…).

Since we ended up with more money than we were expecting, we decided to splurge and have a bottle of champagne at a marina cafe. It was so weird eavesdropping on the Americans/British/Irish people seated at the tables in front and behind us. They were talking about the million Euro homes they had purchased, and taking trips on their yachts. It was bizarre to have this window into a totally different world.

All in all, it was a very fun afternoon!

Next Stop: Cinque Terre, Italy