Happy Thanksgiving

I know I am a day late on a Thanksgiving post, but oh well.

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving day filled with friends, love, and lots of food. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Christmas seems comercial to me, don't even get me started about Valentines Day, Easter is also commerical, and does Halloween even count as a holiday?

I simply love Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday when family and friends gather together to enjoy a huge meal with the only expectation of being thankful. (Or at least I guess that is the ideal...)

This year there are so many things that I am thankful for: my family, my incredibly friends, the amazing future I have ahead of me, the ability to travel the world, the chance to be healthy and happy, and so much more!

And, I am thankful for each and everyone of you who reads my blog posts. It makes me happy to know that even if I can't talk to y'all on a regular basis I can tell you a little of what is going on in my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!
M


**p.s. when I get home Chris and I are going to go all out and make our own Thanksgiving dinner because I also LOVE Thanksgiving food! So, be excited because you will definitely see pictures and hear stories about me cooking my first turkey ever!!

the last legs

Well my friends, my trip here in Europe is rapidly coming to an end. But, good news for you! Once I am home with constant internet access there are lots and lots of pictures that I want to show you and stories to tell you! I am going to recap the best and the worst of my trip, give you the inside scoop to packing, and a whole lot of memories you haven't heard about!

Get excited because there will be a lot more posting in your future!

xoxo,
M

Randomness abounds

I'm in gorgeous gorgeous Florence and this phrase keeps on going through my mind:

"It's me! Mario!"*

Will I ever have random deep intellectual exocentric thoughts? Doubtful, I don't even know exocentric means; I was just using it to
impress you.

* if you don't recognize this quote then you obviously have not been
playing enough nintendo!

Overheard: Modena

2 English guys getting off the train behind me were talking about the hour they had to waste between trains when one guy turns to the other
randomly and says this:

"Chuck Noris went to the Virgin Islands for vacation. Now they're just called the Islands."

I couldn't help but laugh.

oh yeah

And I'm in Italy right now but then will be home in a little over 2 weeks. I'm in shock that I am actually going home soon!

I'll give y'all a bigger update soon. I'm just feeling blah and uninspired right now.

xoxo,
M

I'm going to SCREAM

o.m.g. y'all

Not kidding at all. I'm sitting in an internet cafe paying 2 euro an hour for internet. And the man next to me is reading something on his computer and about every 15 seconds he makes one of these noises in rotations

"hmmm."
"mmmhhh"
"ohhh"
"hmpt"
or random mutterings

IT'S DRIVING ME INSANE! It's basically like Chinese water torture! I don't know when the next noise will be coming!

ugh... I just heard a wow and then a hummmm in 10 seconds!
gah!

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite

I have seen some nasty hostels in the last two and a half months. I can
now proudly say that I can deal with moldy showers, rooms that
slightly smell like a locker room, and all sorts of general uckiness.
I know that there are mysterious bed bugs out there and some of the
random bug bites I have had along the way are most likely from the
little monsters. Unseen bugs, mold, etc-- its all part of traveling...

And then I hit my breaking point of yuck:

Two nights ago I was laying in a hostel bed with the lights off. I was
laying on my side looking at something on my iPod when a bed bug
slowly walked across my pillow! Ahhhh! The bug was lit up in
silhouette from the light of my iPod and was terrifying! Being the
ninja that I am I immediately picked him up and squished him. His
death offered me no solace because he was filled with blood. Most
likely MY blood!

At that point there was no one at the reception and it felt like it
was too late to move rooms and I found out on a wikipedia search of
terror that they had most likely infested the entire hostel... So I
slept in my little bed of bugs hoping that they wouldn't gnaw off all
of my flesh in the night.

So far, two days later, I only have two bug bites on my entire body.
Let's hope that I don't break out into one giant mass of itchy oozey
bug bites like a guy a met at the hostel the next morning!

Omg my skin feels itchy just thinking about it!

Oh, and unless you really want to drive yourself away from all strange
beds don't google bed bugs. I'm warning you...