i'm a travelin' man... er, woman

I've decided to mimic my lovely friend Maddie, and write a few blog posts in the form of letters. In her honor, the first shall be to her :)


Dear Maddie Moo,
      If it isn't obvious, I MISS YOU! Your blog inspires me to try to be a more interesting blogger. I'm so happy to see that you seem to be loving Murray and college! It's great, isn't it? It's seriously been the best time of my life. Just today I was thinking how wonderful it is to still be a college student. I'm living in Europe, I don't work, I have loads of free time, I never have class on Fridays, and I'm traveling the world! How much better can it get?? Perhaps I could have a few more friends...good thing I'm practicing my conversation skills. If it weren't for the internet and social media I'd either die of loneliness or be hyper productive and active. I have suspicions that the former would occur.
      Anyhow, life has been a whirlwind! This past weekend I went to Italy. Did you get that? ITALY. Although I wasn't able to grace Rome or Venice with my presence, I did make appearances in Milan and at Lake Como. For the fashionista, fancy pants or richy rich, Milan is the epicenter of Italy. The streets are full of people walking madly around, in and out of shops and boutiques, with their hands full of recently purchased designer goods. For the not-so-wealthy, such as myself, it is a game of "try to find something cheap---I just want so say I bought something from Italy!!" This worked out pretty well for me, as I came home with a nice grey blazer. After a 50% discount it cost me 18 euros, which is less than $30! Not only did I get a blazer for this amount, but that $30 also bought me the opportunity to experience one of the lovely cross-dressed shop employees. As soon as she opened his mouth, I knew she was a man. (Did you catch that?)
       Just a hop, skip and a jump from all the shopping lies the historical center of the city, complete with a cathedral, the Duomo, and one of the oldest shopping malls in the world, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, home to Louis Vuitton, Prada and of course, McDonald's -- Is anything complete without it? (Don't believe me? Take a virtual tour.) The Duomo is spectacularly spooky. What a perfect place to visit right before Halloween!

 Amazingly, entree is free, which does not happen very often at cool places in Europe. I've heard that it took around 500 years to build and that there are about 3,500 statues on/within the cathedral. The inside is dark and daunting, and although taking pictures and video was supposedly prohibited, I snuck a few (hey, all the Asians were doing it!). 

      Although it may surprise you, my favorite part was not the grandeur of the architecture, nor the magnificent pillars and spires but rather the numerous dead priests I encountered. Oh, you think I'm joking? I'm not. there are quite a few all glass "caskets" lining the inside of the building, each one home to the body or skeleton (depending on when he died) of a different priest. They were all wearing robes and shoes, and most of them had face coverings, but you could see their creepy dead hands and parts of their heads, some of which even still had hair. One of the older ones was not wearing a mask and thus his skull was just hanging out on a nice white pillow. I desperately wanted to take pictures to prove what my eyes could not believe, but I thought that would be extra disrespectful to Catholic tourists. Luckily there are other people in cyberspace who are a little more cavalier than I am. ***Warning*** Grab a barf bag before you click here or here.
     Aside from hitting the main attractions I also went to an annual medieval festival, located at the castle in Milan, complete with lame reenactments and pricey souvenirs. However I did meet a nice British couple so that was pretty joyous to actually have a conversation in English. They directed us (my friend Sarah and I) to walk around the GIANT park and see the monument built by Napoleon Bonaparte (is it bad that I almost typed Dynamite?) when he captured Italy. Pretty cool stuff, even for a non-history buff like myself! The next day we went to Lake Como, a mere hour away by train, took a boat tour, walked around, finally ate pasta from Italy, and then returned to Milan. 

     Although Milan was fun, I think I would prefer Rome, or somewhere a little more beautiful. Needless to say, I had never been so happy to be back in Madrid. I think one of the best things about this experience is that I have now legitimately traveled (went to the airport, got my boarding pass, flew to Italy, bought a bus ticket, rode to the city, and vice versa for the way home) all by myself. Independence is thrusting itself upon me, and today I love it. I'm not sure about tomorrow yet.
Since being back in my quaint home away from home I have written a research paper, written an essay, and taken two midterms, all in Spanish. BLECH. The good news is that my weekend began about three hours ago and I now have three and a half days to do what I want. Oh sweet relaxation! 
     Also, today on my way home from class I gave a homeless lady a clementine. That might sound so pathetic that it's funny, but it was all I had. I see her almost every day and today I happened to have two clementines, one that I was eating and an extra one. I just walked up and handed it to her and she gave me a big smile and said "Gracias! Gracias!" I felt bad that that was all I gave her. :(


Well that's it for my adventures this week! ttfn


Love you lots,
Tara