Life's a beach.

June 19, 2009

We had a feeling Maryland wanted our front row seats, so we packed early and made it to the bus first, again.  Amanda, already returning from her water bottle run, met us with “I just got asked out!”  Apparently 36 yr old Enzo had a little crush on Amanda.  She politely refused his offer for drinks and dancing.  This little tour was off to a great start!

The breath-taking landscape could not be captured on film, though that did not stop us from trying.  We dove in and out of tunnels all along the lakefront.  The fog and clouds coated the mountains and made for surreal scenery.  The water is a bright turquoise contrasting the green walls and sheer rock cliffs.   We passed through the longest tunnel (10 miles or 17km).  steph took a picture in the tunnel and momentarily blinded the driver.

Today is steph’s first day of mad-libbing.  She walked around and asked for verbs, nouns, and body parts from random bus members.  Vera happily relinquished the microphone to her to read the finished stories to the bus.  “BONJOUR BUS!”, the birth of the daily greeting.  The mad-lib, about penguins, ended, “They dress for all occasions, especially sit-down screws.” Oh dear!  Laughter erupted and steph blushed before laughing (Maryland probably didn’t laugh).  Luckily Ali had come home to her luggage last night as is now back to her old crazy self.  Welcome back Ali, we missed you.  She busied herself making friends with everyone, of course.

Welcome to Italy!  George Clooney has a villa in the town we passed through and we all looked for him as we ate lunch at our first rest stop break.  No George.  L Tanya panicked as her turn came to order her, what we now call the “Tanya Sandwich”.  She practiced the pronunciation, but we stayed by just in case.  The cashier, flirting with flustered Tanya, pretended he didn’t understand her and asked her to repeat it, then asked her to spell it.  I thought she just might faint right there, but he laughed and rung her up, speaking in English.  Those Italians are so funny.

Enzo yelled incoherently, as we approached the bus.  steph repeatedly asked him “What?!” until she realized he was on his blue-tooth.  Just then he, with arms in the air, called out, “it’s jean-franco, my colleague”  Why that was so funny to us, I’m not sure, but we still laugh about it.  He then proceeded to make steph talk to jean-franco.  “I don’t speak Italian Enzo...oh oh um, hello, hello...hi jean-franco... good yeah....oh...bye”  That was the beginning of the true Enzo-Utah relationship on the bus. 

First Italian stop, Verona.  Verona’s focal point, an arena (meaning sand) used in 30 A.D.  It is one of four still standing today and is used for concerts to this day.  We took an EF group photo infront of the arena, joined by a roman guard from this roman colony.  He later chastised steph for 20 years of bad manners because she didn’t ask nicely to take his photo with Amanda and Sandra.  She apologized to the toothless man and left without a photo.

Onto Juliet’s balcony, from Romeo and Juliet, for more luck and another photoshoot.  We learned that Shakespeare stole his play from a hundred year old Italian legend.  The Capulets and Montigues were real families in Verona, though it is unclear if the facts are truly how their lives unfolded.  “I thought he was a total genius, but now I know he’s just a thief” was steph’s reaction to the news.  Juliet’s right breast is shinier than the rest or her body because it is rumored that rubbing it brings luck, thus we rubbed.  The walkway to her balcony is dedicated to LOVE.  Everyone is invited to leave notes or tagging dedicated to love.  We wrote our individual love notes, “I love lamp” or “I love you, I love you, I love you, where the H are you?!” 

We were enthralled with the embroidery machine at the shop on the Juliet courtyard corner.  The cute Italian boy offered steph a free bookmark, he embroidered her name with a flower in 15 seconds, she sported the Traveling Pants today so things were automatically going to go well for her (he later gave her a 10% discount, just ‘cause).  After that demonstration each of us purchased at least one item embroidered because we felt they earned it.  Aprons, bags, hats, slippers, you name it!  Sandra’s apron says queen of the kitchen in Italian, so Ali got her sous-chef apron to match.  The Szymanskis got an apron for their mom and “Master Z” put on a satchel bag.  Tanya put Escobar on a work apron for school.  steph chose a risqué apron for her missionary mom (in Geneva).  Love in the kitchen, but in the bedroom, compassion.  Luckily it’s in Italian and no one will understand it.

Amanda already missed Switzerland, though she and Sandra enjoyed a moment soaking their feet in the fountain.  Today the sun unrelentingly beat down on our worn-out bodies, sucking our energy like a vacuum.  The gelati called to us and saved our lives again.  We needed cash, so we found a bank/ATM near the fountain.  Amanda went inside, through a 2 small doors that only opens one at a time, leaving you between them for a claustrophobic moment before the second one opens.  We thought we’d lost her forever. 

The time passed and the sun smothered us until time to meet the group in front of the arena.  Sandra and  Amanda bolted straight for the WCs, with all that water drinking it’s no wonder.  It cost $.50 and had a row of regular toilets, urinals and a row of holes in the ground...hmmm... tough decision.  As Amanda posed infront of a urinal, it sprayed her.  She screamed and the bathroom attendant came to the rescue.  Too bad they were overcome with laughter.

Hotel 2 is located in Lido di Lusolo.  We don’t believe it is a real hotel, it used to be but we think we’re actually just squatting here because it’s pretty...mmm..stinky.  Everyone’s balcony looks out over the beach vista, the hotel’s one redeeming quality.  The shower is just a shower head on a hose in the corner of the bathroom.  We refused to shower without shoes on.  You really had to focus on not soaking the toilet paper or your towel, but having access to the sink and mirror was kind of nice.  None of us have been brave enough to use any of the bidets yet.  Amanda stayed with Jo Ann here, the Szymanskis were reunited and everyone else stayed the same.  Tanya and Ali did not appreciate the disgusting smell and mold in their room.  Two tragedy rooms in a row, oops. 

The beach.  The water is warm and beautiful.  The sand is downy soft (no exaggeration) and cool to the touch.  Too bad we won’t be here during daylight hours to appreciate all it has to offer.  We dressed for dinner and waited with Texas in the lobby.  They are our tour soul mates. 

Italian food is to die for, but their bread is iffy.  They begin with pasta then the meal.  We started with a lasagna and bread, which we oohed and aaahhed over, then chicken and beans.  Yum.  It melts in your mouth.  Our table out louded the other tables, but we had some funny things to say and good stories to share, as we did every night.  Dinner ended with a delicious tiramisu ice cream, which steph claims kept her awake for 30 straight hours.  That made for crazy funny steph.

Yoga on the beach over looking the Adriatic Sea - picture perfect.  Amanda led us in some yoga on the beach.  The crashing waves and the soft sand lulled us into breathing and stretching, centering us with the universe.  The Chelan WA boys (Brogan, Will, Ian, Schyler) joined us in yoga as Enzo watched while smoking... creepy!   The boys entertained us with their efforts to do anything Amanda would give them, while the WA girls stood by wishing they were as cool as Utah.  Ha ha.

We met in steph and Sandra’s room for quotes and by fars.  These nightly meetings were some of the highlights of this trip, as it also highlighted the trip.  We each collapsed in our rooms, exhausted.  A few minutes after by fars, steph and Sandra hear some noise coming down the hall, Tanya crashes into the room.  She falls to the floor in hysterics and uncontrollable laughter.  She waves her hand in the air, “I have a by far!! I have a by far!!” then collapses again.  Soon after her comes Ali gasping for air.  She crumbles into a chair and convulses with laughter, neither of them able to talk.  steph and Sandra wait in amazement for the news.  The Szymanskis heard a little commotion and came down the hall to see what was up.  By this time they had relaxed a bit and were able to talk.  Apparently Enzo’s balcony is connected with theirs.  Tanya went out to the balcony looking for something with she came face to face with Enzo in his undies smoking not 2 feet away!  She smiled politely, though completely unraveling inside, taken by surprise that way, and exited the balcony quickly.  We still laugh. steph, unable to sleep, stayed up all night playing tetris at the end of the bed, reading in the bathroom, and watching the waves crash from the balcony. 

 

Quotes:  “hoooo-Ray for nicknames”  - Z

“Pick a number between 10 and 20”  - Pat  “7” - ali

“Where were you?” - Sandra (“the fox”)

“Keep your horns to yourself, lets have tea” - steph

“Lille means bitch?  What?!”  - steph

“Tomato, tomatoe, crepe, crap...whatever”  - Amanda

“I love you, I love you, I love you, where the H are you?!” - Sandra

“I thought he was a total genius, now I know he’s just a thief” - steph

 By Fars:  Embroidery men.  Bank doors and Amanda.  20 years of bad manners.  Thrown journal down stairs at Enzo.  Ali being friends with everyone.  Full bathroom shower.  Yoga on the beach.  Boys joining yoga.  Creepy Enzo.  Lasagna!  Gelato.  Feet in the fountain.  Touching juliet’s boob.  Nice boy from Dallas.  Wading in the Adriatic Sea.  Italian singing “Living in America” = Rocky.  Tanya on the floor - “I have a by far, I have a by far!”  Enzo smoking on the balcony in his undies.  Amanda’s hair getting stuck to the Velcro on the bus seats.

Switzerland...where the days became ONE.

June 18, 2009 (yes we missed a day in there somewhere)

Sandra and steph left the curtains open, so they could have a sunrise awakening.  Well, the sun rises about 4:30a.m.  Nice plan guys.  After our European bread and OJ breakfast, we raced to be first on the bus (this makes us sound like children, but the front is the best).

Luzerne (Lucerne) Switzerland:  Our first official stop.  A mountainside carved lion monument (we loving nicknamed him Aslan(d). 

 In honor of the Swiss Guard that died protecting Louis XVI.  The artist captured the agony of the dying lion magnificently.  We stood in awe.  Then snapped as many pictures you can in your few seconds at the front of the large groups of people assembled around the pond, at the base of the sculpture. We also crossed the Chapel Bridge (built in 1333), which had been partially destroyed by a European cigarette, and is now a smoke free zone. 

We also visited a brightly decorated Jesuit Church

 

and the old Gare (train station).  The original Arch stands out front but the rest of the building is very modern.  The number of bicycles parked along the front and side fascinated steph. 

Lunch is important.  We searched for the perfect spot and finally decided on a sit down place (for tired feet) that felt clean and nice.  Too bad the menu only spoke German and our waitress too though she claimed to know a little French.  steph tried some French (why Amber didn’t step in here is a mystery) and learned that the first page was teas and the second, wines.  We were getting nowhere, so we politely said our French goodbyes and bought some shifty salads and sandwiches down the street, and ate them under a tree.  Whew, tempers and hunger pains could cause a mighty ruckus amongst friends.  

We later slept at the lion monument; Ali, Tanya, and steph on one bench and the others across the pond on another bench...with ants. Vera left us to explore the city, by ourselves.  

Faulty instructions led us away from our original destination, but we eventually found the wall that used to encircle the city.  We climbed its steps and enjoyed the view.  

Ali’s torn ACL kept her from making it to the top, but not from making friends wherever she waited.  As time dwindled, we bought fat pretzels off the street and found a gelateria.  Yes, it was time for a gelato or gelati (plural) because sometimes you need more than one.  We savored them and they saved us.  It was a great union, never to be broken.  Beautiful bus ride home, dinner at the hotel, then to Sandra and steph’s room for quotes and “by fars” (a “by far” is your favorite thing each day).   Finally, sleep. 

I almost forgot the Mexican Catsup for our "brown" friend, Tanya.

Napasty Tour 2009 (pronounced Naap - Assty)

June 16, 2009

Today we traveled.  All day. 

Julio drove us to the airport in the a.m. and left us with mandatory hugs and a shoulder shrug.  Sandra, Ali, and steph met Tanya and the Szymanskis in the United line.  Off we were on a great adventure.  Ali gets the pat down, “I am now going to touch you with the back of my hand...”

First stop, Chicago, where the salad is delicious and the pizza is not delicious...or even remotely good.  Why do all these places boast about their Chicago pizza? Disgusting.  Tanya and steph had to go back for a second lunch while the others nibbled on their old lunch.  Sheets of rain kept us from taking off on time, then the captain kept telling us our line up on the runway...”lookin’ good folks, we’re up to 6^th place, should only be 15 to 20 minutes from here...” then two hours later we left the ground into the blackness of the clouds and steph prayed that today was not her day to die as the turbulence violently shook the plane.

Next stop, Munich.  We watched several movies on the flight, though most of them had a weird high-pitched noise throughout... to the point steph had to watch it in French to avoid going insane.  The girls all bought neck pillows and had neck pillow parties and looked down on us with smarmy countenances.  steph put on her not-quite-Skull-Candy headphones and tuned out the sound of the plane...mmm...heaven.  Take that neck pillowers!  Because of our delay in Chicago we only had a narrow window to make our flight to Zurich and for some reason steph held the only boarding pass.  Why didn’t anyone else get one?  So, more line waiting and flight missing.  Luckily we only needed to wait an hour.

Final destination, Zurich Switzerland; the land of the purest drinking water available at every fountain.  Amanda met us in the Zurich baggage claim and later benefited the most from the fountains.  Ali’s bags, sadly, did not make it.  We mourned her loss and rejoiced when she received her gift bag from Swiss Air - all the fixins, including undies and shirt, high quality too.  

We joined tour director, Vera Gomes, and hopped on a partially filled tour bus. On the bus already was a group from the lake of Chelan Washington and a small but rowdy crew of 4 from Houston (a country in and of itself).  Our Italian driver, Enzo, smoked like a chimney, slicked his hair with coconut get, and drove through traffic like we were in an Italian sports car. We swung by downtown and picked up the backwoods kids from Maryland’s Latin club, need I say more?!

The bus weaved in and out of traffic and then out into the countryside which then led to the famous Swiss mountains for our hotel stay in Einsiedeln.  Tanya obsessively tried to capture, on film, the artistry of graffiti while flying by, with eventual success.  The land is beautifully green and quaint.  Midway Utah is as close as we can get to Switzerland.  We pulled up to a door, mid-building, stopping traffic (to which no one honked nor did they throw up any kind of hand gesture), and unloaded all of our luggage into the cobble stoned street. 

Hotel St. Gorge, and something about a stork, would be our residence for the next two nights.  After three flights of stairs, with our luggage on our backs, Sandra and Steph were pleased with their unusually large, for Europe, room.  Amy and Amanda barely fit around their room, Amber and roomie Jo Ann were in a room similar to Amy’s, while Tanya and Ali were in a randomly build room at the front of the building.  The doorway, built for Hobbits, made us laugh plus the room heavily slanted to the left and had a slight smell, but it did overlook the street.  We used our few free minutes to freshen up and settle in.  We noticed that these rooms only recently had bathrooms added to them.  They threw up some flimsy walls and put in plumbing, but we mocked in gratitude that we didn’t have to shower down the hall.

We ate separately our first evening, mandatorily meeting “the others”... they seemed nice enough, this just might work out.  First thing after dinner, fill water bottles in the natural glacier watered fountains.  Then a walk through a town, shut down for the evening.  Whilst we stood in a circle remembering the long day and telling “by fars” a bird did his business on Ali’s shoulder, adding to her already rough day.  We laughed in compassion and headed to bed, with the sun still shining.

Tanya Escobar, Steph Doyle, Amanda Pettingil, Amber Szymanski, Amy Szymanski, Ali Cole, and Sandra Forsyth.

 

 

Enzo the hairstylist

June 23, 2009 TUESDAY

Quotes:

Oh sure, here dad, have some diabetes - pat

Maybe you should get 5 waters... (chest squeeze) - ali to amanda

You and me, we're taking back sunday - steph (front seats)

That is an awesome fro-mullet! - tanya

You light a cow on fire, the cow is going to burn - leather guy

They'll need to press this "mute" button - Sue (about us moving back to the front)

Did you say, "can you imagine living there?"  - steph to ali about the cemetary

I think I enjoyed Enzo taking off his hirt a little more than I should have - MD girl (small face)

I don't want to get hit by those - Sue (boobs)

I totally poured a Tanya - sandra (spilling)

And I was like, "I am so perfect" - steph

No Whisper! - Enzo

I was kind of Japanese - ali

As your asian expert... - tanya

Laser Tag is for big kids now

The camera was only out before and after the games, so we missed pictures of most of the players :)  We played everyone for themselves the first round.  I think Matt and Amber's brother won.  I was in the top 5 though.  Then we played several games of accomplishing missions.  

The first time you play you are required to live through a 25 minute explanation of rules and regulations, but then never again.  It's tough, but the games are intense and intricate.  We scared a very young couple making out in the tunnel as we prepared for an FOB attack.  Hurah!

Whirlwind end of year...

The year drags from January through March then flies when it hits April and May, with an almost whiplash effect.  All of a sudden it's the last 2 weeks of school and I don't remember how I got here.  

Cheer tryouts, dance company tryouts, 6 am practices, late practices everyday, cultural assembly, heroes assembly, collecting money, uniform fittings, paying money, ordering costumes, dance concert, farewell assembly, dance, lagoon day (first one), lagoon day (9th grade) then school ends and I'm still strung out!  And I don't even blog, sad.

Outside of school I've been able to see several movies, study Calculus, plan and play laser tag with 30 people, and oversee my first sharing time.  "Wolverine (XMen Origins)" appeased the ladies with eye candy all around and a tender story of brothers, whilst keeping the men entertained with violence and power.  "Angels and Demons" could be rented with the same effect.  The book left me more sickly than the movie because of its detailed tortures and bloody murders, but then the details also made the book more suspenseful and satisfying in the mystery side of it.  The movie would probably be better without reading the book, but I thought it was well done.  Plus I can't watch movies with boys, to many things to worry about...ruins the movie for me.  "Terminator Salvation"  I should have read up a little on the back story, but it held its own as a blow up everything movie.  Christian Bale and "Marcus" both were great to watch...remember to wipe the drool.  Another movie I can't really say i was fully focused...dumb boys.

Laser Tag 10pm at Copperton Park.  (UVTag.com) pictures and stories to come.