γειά σου from greece!

after a very, very long 16 hours spent flying, i finally arrived in Athens this morning at 9am (11pm CA time). my first flight was at 6:30am and i didn't sleep the night before because i was trying to get all of my things together.

here is my very first view of Greece!

a more specific Athens

our little tiny bedroom in this hostel




the view from our balcony


my first meal in Greece. delicious gyros.. mmm

we have met some really nice people in Athens so far, and the food has been great.
i can't believe i'm here.

ps- i think i'm succumbing to jet lag.

today is the day!

that i fly out.

these past couple days have sort of been a whirlwind due to packing and getting all of this:



in this:




i managed... sort of. i have to bring a separate messenger bag for my books and then after greece i'll mail them home.

today my family had a "bon voyage" party for me. it was really cute. my sisters decorated with prints such as these:


and afterwards david and i went out to a nice dinner and spent time together.



and then kyle came over and we played hilarious games.

then david took me home, where i have been up all night getting everything together. he gave me this to read if i ever get homesick. i love my family and this boy. i'm gonna miss them so much.

1 week

and i have a lot of things i still need to get together.

how can it already be this soon?

gimp update

well, last night i wrote a long ACL update.. on my xanga. and, i don't really want to copy and paste the whole thing here, but here are the main points:

- it is completely torn
- the way i tore it is the most rare
- jerry rice also tore his this way
- i will need surgery when i get back

but, going to europe should be okay, i just shouldn't.. pivot. i need to watch out for cobblestone streets and wear this huge leg brace which covers about 75% of my leg. i think i'll call it gigantor.

4 years

today is my and david's 4 year anniversary. (is that how you say that correctly?)

in honor of that, i was pondering and eventually made a list of things
i love to do together:

1. watching the game show network
2. cooking & baking


3. going to baseball games


4. drives along highway 1


5. going out for sushi
6. playing thumb war.. which i always cheat at and always still lose
7. feeling him play with and detangle my hair
8. kissing and cuddling
9. babysitting raine


(he is so cute with her :])


10. holding hands

(:*)

hello summer!

now that i'm finnaaalllyyyy done with finals, i'm trying to make the most of the last few weeks that i have before i head over to europe. i am leaving in 17 days... kind of ridiculous.

well, i'm hoping to take a lot of photos with my fisheye camera and make some trips to san francisco with david, but what i've been waiting to do for months is watch "Up."

the moment i saw the trailor i was so excited to see the movie, and i hope it doesn't disappoint. in the mean time, i'm gonna laze and watch the food network.

slightly unrelated

but, i want to post again and this is the closest news related to travel that i have. for the classes i'm taking abroad, i needed to buy a few books, one being a reader which is only available at one store.. in los angeles.

i'm currently in santa cruz.

well after telling me it was not available to purchase over the phone, the bookstore told me i needed to fill out an online form. the form they sent, that i filled out and sent back, "was not the full application." also, not that i really want to get into this or anything, but their idea of sounding sophisticated and professional only leads to confusing and non-English.

on the brighter(?) side of things, i finished two finals today... although i don't think i did very well. i have an italian final tomorrow, a greek final on wednesday, and 2 papers to finish before friday. this is probably the most hectic finals week i've ever had.

coveting

while i'm backpacking this summer, i'm trying to bring as little as i can so that my backpack isn't too heavy and i don't kill myself with too much stuff.

that being said, i wish i could bring tons of cute and adorable things to wear. how sweet (and i mean that in the "aw you're so sweet" sense) would it be to have beautiful things to wear and take lovely photos and post them and be oh-so-happy with the picture perfect memories?

anyways, if being fashionable while traveling was practical, at the moment, there is no other dress that i am coveting more than this beautiful purple number from ModCloth. i'll just have to take another european adventure again but limit my stay to a few cities so i can bring more stuff :).