>>> back in action

Did ya miss me? You're probably thinking, "Nope. I read your other blog religiously. You posted something the other day. There's been no time to miss you." I'm going to take this opportunity to point out to you that I am not the same Tita that writes emo fluff about the passage of time and growing old; I am Traveling Tita. I travel the world and have fun and am never emo and the only stuff I wonder about regarding the future is whether I need to bring flip flops or if open-toed foot paraphernalia is inappropriate for the climate. Whole 'nother story, ya dig?

Technically, I effed up and didn't post about some recent traveling that I did. I went to Vancouver, B.C. (that's in Canada if you don't already know) with my brother and a couple of friends. I was going to write that a trip to a location less that is less than a 4 hour drive away from home shouldn't count and therefore shouldn't be written about by Traveling Tita, but who am I trying to fool? Canada is a foreign land (sort of)! That deserves a blog entry, right? I guess I will work retroactively about it soon and tell you what I did. Not right now, though. I don't feel like it.

Right now I feel like talking about Orlando, Florida. I've been fB messaging back and forth with my cousin Richard, who lives in Calgary (Canada!!!), and we're making plans for Florida. You see, our cousin Edith (aka Ate Ditas) is getting married over there in April and the whole Calgary family, plus 3 Seattlelites (me and my parents), are going to attend. I am super excited for this trip because 1) I love my Calgary family a whole bunch but only see them every few years; 2) I love weddings; 3) I desperately want to go to a sunny place; and 4) DISNEYWORLD, duh!

The plan is as follows: I'm going to fly out to Orlando on the Thursday before the wedding, get the rental car, and check into the hotel with my parents so we can get settled and ready for the rehearsal dinner at Epcot Center. The next day, Friday, will probably be a family bonding day since everyone should be there by then, and then the wedding is on Saturday. Sunday my parents will be flying back home, so Richie and whoever else wants to will stay with me at the hotel until I leave on Wednesday morning. And in between Sunday and Wednesday, we're trying to hit up DisneyWorld (at least the Magic Kingdom for Ate Gemma's little kids, but I'm going to lobby for Animal Kingdom because I want to see animals!) as well as a water park.

Exciting, right? Hahaha. It sounds like it'll be pretty chill and I'm looking forward to that. I actually don't care what we end up doing as long as it's sunny, it's fun, and it's with my cousins.

As far as documentation goes, I'll most likely have my dSLR by then and hopefully I'll have had a lot of practice beforehand so my photos turn out well. And I'll have my Flip MinoHD camcorder, too, so if I have a free internet connection while I'm down there, I might just end up vlogging instead of writing. We'll see.

Anyhoot, I look forward to travel-blogging again! Even though I was so glad to be home after my last trip, I think I've caught the travel bug again because I've been itching to get out of here, just for a little while. Too bad I still have about three months to go until the trip...

>>> lagggggg.

Home. Finally! I was relieved to get home and find that Milo was in good spirits and even lost a couple of pounds (this is a good thing; he has quite a few more to lose to get back to his old self, haha.)

I'd so been looking forward to getting home for the past couple of weeks (sad, I know), but now that I'm here it feels weird. That was bound to happen, I suppose --- I have been gone for 3 weeks, plus that week in California before I left for Europe. Did I just get used to not being here?

[...I don't know how to be anywhere.]

Maybe I'm just lagging. Not just jetlagging (cuz I am -- I didn't sleep last night just so that I can try to get back on schedule by tonight for work tomorrow... if that makes any sense), but delayed in my realization that I am finally HOME. Whew.

Anyway, I'm going to take advantage of the few spare hours I've got before life gets back to normal (whatever that is) and try to unpack, maybe do some laundry. I'll try to post up the old blogs that I wrote a couple of weeks ago, but... does that even matter anymore? Hahaha. If I have time, I'll take care of it. We'll see. Today I don't have work, but I do have to take Milo swimming at Edmonds, take my laptop + cord in to Best Buy to get a new one, go to the bank, and then get ready for Ann-Marie's birthday dinner later on tonight. And I might try to finish my pic upload before the end of the day (I've already posted up 10 albums since we got home).

See how I do? Always hit the ground running. ;)

>>> mini update?

Greetings from the middle of the Mediterranean Sea! I'm sitting in the internet cafe on the ship, en route to Venice (our last stop), and about 100 feet away from me are a hundred people doing a conga line arond a champagne waterfall/fountain thing to the on-ship band playing "Let's Groove". Life is funny that way.

I don't remember where my last post left us at. Istanbul? At sea? Let me check.

...

Okay, now I got it. Istanbul was pretty cool except I was in a terrible mood that day. Got very little sleep and things at home were keeping my mind rancid. Luckily, I've got plenty of people around me to get my spirits up and keep em that way. I've been pretty successful since then to keep myself in a good mood and not thinking about stupid stuff that I'll just deal with in about 8 days.

Back to the topic at hand: travels! Istanbul was tight, but I think I liked Kusadasi (also in Turkey) a little better. We spent most of the day looking for a present for Liz's best friend and we were in luck because she found a beautiful turquoise pendant and a box made of cowbone to go with it. Then I finally laid out on the boat for a couple of hours and read some Vonnegut and got my back all dark. ;)

Athens and the Acropolis were quite the experience. We walked about half a mile to a train station, took the train to Thissio, and then saw the huge climb it would take to get up to the Parthenon. I wasn't too hyped for that because it was 95 degrees out and dusty as hell, but then we found this tourist train thingie that took us almost to the top. We still had to walk up those last 87 marble steps to get to the top. Marble is slippery as @$%#$^, by the way. Us "kids" took some fun pictures at the top, then I ate the best Greek food ever, and then we headed back to the ship.

Today was our last "at sea" day and our last formal night. I spent most of the day sleeping because we stayed up til about 4am last night. The time spent not sleeping was spent eating and/or getting ready for formal night. I didn't realize how dark I've gotten on this trip until I put my dress on (which is mostly white). I don't think people will recognize me when I get home. :)

Tomorrow we pull in to Venice, and then we stay there for a day and a night and disembark Tuesday morning. From there, we will say goodbye to the Magnos and Jamoras (*tear*) and head off to Rome and Florence, and then to London, and then FINALLY I will be home.

My brothers and I have discussed what we will be doing as soon as we get home in about 8 days. We're going to hop into my car, go to Albertson's, and buy Tony's pizzas and Coke and Gatorade and just lie around the house. Sounds like a plan, right?

Unfortunately, my laptop is still dead and so I can't upload pictures until I get home. But you better believe it will be done the moment I get there!

Wish you were here, really I do.

<3

>>> lessons learned in the mediterranean

I've gotta make this quick --- Internet minutes are a-wasting!

So, tough break. The power cord for my laptop appears to be broken and I have no way of charging my laptop, which conveniently is devoid of battery power. So until I return to Seattle on September 16th, I won't be able to upload any pictures or copy and paste the entries that I had already written out for this blog. !@$#@%%$*@#$)@$!(!@!#@~!!!

I will try to break it down for you right quick because the point was to keep you posted on what I'm up to and I've been gone for over a week now and I haven't been posting ANYTHING!

BARCELONA: really hot, cool city, beautiful people, cool architecture, nice scene. I liked it.
MARSEILLE: also really hot there, really really beautiful scenery, too expensive though!
LUCCA/PISA: really really hot, kind of boring historical stuff, and once you take your obligatory picture with the Leaning Tower, there isn't anything else to do there.
ROME: really really really hot, dirty, got ripped off by one of those tour bus thingies, the Vatican is cool, people at the Vatican were not cool (cut me off in line several times trying to buy rosaries, of all things!), Trevi Fountain is beautiful, but all in all I was not a fan of Rome.
NAPLES/POMPEII: really hot, kinda dirty, got bug bites, pedestrians are always in danger, people on the buses and trains are always in danger of pickpocketing, but hey, the PIZZA WAS GOOD.
MYKONOS: beautiful scenery, lots of wind, we took a lot of great pictures that you'll probably never see because I can't upload (grrr!), and had the best day because it was all strolling and pleasant chatting and taking pics.

Other than that, we've all been stuffing our faces on the boat and been gradually getting bigger and bigger (except for Alex, who only gets buffer --- but he's a personal trainer, so he's exempt from the "get fat on the cruise" rule). I'm getting along really well with Ricky and Paco, as well as the other "kids" on the boat with me.

The thing is, though, I'm still pretty homesick and I've only been gone for about a week. It's been the longest 8 or 9 days (I'm not sure) everrrr and I'm still not going to be home for another couple of weeks. It's really making me realize how hard it would be for me to relocate to another country and it's also making me realize how much I depend on my social connections with friends. Shouldn't family and family friends be enough social interaction for me? I guess I just really miss my usual routine and the comforts of home. I guess. I dunno, I've been having a lot of time to reflect on this trip. We'll see what happens when I finally get home.

AUGH, the laptop thing is going to drive me insane. I feel like my links to civilization are all getting severed?

Shouldn't this be the best time of my life? Why doesn't it feel like it?

Really, really, really wish you were here.

<3

>>> greetings from the mediterranean sea

Hello all,

This is ridiculous. I am so addicted to the Internet that I'm actually paying $.55 a minute to have access to the slowest connection possible. There's no justifying it. I'm just... Insane.

Europe is beautiful and hot and expensive --- just as I anticipated it would be. I'm having fun, but not at its fullest potential. I guess I'm kind of homesick. And I've only been gone for 3 days! I have 19 days to go, so... I'm either gonna get over it real soon, or be really sad for a few weeks.

I guess that's one lesson learned: I can never, ever move away from Seattle. LOL just kidding.

It's just... I miss Milo, I miss cheap Coca-Cola (2 euros for a can!), I miss my bed and the comforts of home, and I probably miss you.

Don't get me wrong, though... I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I'm getting to see what's out here. And out here, it's beautiful and different. This is invaluable information to have obtained at my age.

I'll post entries about Barcelona and Marseille soon enough... I just gotta write 'em. ;) None of this "on the fly" writing... Also, if I told you I'd write you postcards, I totally did and you should expect them in your mailboxes sometime in the next two weeks. :D

If you have my number, text me once in a while. It's cheaper than using this crappy boat wifi and it will make me feel closer to home. :)

Wish you were here! Really, I do.

<3

>>> heathrow airport (London, UK)

Man, the Brits weren't messing around when they built Heathrow Airport. Really though, the place is HUGE and kind of confusing -- my family was walking around in circles for a while before we found our way.

The flight from Seatac to London was 8.5 hours; luckily, I was able to sleep through most of it (except for when I was watching Made of Honor, hahaha).

As soon as our plane touched ground and I was able to turn my phone on, I received a barrage of texts wishing me a Happy Birthday. THANK YOOUU!!! to everyone who sent their well wishes from home! Thanks for remembering (you probably saw it on Facebook, but that don't matter) because my own family didn't remember til a few minutes ago, hahaha.

I am now seated smack dab in the middle of a British Airways plane, awash in a sea of good-looking Spaniards on their way back home. Now that I've gotten to see just a small sample of Spain's progeny, I'm thinking one thing: I'm gonna like it in Barcelona.

Wish you were here (really).

<3

>>> next stop: Europe!

I am currently seated in 33J on a NWA plane that is about to depart for London's Heathrow Airport. From there, we're hitting up Barcelona via plane then train.

Planes, trains, and automobiles... Tis the story of my life right now. LOL.

Be good, Seattle. I'll be back before you know it.