gah, i am in the frankfurt sheraton instead of on a plane back to SFO. this morning i left my hostel in madrid by taxi, but there was an accident/intense traffic, and after a harrowing hour and a half ride, finally made my flight with about 10 minutes to spare (very close call). Apparently, people dont know how to read in Madrid, because my luggage was not sent on to my connecting flight to SFO from frankfurt. So, i had to wait for it at the baggage claim, and when i went to the desk to check in 40 minutes before takeoff, they told me i would not be getting on their flight (fuckers, sorry about the language). final straw for me- i yelled (not very ladylike) at the united people, oops, then gave up and called the parentals at 4 am their time. mark patrick got me on a flight out of frankfurt tomorrow morning and a hotel room.. so, here i am. stranded in frankfurt til tomorrow morning at 5:30 am ,when i have to be back in the hellish airport checking in....

AHHHHH.

sigh, will i ever make it home? all i want is california, man.

9 days.

i (finally) sat down and wrote my history paper yesterday, so i can check that one off. now i just have my italian final tomorrow morning, and this hell of an art history paper to write about Mondrian for Wednesday. It would be a joy to get it done tomorrow night (Mon.) so i could have the rest of the week off to run around and do stuff. My flight on friday got canceled, so i had to move to the saturday one to barcelona. no biggie, just irritating that meridiana was so unapologetic about it, and i get 1 less day in spain. Also, most people leave sometime between wed and fri, so ill be all alone in florence that friday and saturday. alas, life goes on.

i also packed my big fat suitcase full of stuff to ship home via mailboxes etc. this week. the price on that should be interesting.

k, that's all. spain/home here i come.

quasi finito

wow, i am an angry person right now. i just wrote this long blog entry and was excited about it, and then my firefox quit unexpectedly.. im too lazy to rewrite it, but lets just do bullet points to suffice for my long, thought out entry, R.I.P.

- shopping with carolyn- we turned out to be quite good shopping partners: bought gifts, some hokey /touristy, some good :) I also bought a dress and she got shoes.. a little present for ourselves never hurts..

- the housing lady in mirrielees emailed me back to tell me that i can most likely live with liberty. i just need another roommate, who may be random, or maybe Cori cause her drawmates didnt get housing. who knows.

- lots of work to be done- 2 essays, italian final, packing, shipping my bag home, etc etc

- had our art show yesterday with the paintings and drawings that we did in studio art- my host mom came to see Cori's and my art! awwww. also had bing dinner last night with wayyyy too much food, but a gorgeous restaurant.

- 8 days til i leave florence! :( but 13 days til i am home! :)

i uploaded all my pics and other people's too onto my shutterfly, if you dont have facebook. woohoo! Im an uploading machine..

http://laurakay.shutterfly.com/action/

but i am le tired.

tired, physically and also of blogging, when i already send personal emails back and forth with what ive been doing. siiiiigh. anyway, got home from paris 2 nights ago, and back in the "grind," if you can call it that. according to my apple counter, 22 days til i am home once more- crazy! so soon.

a short recap of what i did in paris- inquire for more details. :)

tuesday 11/21
- fly into paris late at night, check into hostel with the rudest employee of all time, SLEEP

wed 11/22
- wake up pretty early- big group of us meets up with jo in marait (spelling?)
- picasso museum and lunch of hamburgers and fries mmmm
- notre dame, some more wandering with meg
- meet ashley, jon, and jordan back at the hostel
- dinner near our hostel- salmon #1 of the week, pretty tasty
- eiffel tower- carousel and nutella crepes mmmmm
- nightclub called queen- alex found out it was a gay club later on, but it was ladies night so we got in free. quite an experience

thurs 11/23
- shopping in the morning with ashley- H&M!!!
- lunch with ashley, jon, and jordan in st germain
- get lost on way to musee d'orsay- eventually make it, didnt really scratch the surface in the time we had :( but superneat
- big argument over thanksgiving dinner- frustration but eventually lebanese food (?) that was delish
- back to the bar in our hostel for some cooldown time

fri 11/24
- climb most of the eiffel tower in the pouring rain- elevator up the last bit, ashley took a little dive on the stairs- oh my!
- metroed to montmarte for lunch and wandering
- arc de triomphe (spelling?) and champs elysees real quick
- back to hostel to argue a refund out of the people and get a quick nap in
- louvre free for everyone under 26- woohoo! saw the mona lisa, madonna of the rocks, nike, some vermeers, other very cool things, but i need to go back. it was too big!
(thats what she said, teddy)
- hassle trying to get to restaurant to meet jo but when we do- mmmmmmm. had the "pleasure meal" of a goat cheese pastry with salad, and a great salmon, much wine, and a taste of ashley and nell's dessert platter of love. ow ow!
- back to hostel bar AGAIN

sat 11/25
- the boys went out and brought back baguettes, butter, OJ, etc for us to eat in the hostel
- in what will go down in history, i somehow misplaced the receipt for JUST the sheets, not anything else, so i did not get back the money i paid as a deposit for our 6 sets of sheets. bullshit, 3 ducks hostel. breathe, laura.
- get very lost on the way to the airport on the metro, end up at wrong terminal and the group splits into two- we end up making it to the flight barely, and convince the people to wait for our friends who got taken out of the city (wtf?). we all make it home, thank god.

other notes:
- traveling in big groups- never again, so so so frustrating
- why did i end up having to be the mom?
- losing money to jerk hostel workers sucks
- our hostel had bathrooms/showers outside, and very little space for 4 people in one room.. close quarters with jon, nell and ash.
- i could live on crepes forever
- i want to go back to paris.

im the worst blogger ever. went to venice this weekend for art history class- beautiful, but quite foggy and gray, and many of us were not in the best moods. oh well.

art history presentation today, then i am home free (kind of) for paris tomorrow night!! cant believe thanksgiving is here. i have so much to do before i leave- starting to get into panic mode.

by the way, im living in mirrielees when i get back. im happy about that, i think.

hard to concentrate

words cannot describe how pumped i am for paris in 9 days. dear god, im just having such "florence cabin fever" for some reason-most likely seeing the same people day after day-it is time to take a break. plus, for my mental health, i kind of need to see some familiar faces who AREN'T in my program.


went to siena today- quite small, but a nice little town. wish id gone earlier in the quarter, as i have now seen many small tuscan towns and have trouble differentiating between them.

tomorrow morning i am eating scrambled eggs and bacon.



p.s. i hope you all appreciated the rhcp reference in my title, as i am so appropriately listening to that song AND it applies to my entry. zing!

0% work ethic

the title says it all. i had 3 midterms and a quiz this week, and it was the hardest time of my life trying to concentrate. i fear stanford winter quarter.

this week we had such grand travel plans for this coming weekend- we researched dublin (!), copenhagen, sardinia, valencia, even morocco, but sadly, NOTHING flies in and out of italy for less than a million euros. sigh. alas, my weekend plans are far less glamorous but still fun nonetheless. Saturday val, carolyn, nell, amanda and i are going to siena- sadly neither sara nor christine will be there though!- but should be fun. Sunday we are going to get American brunch somewhere!! oh man, what i'd give for some scrambled eggs and hashbrowns. Then shopping will be had by all- if shopping can be had. i need to buy some presents, but if i see something cute for myself along the way, whats the harm, right?

cori will be in barcelona all weekend with brad and will- sad day. they left me in the dust cause im going after the program :/ ohhhhhhhhhhh well.

that's all for now, i think. time to go out.