canadian soil

well, i guess that's that.

i'll go back to having a refrigerator stocked with food that wasn't paid for by me, 400 times more clothing options to choose from in the morning, and many more moments like this where i am sitting by myself, bored.

And airports see it all the time
When someone's last goodbye
Blends in with someone’s sigh
Cause someone's coming home
In hand a single rose

And that's the way this wheel keeps working now
That's the way this wheel keeps working now... 

the land of the eng.

cheerio mates

here i am in england, reading to be precise, at adam's great aunt's house. first off let me just say that while i thought it would be easier here (what with us speaking the language and all) it actually is not. my head hurts from "translating"--and to think, WE'RE the ones with the accents. crazy.

anyway, just an update to say that all is going well. i am homeward bound on tuesday, but don't expect to hear from me right away. in fact, ive forgotten how to use a cell phone so the ball is in your courts so to speak. how do you like dem apples?

tomorrow we are training into london where i hope to complete this worldwide shopping journey with some new trousers or a top. heh.

hope you are all doing well and surviving what i hear is sweltering heat. but let me tell you, you dont know sweltering heat. well, unless you're in europe. right now. or california...ahh ok fine the whole world is melting.

-jd

"hideous"

bonjour mes amis. long time no talk. as you can tell i am in paris right now and of course loving it-_ well all of it except for these computer keyboards. who decided it was a good idea to make you shift for numbers?? (and it just took me forever to find the question mark).

anyway i'll keep this brief: today i saw the moulin rouge. if only i was not too poor to go see a show!!! it was just the most delightful moment--even more so than my eiffel tower moment.

(by the way the light show IS "hideous", i almost had a seizure)

just wanted to update you all. i am home in ten days. it will be weird, i feel already like i am in limbo...so far removed from home but not quite belonging here either. it is strange.

ok on to course registration,

AU REV!!!!!!!

word, machine.

ok so i was mistaken, thank you all for the comments.
In a quick response-
Mila, i never got an email from you that i havent responded to. I feel as though your email hates me and is filtering all messages from me into your junk mail. lame.
The rest of you- uhm. thank you again. heh.

Now, I am just finishing up my last day in Santorini and it was literally everything I imagined. Go figure. After a whole semester of smashing tourists and talking about "perception of culture" vs. "authenticity of culture" I am enjoying my perceptions becoming a reality quite a bit. That was quite a sentence.

In other news, meeting up with Adam in Milan was the biggest gong show ever. It involved me, expertly navigating the streets of milan but to no avail. In fact, I thought that the place didn't exist because it was all boarded up. In typical Jessica fashion I sat down on the side of the road and started to cry- do not tell my mom about that please! - however, a kindly barber and his daughter, Sylvie, helped me and I eventually found where I was headed. Yes just another day in this, the adventures of Jessica.

More to come. Back to Italy in two days.

ciao
-jd

p.s

DOES NOBODY LOVE ME ANYMORE??? DO I WRITE THIS ALL IN VAIN???

"wear suncreen" : a valid piece of advice

i give new meaning to the term "beet red".
in fact, i have invented a whole new colour of red.

so is the way when you apply very little sunscreen and then lie on a croatian beach for upwards of 4 hours.

but damn, what a beach.

in other news, tomorrow i get to finally meet up with adam. i am so excited i have the hiccups. well, not really. but i am that excited.

the only thing thats a little apprehensive is i dont have a way from the bergamo airport to milan, which is an hour ride. im banking on a shuttle...we will see if the odds play in my favour. also, all i have is the address of the dorm. oh adam, why didnt you email me back your room number so i could at least call you when i get there. jessica burnt to such a crisp that carrying a backpack is uncomfortable + jessica wandering aimlessly around milan = disaster. or maybe adventure. but my money is on the the first one.

soon melissa and i will fly to the airport in london where we will wait for 6 hours until morning. then i will embark on phase two of this summer adventure of mine.

oh. i have the hiccups now.

pink is the new black

Today we had our last lecture for my class on kitsch at the site of the Black Babies, by David Cherney. (Pictures to come)

Basically, in this little district called Zizkov, there is a HUGE telecommunications tower that was erected by the Communist party in the 80's...or maybe the 70's. Then, in 2000, Cherney's black babies were added to the tower.

I find the tower itself, aside from the babies, to be quite interesting. Again, it runs in the same vein as reinterpreting history. The communist party built the tower as a form of propaganda. It is now integral to the Prague skyline--no matter where you are, you can see this tower. It was the Communists way of overshadowing the past, the great history in other prominent skyline images such as Prague Castle. Which I lovingly refer to as "Prasky Hrad". Also, as a telecommunications tower, it was used for the dissemination of communist propaganda. Finally, it resembles greatly a rocket--a weapon of great importance in the cold war days--symbolizing the weaponry of propaganda. I think that also was a shout out to the future, promoting technology like the rocket and the telecommunications tower over things like Prague castle. For the communists there is no "past"...only future and what communism can do for you in that future.

I thought it was interesting. There are readings of the babies as a capitalist critique, crawling up this symbol of communism to defeat it, but my thoughts on that are less substantial than that of the tower itself. Since we were sitting in the grass I think I was too terrified of all the bugs that were crawling all over me to really pay attention. That tick has ruined me for life!!

Currently I should be studying for my exam tomorrow and then working on paper #3 of 4. A change of plans has occured and I am now leaving next Wednesday night for Croatia SO my papers need to be done that much earlier. Ideally by Monday night, because I want to enjoy my last day here on the Tuesday, but at the very latest Tuesday night so I can still go out to that rockin' Jazz Klub as my final hurrah...or should I say huzzah!

I am ready to leave though--people are really starting to piss me off, AND this paper stress has got me tearing my hair out and literally biting my fingernails off. Grross!

Sunday, Stacie and Melody and I are going to Auschwitz for the day...I figured that I would never make it back to Poland and in light of all the other similar sites we have visited this summer I am anxious, yet understandably apprehensive, to see it. Couldn't leave here without actually...

Well so ends my procrastination...t-minus 1 week until I get the hell out of here and 13 days until I meet up with Adam in Italy...then the REAL vacation begins!

Ciao,
Jess

all i could see were purples and reds

le sigh.

one of the guys on our trip had his girlfriend arrive today from Vancouver. She will be staying here until the end of our trip.

it makes me miss Adam a lot. they are all sitting down the hall meeting her and i am trying to work on my paper because i think it would make me too sad.

yesterday the guy said it was like waiting for christmas, and i understand every word of that. in fact, it's like waiting for christmas when you are six years old and are restless with anticipation.

18 days...