A Very Lucky Girl

If I found out that there was a video camera in the Literacy room of the public library during my tutoring session today I would die. Today was my first official volunteering session with my student. She is a middle-aged woman from Mexico with very little knowledge of the English language. Which is where I come in. She wants to learn conversational English and I am doing my best to aid her learning process. I met her for the first time a week ago and it quickly became apparent that we would have trouble communicating. We sat and smiled at each other and laughed nervously. My Spanish vocabulary is extremely limited, I was proud of myself for saying good morning and her name correctly this morning. All week I stressed about being able to communicate a new language to someone when I couldn't even communicate with in their native language. I hated professors who taught me French when they knew little English.  I had a TEACHER book to page through and the whole time I looked th...

Since Taylor C. was so generous with her hospitality, we stayed in Arezzo for two nights and used our day in the middle to take a trip by train (what else?) to the famed city of Florence.  The place was surprisingly packed despite it being the bare beginning of tourist season. I imagine the proximity of Easter was a large draw. We braved the streets without a paper map and moved blindly through the maze of tourists and vendors. My first purchase of the day was raspberry gelato for breakfast. The fruit base made me feel slightly better about my nutrition choices.  We found a giant arch near a carousel that probably is really significant and continued under it until we reached the river. We walked along the edge until we accidentally found the right narrow street that spilled us into Piazza del Duomo . The cathedral was the most spectacular building I saw. The intricacies of the architecture was flawless and mesmerizing. We walked around outside for quite a while for two ...

The first thing we learned in Venice was that the train doesn't drop you off in the midst of all of those canals because DUH.  So after we wandered (our speciality) and figured it out, we hopped on a bus to take us to the picture-perfect location. I went to Vegas last summer, and though the Venetian is spectacular, the real thing is a million times more amazing. Venice was extra special to me because it was the beginning of the fulfillment of life-long dream to travel to Italy. We got there on a beautiful Sunday morning, just in time for an early lunch. I thought I ordered spaghetti, but some weird yellow-looking pasta came to me instead with bits of ham in it. It wasn't too great so I stole bites of the rest of the squad's pizzas. Especially the Parmesan shavings on top of Gibby's. When I first tasted one I solemnly vowed to seriously go to a grocery store in Italy and purchase Parmesan.  I think Venice was made specifically for the cadet squad. It's a place...

Shamrocks, rainbows, and leprechauns, oh my! Did I fall into a bowl of Lucky Charms? Nope, just dipped my toes into Dublin and the rest of Ireland over the weekend. I say dipped because one measly weekend is not enough for the breathtaking beauty I witnessed. I could use at least a week of leprechaun love. There were about 15 of us that traveled to Dublin on Friday night and we checked into a hostel I had researched located on the outskirts of the Temple Bar (aka year-round St. Patrick's Day celebration) district. It's called Kinlay House and I hesitate to recommend it to anyone else. The proximity to everything we wanted was excellent, however, the Wifi was awfully temperamental, the heat in at least two of the rooms was nonexistent, and only frigid water flowed in the showers. I managed one shower on Saturday evening, bending my back in such a way so that only my head was doused in the icy cascade. The tundra water elicited shrieks and shivers from Nat on my left side and Kyl...

What I learned outside of the classroom of Thursday: Optional, but "encouraged," Shakespeare screenings are so not worth waking up for.  Getting bus sick is a thing and it's not particularly enjoyable.  North Americans are rad (and this in no way diminishes the rad-ness of people from other continents that I've met). Even the best Fish&Chips in Scotland can't beat a good chicken strip.  Hail down, hoods up, that's the way we like to hike.  Hiking to castles makes the end structure that much sweeter.  You'd think castle ruins are uninhabitable, but then you'd see a rat scurry across a crumbling bedroom.  When you're locked inside a castle and it's quickly getting darker, answering questions from a faceless boy who may or may not be trying to flirt is the last thing you want to do.  I think we have a 5th sense. It's like ESPN or something. We can tell exactly when a bus is going to leave a station and arrive mere minutes befo...

It's very humbling to come to a brand new (to me) country, that is in fact older than my own country, and interact with several different cultures at once. Classes don't start until Monday, but I've already gathered a wealth of facts that I never knew before. Boots are not the most comfortable shoes to get lost in It's never too soon to watch Orange Is The New Black with a new friend and then comment on the phallic shaped crackers in our soup. Thanks Nat.  Time changes are the bane of my existence. You mean I have finished lunch and my American friends have barely touched breakfast?  Always carry a grocery bag with you because you never know when you might come across Tesco/Poundland/Lidl and suddenly need to grocery shop. On a related note, large market trips are impossible.  Lemon vodka is the direct equivalent of Smirnoff ice and I will continue to drink it shamelessly. Sluuuurp. Don't believe Aussie's when they tell you they live in fear of the dropbe...

I spent a glorious, humidity-filled week in Louisiana in the middle of July. The entire experience was a lovely time with family I don't get to see frequently, but I wanted to share the highlights! The festivities began after a luxurious emergency exit aisle plane ride where I was seated adjacent to an amorous couple in the sickeningly same salmon hue. I tried to catch most of my vomit in the pages of Skymall, the magazine selling everything I never knew I wanted. My cousins, Katherine and Caroline, picked me and my polka-dot suitcase up at the New Orleans airport on Sunday afternoon. I ate and shopped my way through the city the next two days, visiting the French Quarter (at high tide thanks to unexpected showers), Cafe Du Monde, and Hard Rock Cafe on Bourbon Street. Mix the activities with a few episodes of Friends and late night meaningful conversations, and I had a thoroughly wonderful time with the cousins I hadn't seen in years! Mimi and Didi arrived on Tuesday morning ...