(no subject)
we are home. home. something i definitely have been giving a lot of thought. i think this will be a great concept to continue to explore since my next piece hopes to explore homelessness. after 2 days of travel, we sit in our modest living room, brett on the couch reading the economist, me at the computer, kitties seemingly everywhere you look. our first day of travel was pretty intense: taxi to train station, bus to airport, plane to london, bus to different london airport, plane to amsterdam. in amsterdam, we had a 13 hour layover, which turned out to be great. they have a hotel in the airport, so we shacked up there for the night, wandered around the airport, ate some dinner, bought some books for the long flight the next day, watched some tv (amsterdam is great because a lot of their shows are subtitled, as opposed to most other countries where the shows in english are dubbed). we got a great night's sleep in what was by far the comfiest bed of the whole trip, and this morning, all we had to do was get up, get some breakfast and get on the plane. 13 hours and a final cab ride later, we were home.
biggest thing learned on the trip: disappointment and failure are not things to be avoided: more on that post-jet lag.
our last few days were spent in rome, including brett's 31st b-day on monday. this was a pretty good day despite the fact that i was still getting over being sick. we somehow managed to see the sistine chapel (which i will remember more for the guards shushing people and yelling "no photo" than anything else, but is nonetheless amazing and totally worth the crowds), the colloseum, the pantheon and trevi fountain without feeling overwhelmed. the crowds were actually way more chill than i was expecting, perhaps because it was verging on sept and the end of the biggest vacation month. we also had a nice dinner and found this great wine bar to have dessert in to celebrate his b-day and i dressed up and looked fabulous despite the red nose of someone whose gone thru way too much kleenex in the past 48 hrs. however, i was in bed by 10 and unfortunately went straight to sleep, not the ideal end to the b-day, but still, he did get to spend it in rome w/ the love of his life- i'd say he faired pretty well.
we have absolutely nothing that has to be done til tuesday when he starts work and i have my first staff meeting and will need to start planning classes, so it should be the perfect time to recover.
there is so much about this trip to reflect on and i'm sure my entries will be filled with that for awhile, but it's amazing how 2 days of travel, a 7 hr time change and a drastic transition of lifestyle can completely muddle your brain. it's definitely time to go pet my kitties again. i missed them!
biggest thing learned on the trip: disappointment and failure are not things to be avoided: more on that post-jet lag.
our last few days were spent in rome, including brett's 31st b-day on monday. this was a pretty good day despite the fact that i was still getting over being sick. we somehow managed to see the sistine chapel (which i will remember more for the guards shushing people and yelling "no photo" than anything else, but is nonetheless amazing and totally worth the crowds), the colloseum, the pantheon and trevi fountain without feeling overwhelmed. the crowds were actually way more chill than i was expecting, perhaps because it was verging on sept and the end of the biggest vacation month. we also had a nice dinner and found this great wine bar to have dessert in to celebrate his b-day and i dressed up and looked fabulous despite the red nose of someone whose gone thru way too much kleenex in the past 48 hrs. however, i was in bed by 10 and unfortunately went straight to sleep, not the ideal end to the b-day, but still, he did get to spend it in rome w/ the love of his life- i'd say he faired pretty well.
we have absolutely nothing that has to be done til tuesday when he starts work and i have my first staff meeting and will need to start planning classes, so it should be the perfect time to recover.
there is so much about this trip to reflect on and i'm sure my entries will be filled with that for awhile, but it's amazing how 2 days of travel, a 7 hr time change and a drastic transition of lifestyle can completely muddle your brain. it's definitely time to go pet my kitties again. i missed them!