I haven't posted in a while, but today, I offer you meta-blogging:

http://michaelyon.blogspot.com/

In case you were wondering where the title of my blog comes from, I thought I would explain it. When I was in seventh grade, I participated in the Duke Talent Identification Program. All the 7th graders in the South who scored above a certain level on the standardized tests that you take in 6th grade has the opportunity to take the SAT. If you ( Read more... )

Well, I'm back ( Read more... )

because I remembered that I can link to pictures here:


( Read more... )

...is not always a good thing. In addition to walking completely across Florence twice with my pack to find a hostel with a vacancy, I had an interesting time getting back to England on Thursday. The plane was late, which didn't really surprise or concern me until it was pointed out to me that the hostel I had a reservation at would be closed by ( Read more... )

I discovered this morning that I had lost a day somewhere between Sicily and Rome. I was trying to decide when to head up to Florence and I asked Dominique (the South African working the hostel I stayed at this time) what day it was. The 6th, she replied, after a significant pause. Ah ha! That means I have to fly out of Genova tomorrow night! ( Read more... )

Today I joined the ranks of Italians that non-Italians are constantly making fun of and standing in awe of at the same time. Yes, I'm talking about the Vespa riders. Granted, I'm not dodging around tour buses in Rome, but I had such a good time today zooming around Lipari on my little rented scooter. In addition to saving me a 2 kilometer walk ( Read more... )

For your information, you must reserve seats on overnight trains at least one day in advance. Not that this is a bad thing - especially if it means spending another day in Perugia. This time I spent half the day with a German guy that I met last night named Vincent. It was interesting to hear a German perspective on European political issues (as ( Read more... )

And I proved it conclusively yesterday by spending a couple hours talking to people from Spain in Italian. Well, that by itself doesn't prove anything except that I can talk for a long time, but they actually spoke back to me in Spanish and a little English and I could understand most everything. My multilingual pidgin is getting quite good these ( Read more... )

Three of my all time top 5 interests are travelling, meeting new people, and talking about philosophy/theology. As far as these interests are concerned, Perugia has been absolutely smashing (as the Brits might say). Aside from the inherent beauty of a medieval hill town overlooking the Umbrian countryside, there is a university for foreign ( Read more... )