My train from Sorrento to Bari was three hours late, so Joe and I ended up missing our boat to Patras and staying in town for a night. This would have been fine if there was ANYTHING to do in that town. As it was, McDonalds was the most exciting thing we could find. After reading Chuck Klosterman’s article on Chicken McNuggets, however, this wasn’t such a bad thing. The best part about being stuck in Bari was that it forced us to take the boat the following day, allowing me to run into Jennifer Dupont while boarding. It was such a crazy coincidence, but really ended up making the whole ride easy and enjoyable. We shared pictures, talked about Friendswood, and snuck into areas of the boat that we weren’t supposed to in order to get a better look at the stars. Before we knew it the entire 15 1/2 hour ride was over, and we parted ways. Still, it was nice to see a friendly face from back home after two weeks on the run.

Greece was fun, but very low key. We spent the majority of the time sitting around, talking, or eating. While we did go to a beach one day, and climbed around the castle ruins another, we really didn’t do that much. I got burned pretty badly at the beach in Githio (pronounced Yee-thi-oh) because I foolishly thought I could cancel out my farmer’s tan by only putting suntan lotion on the area that was tan. It would have worked, but I decided to go exploring along the beach and ended up exposing my back to blistering sun for nearly two hours. To top it off, the coves I went to explore were disappointing, the rocks we had to walk on were excruciatingly painful, and I forgot to bring a camera to capture the whole event.

Now I’m back in Brussels, watching hours upon hours of the West Wing with Davide. I hung out with the Beardsleys (the family I lived with my senior year) the first night I was in town, which was wonderful. It’s bizarre to see how much the kids have all grown up; Edouard is now 6’3″!!!!!!! He has grown over ten inches in the past eighteen months! Last night we had a barbecue at my friend Sam’s house, and I was able to meet up with a bunch of kids from ISB that I hadn’t seen in years. Hopefully soon we’ll stop by the school, because I haven’t been back since graduation, and I don’t really have any pictures of the campus. I really wish I took pictures in high school as often as I have in college; I probably have less than 50 pictures from all four years. Anyway, most of my time here will be spent relaxing, so I don’t know if I’ll have another update before I return home.

Also, it’s actually really nice to go without a computer for weeks at a time. Whenever I log on to Facebook now, I always have a lot of messages, and it makes me feel better about myself. It has also forced me to read more often, which I have loved. I finished every book I brought with me, including The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Chuck Klosterman IV, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius for those of you who care. Plus, if you haven’t checked out the latest issue of Empire, it’s pretty incredible. They did thirty covers for the thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars (I got the Han Solo one, of course), and had a huge section on the thirty best characters. I’ll be in the UK before my flight, so I can try to find a special cover if anyone (i.e. Brandon) wants me too. They’re also cheaper when you buy them there…

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

	Drinking from the fountain in Rome.
	My mom and sister decided to start a huge argument at the busiest place in all of Rome. You can see my mom at the bottom, slightly left of the center in a red sleeveless shirt.
	This is Bologna from the top of the tallest tower. The church in the distance is San Luca, which we climbed ten minutes after arriving. We had to walk all the way across town, and then up the hill in order to get there!
	Saying goodbye to Lex in Bologna.
	They were shooting a commercial on Bellagio, and I got the leading lady to pose for me.
	Another lightning shot!
	Riomaggiore
	This is the couple from Texas that we met in Cinque Terre. They were awesome!
	Pisa, Italy.
	Typical tourist shot. Joe sucks at lining up his hands.
	I suck, but I’m still better than him.
	Napoleon’s residence in Elba. The bottom part was actually a decoy, and his house was the more modest home on top.
	Pompeii ruins.
	The church in Amalfi.
	Amalfi, again.
	St. Andrew, complete with a piece of bone from his chest!
	Our last dinner in Sorrento.
	Caserta Palace!
	This palace was ridiculously huge.
	We decided to walk the entire length of the gardens. They are extremely deceptive. What looked like a short walk turned into a two mile hike.
	The statue in Mystras.
	Hannah, Sarah and Taylor at the castle in Mystras.
	Action shot in front of my family’s church. My ancestors built this church, only to have it nationalized by Greece a few decades ago.
	The outline of the mountains from the balcony of the house. We think it looks like a) a pregnant woman lying on her back, or b) Thomas Jefferson. Discuss.
	The Parthenon.
	Damn we have good genes.
	Edouard is so huge!!!
	Claire and I in the entertainment room.

I am currently in Sorrento, which is amazing! Its by Naples, close to Pompeii (awesome) and the Amalfi coast (going tomorrow). So far we have seen the Cinque Terre, which was incredible. The hike between the five little towns was one of the highlights of the trip. We met a great couple from Texas, and ended up cooking dinner/sharing an apartment for one night. The first day had crappy weather, but it managed to clear up before we left. I also RANDOMLY met two kids from UT in a bar, one of whom is living TWO DOORS AWAY from me next year! How crazy is that??

We also went to Elba, which was beautiful, but had no public transportation. To make up for this we rented a little Vespa which I ended up crashing, costing me $170. It was a miserable experience. Dont ever drive Vespas. Thats the best lesson I can impart from my time in Europe. Seriously.

Today was Pompeii, which was really cool. I could have stayed there for ages, just wandering around the ruins. And thats all you get for now, because my time is out on this computer.

I leave for Greece in two days, so I might be able to update some pictures there…

Hello loyal reader,

The past two days have been spent with Alexia in grand old Bologna. Literally minutes after arriving (which required an hour long walk from the train station), we were whisked away to hike San Luca. San Luca is a church on top of a hill overlooking Bologna, easily three miles from Orfeo (Lex’s apartment). Once you reach the bottom of the hill, the climb to San Luca goes under 666 arches, and the whole trip is supposed to be an overcoming of sin. While little sin was washed away, it did provide a great opportunity for us to meet all of Lex’s Bologna friends. Two of the people were studying here last semester when I visited, so it was especially great to see them again!

Tomorrow Joseph and I are going to head to the beautiful lake resort of Bellagio, Italy. It looks like this:

Bellagio is evidently a fairly expensive, rich town, but the whole area looks absolutely gorgeous. Part of Star Wars Episode II was filmed at a Villa in town, so we plan on geeking out and visiting it if possible. Aside from that we will probably just wander the streets and enjoy the (hopefully) beautiful weather.

After Bellagio we will be spending a day in cinque Terre, which comes highly recommended from the Bologna crew. Then we will stop off in Pisa briefly before continuing on to Elba, the Tuscan island where Napoleon was exiled from 1814-1815. We will spend around three days in the area surrounding Naples, visiting parts of the Amalfi coast and Pompeii. Then we will hop on a boat to Greece on the 14th, and arrive in Mystras sometime on the 15th. None of these plans are set in stone, so there may be a random two day excursion in Sicily that no one planned.

I will try to post some more pictures the next time I have internet. Right now I am fortunate enough to have Lex’s computer, but starting tomorrow it may be a while before another update. But enough about me, how are you? Oh really? What’s that? You’re breaking up. Can you hear me now? You know what, just write on my Facebook wall. Okay, good.