And I can peel them all in one piece.

I've spent the last couple of days slowly emerging from a turkey, stuffing, root vegetable, pie (thanks, Aunt Eileen!) and chocolate meringue cake (thanks, Brittnye!) haze...wondering what month it is and what exactly I do for a living. Thankfully, this weekend represented the commencement of one of my favorite times of year, where we're surrounded by little colorful things that give us great joy.

Clementine season!!

We have absolutely no food in the house (I just ate the last of our leftover couscous with questionable broccoli), but no matter! I could subsist entirely on these little glowing orbs of sweet deliciousness...my mother gave me a large bag of Clementines yesterday and I skipped home in delight. No need for groceries, I'm covered until I decide to buy an entire crate of my own.

I hope everyone's holiday was lovely!

All I've got at the moment.

Here I am again.

And here are some funny things that I found out through Brendan's blog. It may seem lazy or lame for me to have a post that rips entirely off of a friend's postings, but he's seriously been entertaining me lately.

First of all, I really like these comics.

The guy who writes them is a friend of my sister's ex-boyfriend, but oddly enough, also happens to be the ex-boyfriend of a friend of a completely unrelated friend also. Most of them are just normal, clever, and interestingly-drawn comics, but my favorite is when, instead of writing the story and having the artist illustrate it, he makes up stories for her pictures:



See the rest here.

Also, Brendan himself made a brilliant short film that should resonate with anyone who has ever tried to decipher Ikea's non-verbal instructions...



Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if this new "Blogger Beta" dealie is all that it claims to be.

Estaba el senor Don Gato...

I'm actually sitting right next to the bowl of Halloween candy I've reserved for trick-or-treaters, and eating straight out of it. Awesome.

Halloween pretty much happened over the weekend for us, as it did for many people. Despite my ass-kicking cold, we had a great time. Brian and I had some trouble thinking of costume ideas, so we ended up going with our original concept of Kevin Federline and pregnant, brunette Britney Spears. It turned out great, if I do say so myself. Brian managed to look like a total trashball complete with tight wife beater, blazer, chin scruff, and pinstriped fedora, while I somehow became unrecognizable using only a long brown wig and small pillow. Random people guessed our costume, and familiar people didn't recognize me, which I say fits the criteria for sweet Halloween getups.

Finally, the "real" photo:


This week I'm more immersed in the Day of the Dead. I've been working on an arts residency with several other artists in a local elementary school for the month of October, centered around Dia de los Muertos. It's so fun, and because of it I am now the proud owner of a dancing skeleton puppet and various other crafts, several sugar skulls, picture books, and I can sing an entire ballad about cats, cemeteries, and skeletons in Spanish, with accompanying gestures. Next time I see you, remind me. I'll give you your own performance.

I'm not dead yet!

Okay, alright, okay. I took a little break from blogging because I was busy enough that I didn't have time, nor did I really know what to post about. And now I'm back. Interestingly, the couple of weeks that I didn't post were a period during which I was constantly looking forward to a different time. And I think that I felt, somehow, that if I wrote about them they would not change as quickly. Strange, I know.

I spent a large part of those two weeks as a substitute teacher. Shudder. As much as I know that there are plenty of competent, interesting people who work as substitutes, every time I hear the words "substitute teacher" I still think of the weirdest, most awkward, least qualified individuals ever, and as a result I don't really respect subs. So I didn't like to think of myself as one. The circumstances around my short stint as a substitute were very specific, however. In August I interviewed for a possible job as a theatre teacher in an elementary school. It was complicated, however, because although I have a degree in Educational Theatre, I do not currently hold a teaching certificate. So the principal told me to get my transcripts evaluated and look into certification programs, and in the meantime to acquire a substitute teaching certificate, since he might be able to have me teach theatre as a sub in the meantime. So I did all that. And once I got my sub card, he said "I don't have all the theatre details worked out yet, but I really need a sub in this one classroom for awhile." Turns out their teacher had randomly retired, they didn't have a new teacher, and I was really starting to need the money. Yarrr.

So I did it. And on the first day, I found out that it was a class of 7th and 8th grade special ed, which in this case meant an awful-sounding, puzzling category known as "trainable mentally handicapped." There were only 13 of them, but it was the widest range of abilities and special needs ever. Two were non-verbal, two could read and multiply, and everyone else was at a different place in between. It was a wild two weeks, but I have to say, quite entertaining. This was a very funny group of kids. There was none of the usual maliciousness and self-hatred that you might find in a typical group of 12- and 13-year-olds, and a healthy dose of crushes and sexual urges. Classroom management was not difficult (thank god), though enforcing the "no touching each other" rule was not so easy. Also, there was no "curriculum" to follow, nor textbooks, so every day was sort of up to me. Some funny shit happened. Burps and farts were totally commonplace, hilarious to all but not grounds for ostracizing anyone. I had glue puddles on desks, some pretty major odor-control issues, and a kid who cut a one-foot-wide hole in the crotch of his sweatpants one day. And not everything went wrong-- I had some of the most successful impromptu dramatic storytelling sessions I've ever done in that class, and we did some wicked collages and M&M math lessons.

Aaaaanyway, so that's over now. It wasn't a horrible couple of weeks, but the principal ultimately dragged his feet for a long time, and in the meantime I got another job. So there! Now in addition to my high school theatre stuff, I'll be working on a grant project with the Chicago Teachers Center, helping to enhance early reading initiatives by modeling and training staff in ways to integrate the arts into their curricula. Fun! The people are great and I like the work already.

In other fun news, Brian and I went to Traverse City over the weekend to visit my dear friends Andy and Lizzie, who both should have blogs but don't. We had such a good time, hiking on sand dunes, admiring pretty leaves, seeing movies, and eating, eating, eating. Best. Hot. Apple. Cider. Ever. It was so nice, in the midst of all this, to get out of town and relax and have a good time. I've never been so happy to not get phone calls!

Now I have to go...valuable Halloween costume planning time is being wasted!

Time to take a stroll.

This week I began teaching a theatre apprenticeship for students of a specific high school. It's done through Freestreet, a well-established youth theatre company, and After School Matters, a city organization that pays students to learn and create in the arts. It's a pretty sweet deal, because since they're paid, we got to interview kids in order to "select" those that will participate in our apprenticeship. (Never mind that we let in everyone who interviewed...the fact that many of them made it to an interview outside of their high school on a half day of school was enough of a demonstration of committment for us.) And we've gathered a pretty great group. I haven't worked with high school kids in a while, and it's very refreshing to teach a group that you can actually reason with, and who I don't have to trick into doing every single thing. Who knows what they will eventually do--the idea is for them to learn many aspects of performance and writing and then devise their own play--but in three days they've already become so comfortable with one another and in being creative and (somewhat) uninhibited for three hour stretches. And they seem to like it! And they're pretty decent writers! So, while working until after 7pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is not the most ideal situation timewise, I do look forward to it each time.

Also this week, I went to New York for 24 hours to help my sister move. My mom was there too, and we made a lot of progress in a couple of days. Annie, of course, found a lovely apartment on the most beautiful block in Brooklyn Heights. And in a matter of days. It has tons of character, a sweet lofted bedroom and massive high ceilings. It was sort of a last-minute move, and it was imperative that she get the majority done before Thursday, because that is when she left to GO TO PARIS FOR FASHION WEEK. Yes. Mais oui. To clarify: she is a nanny for a family in Manhattan, and the mother owns a designer boutique in Soho, a job which necesitates trips to fashion shows and meetings to scout potential buys for the next season. This mother also just had another baby two months ago and he's too young to leave at home, so Annie gets to accompany mom and baby, strolling with the little guy through the streets of Paris until the designated times when they meet mom for feedings. They also stay in an exquisite hotel and fly first class, and at the end of it all she gets paid for her "work."

Speaking of jobs, I still definitely don't have another one! Teaching theatre after school is definitely not going to cut it. And it's very stressful. Today is an absolutely gorgeous Saturday, and I'm sitting at home worrying about credit card bills and loan payments. How messed up is that? I have get out of the house!

Oh, and another thing to distract me from my woes: I'm reading Interpreter of Maladies, the new One Book, One Chicago pick, by Jhumpa Lahiri. It's really good so far! And I feel such civic pride!

Don't put me in a box, man.

Unless of course, it is because I am smaller and can fit in the box in order to more efficiently screw in the runners for the drawers that will eventually be in this box, which is not actually a box, but the beginnings of a lovely new buffet/sideboard thing for the dining room!

Me in my jammies with screwdriver

Putting this thing together was not so encouraging, since all Ikea pieces tend to reveal their utter flimsiness as soon as you get them out of the conveniently flat-packed box. I looked skeptically at the wavy, paper-like piece of particle board (which actually featured a piece of duct tapeholding it together) that was supposedly to become the back of this piece. But Brian and I set to work, and got it together in record time. And I love it! It's exactly what we needed in that space. Now we can mingle with guests over artfully arranged platters of cheese and crackers. And most importantly, we don't have to throw the mail on the floor.

More pictures of little apartment details to follow, as soon as I borrow Mom and Dad's camera again...

That's right.

So we're just trucking along...Brian's had class all of this week and last, but it's finally over as of today. Tonight we celebrated the end of it, giving ourselves heartburn and delirium with Bite's delicious Thai green curry and chocolate cream pie. Ouch. Hopefully this weekend we'll be very nearly done with the additions needed in the apartment, like a kitchen table and living room chairs. It's looking good though. In the meantime, I've also become completely addicted to thrift stores. I've always liked them, and in high school went all the time for clothes, but nowadays I'm finding myself seeking that treasure hunt all the time. You know the one; the feeling that the perfect armchair or dinette set is always just around the corner. And along the way I've also discovered a previously untapped desire for funky painted plates, weird coat hooks, and colored glass vases. Who knew?

In other items, I like this article in Dwell magazine about Chicago. Maybe it's because it's an interview with a Chicago architect, but journalistic pieces about the city rarely mention such specific, cool things. Also, he talks about scullers rowing in the Lincoln Park Lagoon at dawn-- holla, Dad!

Ow.

Let me first preface this post with the assertion that the vast majority of my move-in process has been great fun, and not at all painful. Brian is back, and we've had a hilarious time moving our crap in and finding furniture and other cool things. We've broken down and disposed of most of the boxess, started sanding the kitchen table and hanging artwork today, and our office is the coziest. I wish I didn't have to ever find a job, so I could spend my days arranging things.

However, there are a few things about moving in that I could live without. One is the absurd amount of stupid stuff that refuses to budge from the living room. Another is the fact that every time I run an errand to a store to get all the "things we need," I inevitably forget several important items. And finally, there are the injuries. It's kind of unbelievable how many times I've yelled "ARRRRGGGGHH!!" during the last week. Here are a few examples:

1. Awhile ago, I (think I) broke my pinky toe, and it pretty much healed. Not much you can do to speed that process. But I banged into Brian's foot and broke it again. Then, the very next day, I ran over that same toe with the shopping cart at Target.

2. I kicked a drill while wearing flip-flops. That was just dumb.

3. Moving the couch up the three flights of stairs was the hardest thing ever. That whole fiaso resulted in bruises on my shoulder from banging it into the hallway wall, an ouchie foot from momentarily setting the couch down on it, and a scraped ankle from kicking the corner of a wall while shimmying the damn thing in the door. But the couch was such a great find that it was worth it.

4. Brian and I decided to use a sander in the kitchen, which was not a good idea and which caused sawdust to gently float in the air and settle on top of everything, and also to clog our lungs and invade our eyes. Awesome.

But, in the end, there is very little visible evidence of my injuries, and very much visible evidence of a happy apartment. So I think it's worth it.

Something so special about that phase...

My life is in flux! Transition! Upheaval! It's one of those times where I think about certain things all the freaking time, and then other, more important things, just slip my mind. Like what day it is. Or to stay at home to let the painter in at 3:30. Or to call that potential employer back.

Here are some things that make my mind go all wacky:

- I don't have a job. Although I have several possible options simmering, those options are all very uncertain and hard to imagine, and I sort of wish I could do all of them at once (although it's unclear whether I will get any of them).

- I have no furniture at all in my apartment except for a table and chairs (which are, admittedly, quite cool).

- I am really sick of the look of my blog, and I just want it to be pretty, and I don't understand CSS.

- I miss my sister and Susie and Abbey.

- I have not seen my boyfriend in six weeks.

Here are some exciting things!

- I very well might get a really cool job soon, and in the meantime it's also pretty fun to not have to go to work or generally do anything.

- I got a haircut that I really like. One of those that make me go "hee!" (And also part of that whole "my life changes, hence my look changes" thing.)

- Even if I can't redesign it, at least I have more time to post on my blog. Which is the important part.

- My parents have been so wonderful and hilarious.

- Our new apartment is so cute and bright and airy, and I can't wait to fill it with awesomeness.

- Brian gets home in less than two days!!

Strangely, when I'm feeling at my nuttiest, things are also so easily definable somehow. Clearly Brian will be back, I will find some furniture, some job. In the meantime, there's something comforting about being able to chalk up every forgetful blunder, emotional reaction, or skin breakout to everything that's "on my mind." Sweet.

How did they do that?

I love Ok Go already, but this made me love them so much more.



Thanks, Brendan and Annie!

I have an assignment to finish...

...and yet, Abbey got a new MacBook with a built-in camera and effects. Which would you choose?

Seriously, I am thisclose to being completely done with everything related to grad school, and I am fascinated by nothing but how utterly creepy I can make myself look.

There was another one, but Brian said it made me look like The Predator, so I refrained.

And I even scored bootleg Baile Funk CDs.

Well, Senhor Boal made very sure that we had plenty of extra things to do before and after his daily workshops, so updating has been a little tough. I'm still in Rio, the program ended Sunday (Woohoo! Done with grad school!), and I'm now in a charming little hostel with free internet and free time.

I have very few plans for these last few days. I've been hanging with friends of mine from the program that stayed also, and we've been stumbling upon some pretty great ways to spend time. Yesterday we took the bomde (streetcar) up to Santa Teresa, a gorgeous old neighborhood high in the hills. The bomde itself was an experience in and of itself, because it's so much more than just a streetcar. It was part charming San Francisco open-sided, wooden-benched, "ding-ding" streetcar, and part amusement park scary rollercoaster ride, complete with sudden stops, dizzying heights, and frequent losses of electricity. It starts in the business district and immediately travels across the Lapa Arches, which are extremely high above the street and no wider than the car itself. It was hilarious. Here's a very tame picture of it:



...it's so much freakier and more fun at night.

Anyway, today was unexpectedly great as well. A friend of mine from the program has a Brazilian friend who has begun an NGO in one of the favelas (slums) here, and he took us with him to visit a famous NGO/community arts organization called AfroReggae in another favela. It's the organization that the movie "Favela Rising" is based on. We got to see their facilities and watch young kids singing orignial samba compositions and doing Afro-Brazilian dance, all in these crazy centers whose walls are covered in the most beautiful grafitti art, in the middle of the favela. Apparently AfroReggae--which started as a music group and branched out to arts education--has made unbelievable progress in bridging the divides between rival factions in the favelas and reduced what was basically a war zone to an almost violence-free area, giving youth alternatives to gang and drug activity, which is pretty much the only other option in favelas. I kind of couldn't believe that I had somehow ended up there today, it was like we were still in our class doing a site visit or something, but I was just having a day hanging out in Rio.

Rio-diculous!

....Aaand, Brazil. I have arrived for the final leg of my ridiculous summer journey, and it's going rather well, not that I ever doubted it would. I arrived here on Sunday morning without issues, and since then I've been balancing some really stimulating workshops with a fair amount of relaxing beach time.

The reason I'm here is to do a course with Augusto Boal, a pioneer in the educational theatre field. Just a little background in case you aren't someone like the good Dr. Science who knows this already, and I'm sorry if it's a bit too verbose...Boal developed a methodology called Theatre of the Oppressed, in which a group of people examine their specific ideas of oppression and dialogue about ways to break the oppression through the language of theatre. In this form of theatre, spectators become spect-actors by offering alternative solutions to breaking the oppression, and actually trying out their ideas onstage. The entire thing becomes what he calls a "rehearsal for change." There are many, many facets to his practice, which includes a massive body of games and image work, but that is the absolute most basic gist of it. This week we are learning about his techniques called the Rainbow of Desire, which attempts to explore people's more internalized oppressions (or "cops in the head") and ways in which they and others would deal with them. It's all quite fascinating, as is the opportunity to work in Rio's Theatre of the Oppressed Center. I've found Boal to be quite accessible, as well as committed to challenging us and engaging in constant dialogue.

He's also the cutest ever. He's in his seventies now, and he's this spritely man who wears flowered shirts and jeans and grandpa Reeboks. He has always been known for his huge mass of curly gray hair, but now he seems to have cut it in some sort of longish layered dealie (the "Rachel"?), which is even better. He is as articulate as his books, and full of stories. He also has an amazingly trained staff of "Jokers," or facilitators of this kind of work. So it's going well.

As for Rio, it's incredible. I don't know if it's the beach, the mountains coming straight out of the water, the music, the people on the beach and running by the water, or any other of a million things that have stood out to me, but I'm loving it here. I need to come back for a longer time very soon. And I NEED to learn Portuguese, because even though a mix of English, Spanish, and mutilated Portuguese words has served me fine, I hate how mute I feel here, and how pretty the language is when people who actually know it speak it. I have to say though, I'm getting a lot more today than I did yesterday.

So yeah, that's me. I'm here until the 24th, and I have several days to explore after the program ends. More later!

Dublin, Week 3 (and 1 and 2...)

Okay, so I am still in Dublin, and the program is, unbelievably, coming to an end. It's been both the quickest and most packed 3 weeks of my life, which made blog posting difficult, besides the fact that my internet access was always about a 3-block walk away. When you have time for the 3-block walk only at midnight and the choice is between blogging and talking to Brian or sleeping, I think the decision is obvious. But I feel like I need to just do a general overview of what I've been up to, even if it's a bit longer than I might like.

My time here is also really hard to synthesize. We've been staying on the campus at Trinity College, in the building where Oscar Wilde lived when he studied here, and we get to work in the Samuel Beckett theatre. Trinity is the most beautiful place, it's this 400-year-old walled campus, full of cobblestones and right in the middle of the city.

I think I've interrogated theory and looked at my own practice during these 3 weeks more than I have throughout my entire master's program. The whole program is focused on community-engaged theatre...and there's no one definition of that. Much of the first week we got to see many different examples of community-engaged theatre in Ireland, meeting tons of people and seeing their programs. We saw shows in Dublin, got to see kids perform at their famous children's theatre (The Ark), traveled outside the city to Dalkey and Dun Laoghaire where we got to meet people who run Heritage Centres, and spoke with artists who draw the most amazing stories out of people and then, somehow, have them render those stories artistically. And at the end of it all, we made up wee performances with the help of the Upstate Theatre Company at the top of a mountain in Cooley.

We've worked with the most amazing tutors. We created our own educational workshop projects around specific plays, learned about facilitation skills, and began devising original performance pieces around a number of themes. In the middle of it all, we spent an entire weekend in Belfast, which was a really intense experience. We worked mainly with the Educational Shakespeare Company, which showed us an unbelievable amount of work. We were able to visit a prison and have a workshop during which a group of incarcerated men did a reading of their original adaptation of Macbeth. We were able to see work with homeless youth and kids, and beyond the ESC, we were able to look at how people just go about doing theatre in that city. As for Belfast, we were given a pretty complex picture of the place, and saw how the community is still very much divided, and how it has worked to heal itself in many ways. It wasn't easy to see-- to not understand the context and to try to piece together what you think, while being plopped in the middle of where the Loyalist/Republican conflict happened. There were times when I didn't understand the work and when I really connected with it, and still other times when I felt I was a spectacle in the middle of it. It's hard also to feel like you're being barraged with the conflicts and sub-conflicts of the place, and to try in the midst of that to observe how the city itself is really very vibrant, and for the most part people are still going about their lives.

Aaaaaanyway...and then this week we came back and everyone worked their asses off to devise original performance pieces, which came out beautifully. My group used the campus of Trinity College as inspiration for a site-specific piece, which involved text and movement and singing and traveling audiences. It was the best! I can't describe it, and I don't have pictures of it yet to post (because of the whole can't take pictures of yourself while performing thing), but I will as soon as I get them.

So I'm almost done, and right now I have to finish my final papers and all that. I really wish I could have had a witty, pithy way to sum up my experience that would make everyone laugh. If I had had wireless internet in my room, it might have worked. But there's always Brazil...

P.S. I am trying to insert a bunch of pictures and I've even uploaded them, but for some reason this persnickety Irish computer won't let me insert them into the post right now. I'm working on it.

Just wanted to say that I'm alive...

...and extremely intellectually and artistically stimulated, and very, very, busy. Dublin is amazing. I promise I'll write more later!

So, apparently I'm still in school

I'm such a deadbeat. No, I'm not still in Amsterdam. Annie and I made it home and I even got to stop in Queens just long enough to say hi to Susie, Zack, and Graham, and to hear all of Astoria erupt at the ending of the World Cup final game. Since then I've had a wonderful two weeks at home, during which Brian and I found a sweet apartment (September 1st, get ready for cuteness), and even celebrated at my lovely friend Kelly's wedding in Savannah! We kind of couldn't believe how hot and humid it was down there, but nevertheless we had a great time.

Dare I say it...I'm packing for my other ginormous trip right now. I'm off to finish my grad program on a study abroad trip in Ireland, after which I'll just zip over to Brazil for week for another course. After that I'll be decorating my new apartment and hyperventilating daily about my lack of employment and my plethora of loan payments. For the time being, however, I'm psyched!! I can't wrap my mind around the idea that I'm leaving for a little over a month. I've had a little trouble deciding what to bring...



...so I'll probably overpack just a tiny bit. Updates to follow, for realz this time.

Euro trip?

Aaaand...I'm not home yet. Annie and I are stranded in Amsterdam for a night. We don't even know how it happened, just suddenly we were in the airport in Amsterdam and some expressionless lady from the airline was telling us that we wouldn't make our connecting flight because our first flight was delayed, and the next thing we knew, we were given "overnight kits" and shuttled to a hotel. A couple hours later our bellies are full and we are the proud owners of wooden shoe keychains. Both of those things helped immensely, since before that we were pretty much a wreck.

So that sucks. The only good thing about all of this is that we were bumped to business class. So much for my funny return post filled with pictures. All I'll say is that my birthday celebration with my cousins on the boat involved some very, very hilarious (and well-documented) karaoke. Now I have to make some phone calls.

Nouveau message.

Bonjour!

Okay. I know that I made this big deal about this being a travel blog and all, but here are three legitimate reasons why I haven't posted yet:
1. Internet service on the cruise is 50 cents a minute. Highway robbery!
2. We have had almost no free time when on shore.
3. I have been sick with some fierce, um...G.I. issues.

But now I'm in France for the first time, which is quite exciting! My parents and sister and I had the most amazing lunch in a teeny bistro in Nice. And tomorrow I finally get to see Aix-en-Provence, which Brian has been raving about. Before this we went to the Amalfi coast, Rome, and Florence. It's lovely to see family that I don't often see, and to go to so many cool places. However, cruise travel is also very strange to me. If I had to attach a general theme to it, I would probably pick "Buffet." That applies, most directly, to the food situation. What's up with the constant food? I mean CONSTANT. The only reason I haven't gained 10 pounds on this trip is because I literally have been too sick to eat. But the travel part is also a buffet of sorts too, since you just get a little of everything. I find it a little stressful to have to spend such a short amount of time in one place each day, but whatever. I'm certainly not complaining. The positive side of a buffet is that there's something for everyone. And it is kind of amazing that my 6-year-old cousin is just as occupied and entertained as my 83-year-old grandmother. And my whole, 26-person family on this trip is highly, highly funny.

Barcelona was absolutely stunning, we spent about four days there at the beginning, just Annie and I with Bridget. We saw tons of stuff, and had the perfect mix of seeing significant things like museums and architecture, and doing relaxing walking around and having sangria on the beach. I need to go back there.

Alright, family is gettintg antsy, as usual. Time to find un cafe, I believe. More later, and pictures when I get back, for sure!

Afloat.

So a year ago (or maybe more) I updated my blogger profile, and in the "About me" section, I wrote "Packing and unpacking." Funny how that's still totally true. And with that...

Welcome to my TravelBlog!

It's just becoming a travel blog by default, since I will be blogging while traveling for the next few months. I just spent a lovely week at home in the Chi, spending QT with Brian, running around getting ready for my trip, seeing my parents. And now it's far too early in the day and I'm in my sister's apartment in Brooklyn. You see, tonight she and I leave for Barcelona for a few days before our entire family gets there and we all go on a cruise. I've never been on a cruise before, let alone Conway Family Boat Extravaganza '06; I'll let you know how it goes. Anyway, right now Brendan and I are sitting across from each other on matching Powerbooks, having coffee and tooling around on the internet before we both go get Mystic Tans. That's right, yo.

So yeah, Barcelona here we come! I'm definitely excited for that, I've never been there. More when we get there, I promise. I've been berated enough for my blogging laziness. This is it, folks.

Crap, I forgot to download that Catalan podcast so I can brush up...

Crap.

Leaving is hard.

More on that later.