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Speed Pixie
University is finished! Free from the gilded cage..
I tried live-blogging, it didn't really work, this is blogging in retrospect.
Travel Blog Posts
May 31st 2010
Hi everyone! So I've just started another semester of classes, but before those began this week, last weekend, a bunch of girls and I jumped into 2 cars and went on a road trip to an Aussie friend's family home where she was having a huge bash for her 21st birthday! We drove 600km south and inland to this town called Moree where the primary industry is cattle farming. Taking the scenic route we went through a bunch of different kinds of terrain from lush foresty stuff near the coast, up through mountains with giant ferns (looked like ferngully) and hairpin turns, through eucalyptus forests that is koala habitat and then through farmland and flatland with scraggly trees dotting the landscape that is kangaroo habitat. Then we broke through another forested mountain range before driving a ... read more
June 10th 2008
Since I'm blogging backwards and in retrospect - after looking at the emails I sent home to family and friends, I saw that they capture the immediate essence of what this trip and others were like for me. Here are the letters (because letters is a more romantic word than emails) : May 8 2008 hey, im in san jose right now with frederique at the hostel, everything is fine, my flight was fine, we are about to go check out the city a little bit and are heading to the coast tomorrow morning. i am safe, will be safe, and send you an email sometime later with some more info, love you, bye, and mom happy mothers day exclamation mark May 12 2008 Happy Mother's day! make sure you tell teta i say happy mother's ... read more
February 10th 2008
January 1 2008 - Where r u? hey! i've only just gotten internet on my laptop ok.. it's been a whirlwind ride til right now.. well still until a couple of days and i'm settled in. hope you guys had a good night!! happy new year! p.s. i hope it was a lychee martini krystal p.s. i've already emailed big sister but if you let mom/dad know im ok that would be fine too January 1 2008 - hi mom! hi mom!! ok so i've already emailed sister and brother, and i've arrived in korea, yesterday now, but i'm fine, everything's fine, i'm eating well.. the food's ok. they've actually moved a bunch of us to seoul so we're leaving tomorrow. we're just going to another campus. it's been a lot of training, and the canadian ... read more
May 18th 2007
I can't leave Emilia Romagna without talking about edible life. Nevermind the sights, what you eat is the most important thing, and of course, those who share in your meal or had a hand in its creation are revered. People aren't joking when they say they left Italy ten pounds heavier; they are dead serious, but I'll bet they leave satisfied and content. Once at home, they must have visions of dream banquets that just don't manifest quite like they did in Italy. According to my father, his sister - my zia pia is simply the best cook, like his mother, and it's true! Breakfast was a light affair, little cakes with tea, perhaps an espresso. Lunch was delicious, sometimes pasta con ragu (which is a buttery, creamy, tomato and meat sauce) with salad and ... read more
May 17th 2007
On the side of the Autostrada near Reggio Emilia, there stands an effigy of a ferrari and a sign advertising the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy, the birthplace of Ferrari. It was something I had to see and how could my father possibly refuse, they have a place in his heart as well, so we set off to find it one afternoon. It was just him and I this time and we managed to get really really lost. We ended up taking backcountry roads and kept missing Maranello somehow, which means when we finally reached Maranello and saw the first prancing horse, it was already 5pm. Tensions were running high, as we were both frustrated and worried, my father about getting lost again on the way home, and myself about it being too late to go ... read more
May 15th 2007
"Hello is Mrs Bent..ivg..olio.. there?" People mess up my last name allllll the time. In fact, if you don't, I am immediately impressed and automatically like you. Italy knows me! Italy is the ancestral home of the Bentivoglio family. I've always been brought up to be very proud of the name and the history of the family. The fact that the lineage can be traced back to the time of the Renaissance has always made me proud and I could often be heard saying "we're in the dictionary!" in my snotty little voice as a kid. The family crest was subtly displayed above the mantle for years and I was more than excited to finally see some concrete evidence with my own eyes, both by checking out Bologna - their old-times seat of power, and the ... read more
May 12th 2007
Finally, Italy! I've been waiting 22 years for this! After getting to Italy and a half day’s forced rest, I was restless to explore beyond the suburb in which my aunt and uncle live. My uncle, suggested the ruins of a castle called Mathilda de Canossa on a nearby (still a lengthy drive away) cliff-top, which we could quickly visit and then be home for dinner (dinner is very VERY important. I’m happy we kept to this rule). So we drove the rental car, a silver fiat punto, in a straight line on the autostrada. Then we began to weave through the hilly Italian countryside. Then we began to drive up a hill of a pretty significant height. Winding roads.. ah yes, car sickness, I’ve found you again! Needless to say, I got to ride ... read more
May 9th 2007
-more like it destroyed us. Now where was I? The four of us parted ways as Steve, Sas and I planned our Greek Island adventures, with Steve heading towards the Cyclades in the Aegean and Sas and myself heading for Corfu in the Pleiades which was on the way to Italy. Our decision saved me from a night camping on the beach near the port in Athens, but as far as I know, Steve still did it on his own. We packed up, ate a tasty spaghetti dinner which Seb cooked up, picked up our giant backpacks and headed towards the Athens metro - without any Greek translators this time. We had to make our way to the Hostel Aphrodite to meet the Pink Palace Express bus which would bring us across the country and directly ... read more
May 5th 2007
Hey everyone! I arrived in Athens on May 3rd 2007, Sas, Seb and Steve picked me up at the airport where I was ever so hopeful they would remember to come pick me up. They did! It was so great to see them, and have them carry my luggage as well as I was exhausted from the 7hr flight across the ocean, then my morning (1am-5am) sitting at Schipol Amsterdam Airport, and the next 3 hrs on the plane to Athens. Drinking? No thank you. Feeling a little knackered? yesssssssss!!! We went on the train, got threatened with a little fine by the train conductor because the boys like taking risks and chose to not buy tickets for their way back to Athens. They sweet-talked their way out of the fine, and were let off entirely ... read more
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