My cousin is getting married today! This wouldn't be so startling if a) we hadn't been uber close growing up, b) she wasn't just 7 months (and 3 days..) older than me, or c) it wasn't 5:30am and I could actually sleep. Yeah, but little ClaraBell is getting married to Sean today at the Brantwyn estate in Delaware. At the moment, I couldn't sleep (could have had something to do with my mom's jack-hammer snoring) and for some reason could only think about blogging, so I've set myself down in the main house library and am typing away. Festivities started on [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well I promised myself that I’d finish up part 2 of Claire’s wedding, so here I am sitting on the plane back to Dallas writing on the laptop and listening to M.I.A. Pre-wedding beautification Let’s see, where to start. Basically the day started off with a major craving on my part for an authentic Philly pretzel from Wawa. So I convinced my mom to accompany me over to the Parkway shopping strip and purchased 3 soft, dense, and chewy pretzels and some also much needed coffee. After pounding down the caffeine and 1 ½ pretzels, I decided to get “ready&rdq [View Full Entry]

---

---

ACL 2007! Oh what a weekend. First to clarify: Austin City Limits = 3-day outdoor music festival and NOT PBS show concert. Yes, the two are related, but in this case, that's not what we talking about. After having just a taste of ACL in 2005 with Katie and Lauren on the concert's hottest day in history (high of 108 degrees... yes it was miserable), Lauren and I returned for more. This time we upped the ante and stayed for all 3 days and I parlayed my hotel points into a posh residency at the Sheraton. Also in tow was the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Best of list from our trip to Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina... Getting pulled over by the Bosnian police four times in 36 hours...and then getting hit on by the not-even young police officers 3 of those 4 times Sleeping in the car in Dubrovnik after staying out until 4:30am Emily's head scarf that made her look alternately like Yassar Arafat and a cancer-patient/movie-star "Molly's" (aka non-croatian speaking Vecky's alter ego) rather suspiciously excellent knowledge of Croatian geography... New invention inspired by Croatia's rocky beaches and their unca [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey so we're in Bosnia. No time to write so here are the highlights: Parasailing at the beach in Opatija Croatia Dancing to folk music at huge end of school university party in Lovran Swimming in the Adriatic (and watching Vecky swimming in her jeans) Not sleeping from the flight from Dallas to London on Saturday morning until 7pm on Sunday night Biking around Briuni island and feeding Koki the parakeet pieces of bread. who, by the way, spoke more Croatian than I do. Hiking around Plitvice Lakes Having a bread, cheese, salami, and paprika pringl [View Full Entry]

---

---

Aren't night markets the best? I'm completely in love with them. I love the bargaining, the wandering through crowded stands, and buying things for the house I don't have yet. I picked up all my presents for everyone in the night market. My favorite is a big green hammock that I bought for just 65 reais ($30 bucks). I want to put it up in my apartment and fall asleep all wrapped up in it, swinging gently in the breeze so badly. But it won't fit. Maybe I can just wrap it around me and stand on my balcony. Ha. [View Full Entry]

---

---

So today was our sight-seeing extravaganza in Rio. We woke up surprisingly fairly early given our lingering sleep deprevation. We had a great breakfast (free!) at the hotel-- which was like cold cuts, breads, eggs, sausages, fruit fruit fruit and some pastries. I was super happy. And we talked. And went up and down from the hotel room about 5 times. Which! by the way, is number 901! Which is my grandparents' street address! Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but for some reason the number just brings up great childhood memories. So there. After breakfast we decided (wisely) to follow [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bom dia from Rio! Angeliki, Ignacio and I arrived yesterday in Rio de Janeiro from Salvador. Ignacio and I were on the same flight, and Angeliki was on another one hour later. So we were supposed to meet her at baggage claim. Which shouldn't have been a problem. I grabbed some food, he grabbed a smoothie, we talked and walked leisurely back to the baggage claim. Except we didnt' see her flight there. And then we couldn't agree on what time it actually was. He said 10:50, I said 12:10 (which happened to be what the huge clock in the terminal [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I had my first hangliding experience. And it was pretty much right up there with skydiving. I got picked up at my hotel around 10am and then headed out to the site which is about 15 mintues away, by another beach. We stop the car at a small office. I meet my pilot who's tanned, smiling, and running around trying to organize things. He's one of those people you like right away. I filled out the necessay 'don't sue us if you die' forms and then the pilot showed me the launch site. From down below, by the beach, you [View Full Entry]

---

---

So... after incredible hangliding experience, I had a horrible time trying to get in touch with Ignacio and Angeliki. They'd already headed to Ipanema beach, about a 15 minute walk from our hotel and I was supposed to contact them via Igancio's cell phone. Except for some reason the operator at the hotel couldn't figure out how to make a collect call. Granted, it was a collect call, from an American in Brazil to a Spanish cell phone, but really. So I started getting frustrated-- mainly because my day had been so perfect previously. Since I'm not getting anywhere with the [View Full Entry]

---

---