Greece Lightning! Oh Greece Lightning!

When we landed in Athens, I wish I could say I wasn't disappointed.  There was so much history there but all I could see was exactly that, Athen's glorious past rendered in run down streets full of stray dogs and trash.  A 6 hour ferry boat later, I discovered paradise in the form of Santorini.  It was as though I was transported into an Ovid narrative. 

Breathtaking.

Postcards from Italy

Photos from trips to Rome, Venice and Florence in the Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2009.  Being an Art History student in Italy is like being a kid in a candystore....  The food wasn't too shabby either. 

Nice is Nice

Ah! The south of France.  Photos from a little jaunt on the cote de azure in April of 2009.  We showed up on the day we thought our flight was on to find out that the airline emailed us saying our flight was changed to the day before.  After some quick thinking we decided to take a bus from Barcelona to Marseilles and then a train to Nice.  The rest is history...

On Take it Back to the Start

OC>LA>BCN>LA>SVL

That constant back and forth has been my life for the past five years, but my nomadic days are ovah [we'll see how long this lasts]. No more hostels, couches, or airport benches, I am cozy and comfortable drifting off to sleep in my own bed once more. Yep, my passport is --- well I don't even know where my passport is but it is not coming out again anytime soon. Got some pretty sweet stamps on it though. Did you know that you have to get a visa stamp when you go to Turkey? So I spent about the last month in SF tryna make it big but apparently a month isn't enough time to gain the 80 years of work experience you need to get a job these days. I was housesitting in a swanky little place for the month of June but unfortunately maybe fortunately my job search was to no avail. I decided against subleasing and sticking it out at my old job working in retail hell and swapped the fog for some sunshine.

So here I am, back at home after 5 years of living on my own. I'm not gunna lie, it's nice to have someone else do the cooking. I was freaking out about coming back and the prospect of not making it in sf but now I realize that this is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered. Literally, she told me that my stress is getting to my health and that I need to take it easy. New goal: R E L A X. Its so nice seeing my lovely friends and my daily dive into the ocean that is a block away from my frontyard is not a bad feeling either. Now that I'm sticking around for a while it's nice to know that i can buy vintage boots without having to worry about them fitting in a suitcase or get home decor from Anthropologie with the hope of having my own home to decor. Not sure how long I'm going to be in southern california this time. I'm still trying to apply to some jobs in Northern California but I think I'm going to start looking for stuff down here. I mean living at home would be a good opportunity to save some money without actually blowing it on a plane ticket. What to do with said money? I'll figure out that challenge when I face it. I still like to entertain the idea that someday I'll have some cool artsy job in NY and have some minimalist loft out in Brooklyn. A girl can dream can't she? I will put up my numerous travel pictures from my adventures soon, until then here's my dream home.

Portugal...Kind Of

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I were getting a little stir crazy and decided to book some bus tickets for a daytrip somewhere. Unbelievable that you still get the travel bug when living abroad right? We heard amazing things about the Algarve coast in Southern Portugal and decided it would be nice to see another country. We booked some tickets to Ayamonte. One glitch. So apparently the coastal town of Ayamonte is actually on the border of Spain and not in Portugal. We made the best of the day and spent hours wandering around Ayamonte which actually turned out to be quite entertaining in itself. Oh but then we discovered you can take a ferry to Portugal. So we did that. We spent exactly 1.5 hours in the Portugese port town of Villa Real de Santo Antonio and although we can now say that we've been to Portugal, perhaps a second visit may be necessary to fully grasp Portugese culture. The lesson here? Always look at a map before planning excursions.

Ronda, Spain

So yesterday I took a little daytrip south of Seville to Ronda, the most spectacular of Andalucia's pueblos blancos. Ronda is a quaint little village perched atop a lush backdrop of hills and farmland. It was nice to take a trip out of the city, I was getting a little stir-crazy. On another note, I just booked a ticket to Barcelona for the end of November and I think I may be going to Madrid the beginning of December. So excited!

Seville

I'm starting to get settled in to my new Spanish lifestyle. My work began a couple of weeks ago and things are going well. I just got a second job teaching at a private English academy two days a week. The kids are kind of a nightmare but hopefully they will calm down. The plan is to save up during the fall and winter and travel travel travel in the spring and summer. Whats on the agenda you ask? Istanbul, Paris (take two), Marrakesh, and possibly the UK in the spring. When the weather gets nice enough I hope to see Croatia, Lisbon, and the Canary Islands. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job in Barcelona for the summer, it would be too great to be able to summer there again. I'm currently working on my grad school applications for some Global Studies and Sustainable Development programs in Europe for next fall. I never thought I would miss school so much.

Here are some photos from Seville to tempt those who are still contemplating a visit...

On another note, I'm running low on lemon pepper (EMERGENCY), if anyone would be so kind to forward some my way, it would be much appreciated!