That's right! I arrived back home on the evening of the 30th! And it's taken me alllll day to check up on the internets 'cause I'm a dork that way. XD But now, since I like recording this kind of stuff, it is time for TALES OF MY TRAVELS.


I arrived in Florence on the 22nd, where my family picked me up! I was so happy our flight plans ended up working out, as there were so many things that could've gone wrong. I was pleased with Swiss Air for that...but then they go and disappoint me on the return trip. D: Go figure.

When we first got back, it was FREEEEEZING. And the heat in the villa wasn't working. Craps! So the first day I kinda spent bundled up in all my warm clothes indoors, because it was just so damn cold. But then we got the heating fixed (at least for that portion of the villa; the rest remained frigid) so then that was no longer an issue. I actually spent a good chunk of time just chillin' in the villa with my family, often working on drawingstuff. Yeah, we didn't go super-travel-see-everything-all-day like we probably should've, but that's okay with me, I was just happy to be with my family for a bit. :3 That, and pretty much everything closes not only on Christmas, but also the days before and after (Europeans take their holidays seriously!) So it's not like we could've gone anywhere, anyway.

Oh yes, and the first day back, we also went and ate pizza at a place that served "The World's Best Pizza, at least for one time this year, probably." I dunno if it was THE BEST, but it was definitely pretty good. Lotsa leftovers for later, too. ♥



On the days we did go out, we spent some time in the leather mart! It's like a Farmer's Market for leather products. XD Lots of belts, shoes, jackets, scarves, bags, jewelry and all kinds of other fun things. And you can smell it from a mile away. ;) That was nice to look around in...my dad got some fast Christmas presents there, too. I should've gotten something, but really the only leather stuff I got was my Christmas presents. I'm really not the type to buy stuff when I go overseas, because I KNOW once I get home it'll just sit on my shelf and collect dust, and I'm just not big on buying something for the sake of saying I'VE BEEN THERE. :/

Already wrote about Christmas a bit, but yeah, I got a buncha leather stuff. ^^ I love the leather jacket I got! I've never had one before, and I wore it everywhere because it kept me waaaarm. Even in SoCal, I think I can wear it out to be OMGSTYLISH. And then as a late extra present, my mom and my aunt and I went shoe-shopping and I got a pair of leather shoes and leather-care-polish-stuff to go with them. As I own a grand total of, uh...maybe four pair of shoes, none of which are good "professional" shoes, I was glad to get them!



The day after Christmas my Aunt Rosemary, Uncle Buddy, and cousins Joe and Sean arrived (Sean being a cousin by different aunt and uncle) and the day afterwards we went to...oh heck, I don't remember what it was called, but it was one of the many art museums of Florence. This one didn't have 'The David', but it did have 'The Birth of Venus' and a few other famous paintings. Definitely some Michaelangelo, and they had a brief exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci that was pretty nifty. :D I love his anatomy sketches. Heck, I think I like his sketches more than I like his finished works.
So my family and I ooohed and aaahed at all the various artworks. My dad and I ended up snarking on quite a few of the paintings and just how...weird they sometimes looked because of expression/angle/Medieval artists not really grasping how perspective works. And now I'm just grateful for a dad that can not only explain the religious history/significance of artstuff to me, but is not so serious about it that he can't snark on them with me. XD
We spent a lot of time at the museum, so much that my feet really hurt afterwards! And then afterwards we got some real Italian gelato at this huge gelato place. And OMG it was SOOOOO GOOD. It was frigid outside and I was still scarfing down the gelato, it was that good. They had a bazillion and three flavors, and I was able to get two scoops (I chose mango and kiwi, which had real kiwi seeds in it) for a fairly decent price. And a second time we went later, I got toffee. Yuuuum...



After the shoe-buying spree, we all went out with the Williams (who had also come) to Elizabeth's house for a traditional Italian lunch/dinner thingie. It was a bit of a chore getting there, but when we did, we had the meal and it was HUGENORMOUS. There were four courses, and I couldn't finish everything! We had the antipasta first, which was all the cheeses, meats and etc., and then a starter with this thick lasagna stuff, and then the main course with turkey and ham and potatoes and stuff. We were so stuffed just after that that we went outside for a long walk as a breather. It was really pretty out there in the Italian countryside, even though it was pretty cold. We also visited her neighbor's farm (where my family and the students picked olives for their own homemade olive oil) and saw their animals. They had a crapload of chickens, some geese, and two huge turkeys. And all those things were BIG! It was obvious they were well-fed and looked after, and if that was ever a reason for me to pay more for free-range products, I don't know what is. They also had some cows, plus one of the cows had given birth the calfs recently (calves? What's the spelling on that?) And we got to pet them if they got close enough to the fence and were mooing and stuff. XD

What?! I'm a SoCal/Los Angeles resident and I never see farm animals up close! STFU!

Afterwards we got back and finished up with dessert (fruit, nuts and then this rich chocolate cake stuff) and some champagne, which I actually enjoyed, which is amazing considering I don't like the taste of most alcohols. Especially wines and the like. It was a really good lunch/dinner...I'm not sure which it was, considering it took us like FOUR HOURS TO EAT IT. XD But I guess that's how they do things...fast food in Italy is really fast (you buy something pre-made in the store and then eat it on the run, or else pay extra to sit at a table) and their big meals are reeeeally slow.



Our biggest and busiest day was when we went to Rome! We got up early (much earlier than I was before, anyway) to catch a train to Rome. We had reservations for seats there...only to have that train be cancelled. :D;; OKAY. So we ended up having to catch the next train, which was crowded with people from THAT train and the cancelled train, and we stood in the halls for an hour and a half all the way to Rome. FUN TIMES.

And a completely stupid thing: we got to the train station in Florence, and I realized that I had packed everything for my trip home...except my keys, which included my house key and my car key. YEAH REAL SMART GOING LYNX. :Db So dammit all to hell; my parents are going to have to express-mail me my keys. Until then, I will be car-less. ;_;

Got to Rome and stored all my luggage at the train station (since I was leaving the next day) and then split up into two groups. My family and Sean went to the Palatino and the Coliseum, which was fun and awesome. It's amazing how much of the architecture has still survived from millenia ago. We also got to bypass all the huge lines into the Coliseum since we got our tickets at the Palatino, and just went around and explored inside. It's huuuuuuge, and supposedly only a third of it is still standing from its original form.

I also totally would've yelled "GET UP ON THE HYDRA'S BACK" from a high place there if I knew my parents wouldn't kill me for it...

Afterwards we went to...a famous fountain (and now I forget what it was called, too!) where if you throw a coin over your shoulder into from behind and make a wish, it'll come true. XD The fountain was huuuuuuge and very pretty, so I made a wish. It was extremely crowded, though, and there were a dozen peddlers there trying to get me to buy their flowers and little squishy beanie things that I didn't want and had to explain to them (in English) three times.
And finally, we went to the Spanish Steps. I don't know why they were famous, but apparently they were because there were lots of people there. So we took lots of pictures.

After that, we dropped off our luggage at our hotel since it was kinda out of town. And since we'd been walking and standing and walking and standing all day with pretty much no meal breaks, my parents took us out for a big dinner at Hard Rock Cafe! It was hella expensive considering everything was in Euros, and I bought a Pina Colada for like a million Euros that may not have even had alcohol in it because I couldn't taste anything but coconut, but I didn't even care 'cause I was exhausted and it was sooooo good. I love Italian food, but sometimes you really just need a burger and fries.



The next morning I woke up at 5:30, after having not slept for most of the night, because somehow the heating was screwed up in our room and it was HOT AS HELL. 8Db So damn hot that my dad actually got up to open the window and let the freeeezing night air in. My dad got up with me to take me to the airport, where my flight ended up being an hour late. I thought I was screwed since I had that connecting flight in Zurich, but then the Zurich flight ended up being an hour late, too. Okay!

I probably should've slept on the 11-hour flight on the way home, but I was still on a daytime schedule from Italy, plus I was trying to outfox jetlag AND FAILED LOL. So instead I ended up finishing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, watching PotC and playing on-board computer games like a good geek.

Got back to LA finally! And waited at the baggage carousel...only to find that one of my suitcases (which, uh, actually didn't even belong to me) had been RIPPED OPEN AT THE SEAMS. WTF?! DX DX NOT OKAY SWISS AIR.
...I guess the suitcase just got ripped by being handled wrong or something. Luckily, I unpacked today, and did not notice anything missing...the stuff I'd packed on the top from the night before was still there. Either way, having that suitcase break still annoyed me.

ghettopeach was kind enough to pick me up, thank yoooou! ♥ And we drove out to my parents house in hopes of getting that spare car key, but alas, no success. So we went to Malibu Seafood instead.



Random observations about Italy:

- I love how SMALL all the cars are! ♥ I am an SUV-hater as it is, so seeing so many cute small cars made me happy. If you aren't driving a small Punto or a SmartCar in Italy, you're driving a motorbike. Seriously, like HALF the people in Florence drove motorbikes or motorcycles. Sometimes I wonder if there weren't more of those than there were cars.
Of course, this would make sense, as like the rest of Europe, Italy's very condensed. No one drives a ginormous Hummer because there's nowhere to put it! Most of the streets were one-way, and parking was extremely limited.
- Off of that, there was no such thing as right-of-way in Florence. The rule of thumb was basically whoever went first had right-of-way, be they car or motorbike or bicycle or bus or pedestrian. XD Made crossing the street an adventure, as we often ignored the don't walk/walk lights, but thankfully cars and other vehicles usually came to a quick stop if more then three people were stepping out into the street. Traveling in a group helped.
- All over the touristy spots of Italy, there were these vendors selling knockoff products on the streets. Some of them sold sunglasses and leather bags, but the ones I noticed were the ones selling "paintings." They were basically prints of other famous paintings on this nice thick cardstock that was textured like canvas. I could print the same thing at Kinkos for five bucks. And they were trying to sell me these for 15 Euro or whatever? YEAH RITE.
But the really funny thing is that that kind of selling is apparently illegal in Italy, because whenever a policeman showed up anywhere near the vicinity, they would pack up that stuff and be gone in the BLINK OF AN EYE. At the museum, I was watching a guy trying to sell prints, and then I looked away for what can't have been more than half a minute, tops. And the next time I look, he's got all the prints tucked under his arm and is scurrying away as a policeman turns the corner. It's hilarious.
And apparently there's...two different kinds of police units in Italy? I just know there's the armed kind and the unarmed kind. :D;;
- Being in Italy reminded me of how much I love European public transportation. I love how you can just hop on the metro and it'll take you anywhere; no parking involved! Or take a bus! It just makes getting around so easy. Not only that, but like in London, I felt safe on those subways. In contrast, I would never take a bus or the subway in LA unless I absolutely had to. Too damn scary.
- On the other hand, and this sounds kind of backward, I much prefer the way America puts a crapload of preservatives into their foods so that they last longer. XD;; That way you can get a whole two gallons of milk, and chances are, they won't go bad! But in Italy, the most you can get is a litre, unless you get the boxed milk that tastes kinda funky. D: Everything comes in much smaller packages and goes bad faster, so you have to go to the store over and over again. The only bulk-packaging stuff I saw was in the students' kitchen, where there was actual refrigeration space for it, too. :/
- Olive oil makes everything better.
- I don't understand how the hell my parents traveled so much when my brothers and I were kids. It would've been a frecking nightmare. My youngest brother can be a pain sometimes, but we're still all old enough to know we have to carry our own luggage, and that we need to walk fast sometimes, and that sometimes the food won't always be what we want, and just to stick out bad conditions. It's so much easier to travel when the party is at least in the vicinity of adulthood.
(Okay, so that had nothing to do with Italy, it was just an observation. :P)
- I was in Europe for a whole week, and I never got a Kinder Egg for nostalgia's sake! D: Sadness!


And yes, that was pretty much the trip! I shall try and post some pics/videos that my brother took whenever he sends them to me, because I has no camera.

And on top of that, it is now New Years Eve! This past year has definitely been busy and full of changes, the most of which would be graduating from college and getting shoved into the "real world." @_@ But I'm still looking forward to 2007, and hoping for many more fun and exciting new things. And I want to work real hard at making new progress in the worlds of animation and comics jobs!

I hope everyone has a great New Years! ^^

Drawing: So much to catch up on! I've some more LG pages to do, more on the doujin, those gift arts I still owe, and a few other things. Must get to work!

Writing: Wrote a tad on LW over the trip. :3