Avec nutella et banane

I wish I could have a second lifetime and live it in Paris. What makes it so beautiful? When we were there it was raining on and off, but somehow that added to the charm.

We spent most of our time in Montmartre and came upon the neighborhood Bastille day celebration - people were dancing in the street and charging at cars like bulls. We asked someone, "So, when do you sing the national anthem?" She immediately shook her head. "Oh you will not hear this. The French do not do this. No one knows the words."

One day I ordered a crepe and made the mistake of saying "avec nutella et banane" and pronouncing the "e" at the end like Spanish. The crepe guy laughed so hard. Failure! The next day I tried again with the same guy. This time I'll get it! Aaaaand fail again. It came out sounding like "nutella et baNAH." He laughed even harder this time. ("banan" is the proper way, I learned.)

After Paris came Amsterdam and Berlin. Amsterdam was beautiful and raining. We ate lots of waffles and got lost in the canals. (literally - one night it took like 2 hours to get back!) The sun came out one day just long enough for us to see the Anne Frank house, which was unbelievable. There really aren't words to describe it!

Berlin was ridiculously amazing. They have currywurst - bratwurst with curry- so right away Jonathan knew he was going to like it there, haha. We spent a day at Mauer Park - I loved asking the cop where the karaoke was and having him essentially say "Girlfriend, don't you check Facebook? That's been cancelled."

Small town, lightning & fist fights

Italy is very hot and very amazing. Everyone looks like supermodels even though, from all accounts, they literally eat pizza, pasta & gelato all day. Sign me up for that!

After Rome we spent two nights in a town that is Rome's polar opposite - a tiny, dinky little town called San Rocco a Pilli with one market and the "town square" is basically a patio on a corner.

We stayed in this giant building that used to be a fortress in the 1400s and now is designated as a b&b - it was really really Reeeally incredible, until the second day when we realized we were alone there & everything was creepy & abandoned. There's this maze of never ending silent hallways that are dark and winding with dim candelabras on the walls. Everything creaks and there are random thumps that come from deep inside the network of hidden rooms. We were trying to find the b&b lady, & just ended up calling out "Hello?" down dark marble hallways and just getting silence for a response. We got pretty thoroughly freaked out for a few hours before the lady came back from wherever the heck she was. We had trust issues with her ever since.

In that town we happened to stumble upon the "Festa Democratica" - a party being held just that one weekend for the country's democratic party. "Wow, really?" we thought. "Awesome!"

The party consisted of about 100 people in their 80s and 90s sitting in that patio on the corner, eating lasagna and listening to a band croon to cheesy beats on a keyboard. Niiiice.

What really amazed us was that "grandma dinner" here is 9:30pm.

After that town we did a quick stop in Florence where it was boiling hot and the Duomo was amazing and awe-inspiring. We saw a couple getting married in front of it, and the guys had this awesome all-white suit with gold trim and sweet giant sneakers!

Now we're in Venice, where I think we could probably stay forever. Because it's so warm, most days we've been taking it easy until about 4:00 or 5:00, and then we head out in earnest - we've found that locals don't really start eating until about 9 or 10pm, then go to bed around 12 or 1, so our time schedule is definitely shifting!

Our hotel room here has a bidet 2 feet from the bed. Disturbing!

Last night we took a gondola ride while a lightning storm lit the sky. It was surreal.

We also were walking along the sidewalk last night, when we saw two guys get in a fist fight on the hood of a boat! They shoved & half-wrestled each other wildly into a restaurant area, narrowly missing customers eating dinner at tables on the sidewalk. They were shouting and throwing punches, and almost ran into us as we tried to get out of the way.

I swear we felt like we were on a reality tv show. We're like "This isn't real, right..?" but about 8 guys who worked at the restaurant (and one customer) rushed forward to break it up, all shouting loudly in Italian & gesturing crazily. It was ridiculous, to say the least. Oh & one of the fighting guys got so mad, he revved his speedboat into one of the wooden pillars in the water & broke it!

Oh & we've seen some really silly signs like one in front of a playground/park that said "Forbidden to play with ball"

Also, one of our hotels had a sign on the door that said "Please, close this door forever, thanks."
Hahaha

All for now..

PS
Sorry some pictures are blurry. I forget to take pictures on my phone, so most of these are photos of photos off my camera :)

My favorite sign of the whole trip: the inside of our hostel's front door: "Please close this door forever, thanks."

We found that sign at a park.  So... basically it's forbidden for children to have fun, is what you're telling me.

There was a bidet 2 feet from the bed!

Hello Roma!

We're in ROME! I don't think I'll be able to write much in here, but I will when I can!

I think the thing i'm happiest about is sharing Europe with Jonathan for the first time. Every corner we turn around is something incredible, everything is so OLD and meaningful, and we could people watch all day.

We got in on the 4th of July after - not kidding - the stereotypical baby crying for 10 straight hours sat right behind us on the plane. Jonathan had a seriously murderous look in his eye around hour 6.

But we arrived and had lunch - so excited to see nearby Italians actually ordering spaghetti. (we also loved how our hotel receptionist said "Italians... They like to have a whole pizza for dinner... But not for lunch. No, for lunch they like to have just a slice of pizza." We were like, really? That's really what you eat? Haha.)

We saw the colosseum! Wowee wow wow. We crashed at like 5:00.

Yesterday we had lunch in a market, saw Vatican city & at night I had a craving for gelato at the trevi fountain... & I think every single other tourist had the same idea, haha. We sat & people watched. Crazy.

We've seen Italians taking so long to eat, so today we sat & had a 2 hour lunch. The italians who sat down after we did actually left before us, BOO yah!!!!!!!

I think tonight we're going to go walk down by the river (why do I have Chris Farley in my head? :) ) & then tomorrow we train it out of here! Sooooooooooooooooo excited! Yay!!

PS amendment: we did go down by the river and discovered a tiny plaza where I think, oh, every Italian person in Rome was hanging out at 12:30am. It was surreal. We literally thought there must be some sort of annual event going on or a giant pub crawl. Nope, as one bartender put it: "We just like to have fun."

We got married!!!!!!

Greatest..........day..............ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camping, babies and tenure, oh my!

Wow, this year is flying by. Sometimes I feel like all the wedding to-dos, school stress, btsa deadlines and the looming star test, things get so crazy, but then I HAVE to remember step back and look at everything. (note to frickin self!) Last week I got to spend a week at outdoor ed with my students - one of the most beautiful, serene places I've ever been. It's in the Santa Cruz mountains & everything is green and alive, you can hike around, and possibly the best of all is that you see the students totally come to life.





THEN - duh duh duh duhhhh!! (triumphant music) - Jonathan's sister Jaymee & Adam had their baby!!! I kept telling Jaymee "just wait until after Friday, wait until after Friday.." (so that I'd be back from camp) So i get back Friday, go to sleep, and BOOM! Saturday morning, we get the call, haha. I had never been part of a birth before, so, needless to say, being in the delivery room was seriously one of the most amazing things in my life. Ever. Plus, now I can have total ownage on my nephew! HaHA! If he ever gives me any back talk, I'll be like "Fool, I was there when you were frickin BORN! Don't give me none of your sass!" (that will totally work, right?)

Also, Jonathan and I had our engagement pictures yesterday which were really fun! I thought it would be awkward, but it surprisingly wasn't. We joked that every couple should have a wedding photographer follow them around... "Look at each other, LOOK at each other..... Good, more hugging. Perfect."

In addition, I learned I can't make a serious face. The photog would tell us to be serious, and in my head I was like "I got this!" then I'd hear him say "No, Erica, you're just pouting." *readjust* "Nope, you're furrowing your brow at me." *readjust* "Nope.."
Blarg! I gave up. Stupid serious face..

OOH! last but not least, Jonathan got tenured!!!!!!!!!! Serious cause for celebration. I'm so, so proud of him - he totally deserves it (I wish everyone could see him teach, he's super captivating & makes everything really clear & entertaining... Not that I'm biased, right? Haha)

Oookay, that's all for now!