11.8.01

i’m back. i’m jet-lagged. i have the flu.

11.7.01

two postcards:

three postcards (partially obscured by Republik Österreich postage).

obscured: “I was struck by a moment of weakness yesterday: I bought a pair of camper sneakers. Some of you out there will appreciate the significance of such a purchase. happy feet!”

obscured: “…favorite, however— Schonbrun [?] palace as well as all of Mozart’s old haunts, put into context by the prod. of Amadeus I did last summer.”

11.5.01

there are lots more postcards in the mail somewhere. hopefully they’ll surface at some point. this whole postcard plan was supposed to work a bit more efficiently than it did, but that’s probably my fault for being less-than-accurate about memorizing paul’s address. anyway, hi. i’m in amsterdam, back at the only free internet terminal in captivity. the post cards make it look as if i got stuck in prague about three weeks ago, but in reality i’ve since been in vienna, salzburg, munich, venice, verona, bologna, a little piece of hell-on-earth called brindisi, rome, zurich, and vaduz (capital of… anyone, anyone?). tomorrow i do more city hopping: amsterdam to washington dc, dc to chicago, and chicago to boise where i can finally stop moving for a few days.

the priority list for when i get home is: 1) see the cat (and the rest of the family). 2) replace all the toiletries that i had stolen at the beginning of this trip. i’m not a very high maintenance woman, but as it turns out, i hate using weird czech shampoo as much as the next girl. 3) eat lots and lots of veggies. 4) take my last $50 and get a massage. i’ve actually developed a click in my shoulder from carrying this stupid backpack. 5) do positively nothing for a couple of days.

oops, i’m over my 20 minute limit and people are starting to look mean. i’ll go take a shower and see if i can finish this post later. here’s hoping i can get some hot water. this place is way hip, but a little short on the amenities.

10.26.01

five postcards (obverse and reverse).

10.18.01

three postcards (obverse and reverse).

10.15.01

greetings, from the czech republic! post cards are in the mail, i promise. paul has agreed to post them for me. quick notes:

amsterdam, berlin, prague. someone nicked my toiletry bag, so i have no contact lenses. got really sick in amsterdam, recovered in berlin. prague is beautiful but polluted with bad air and middle aged tourists. berlin was facinating, amsterdam fun. western europe expensive, eastern europe cheap. next: back to berlin, pick up a fed ex package with contac lenses in it, then off to vienna. hope we can find a hostel. paying by the minute for this, gotta run. stay tuned.

10.3.01 – day 3:

yesterday i: hiked onto campus for a jamba juice, read the daily, kicked some crossword ass, had a job interview (went well), met up with mari, lunch at cafe beroni’s (i’ve never known how to spell that), drove to pescadero beach where it was cold and foggy, bought a pumpkin, some strawberries and artichokes for dinner, went to val’s house and cooked mushroom risotto with mari and val and drank a lot of wine, grant and jeremy came over, we drank more and ate ice cream and the girls team kicked the boys team’s butts at trivia persuit, but that’s mainly because trivia-goddess mari was holding up the whole team on our side.

today i: got up WAY too early, took the caltrain into SF, had another job interview in the mission (also went fairly well), met lauren for jamba lunch, walked around downtown and window shopped and bought a hat at urban and a chinese silk coin purse in china town, and went to ACT to see all my old co-workers, then took the 45 back to lauren’s house where charles bronson (the cat) was happy to see me and little cat was afraid of me. now i am eating lauren’s garlic cheese spread and then i must take a nap. tonight it will be fondue-in-a-box with lauren john meisha chris and the cats and then i go back to palo alto, sleep for about 2 hours, and head to the airport at 4 am. amsterdam, here i come!

10.1.01 – day 1:

very nice lady apologetically searched my luggage at the boise airport. and i mean searched my luggage. emptied the bag onto a table in the back room. opened every zipper pouch. peeked into every sock. checked for hidden compartments in the frame of the backpack. the thing is, i’m about as sweet and innocent-looking as they come, which means that anyone who actually looks suspicious really is going to get it. either that or i fit some sort of terrorist profile that i don’t know about.

anyway, arrived in sf with my slightly disheveled luggage. saw the chiropractor, he popped my neck back into place. chances are the vertebrae stayed aligned for about 30 seconds. took a brief ride on the caltrain back to stanford and hung around campus while my brother went to class. we went for a hike up in the foothills and saw a tarantula. a real one, just crawling along the path, with the big thick hairy legs and everything. it was cool. burritos at La Costana, then saw Don’t Say a Word, which was a pretty good thriller. the shoreline theatre gives student discounts, which i was able to enjoy now that i have my new International Student ID Card thanks to a slightly careless but very nice woman at the BSU overseas office who didn’t notice exactly how old my stanford ID is.

sleeping on chris’s couch tonight in palo alto. i miss zeke.

9.30.01

forever plaid closed last night. strike this morning. emptied a lot of trash cans, cleaned out the fridge. acquired a slightly-used green carabiner for my key ring. said hurried goodbyes because i hate goodbyes, collected my final paycheck, deposited it. headed home, realized i still have the office keys. packed. still packing. irritated that i can’t make my pack smaller – this is supposed to be minimalist luggage, dammit! seems like i left everything behind and it’s still too heavy. beautiful fall afternoon. going to miss zeke a lot, the thumping sounds of him tearing up and down the stairs madly. burning a couple of CDs with mp3s of my current can’t-live-without albums, which i can listen to on nick’s cool new mp3 player which can read mp3s right off of CDs. this list is:

ani difranco: self titled, dilate, out of range

pulp: this is hardcore

tracy chapman: fast car

murmurs: self titled

belle & sebastian: if you’re feeling sinister

catie curtis: truth from lies

elvis costello: best of

vienna teng: waking hour

cowboy junkies: studio recordings

magnetic fields: 69 love songs vol. 1

tom petty: wildflowers

red house painters: old ramon

cat stevens: greatest hits

trespassers william: anchor

tom waits: rain dogs

dar williams: the honesty room

tanya donelly: love songs for underdogs

plus a bunch of singles that i won’t bother to type out all here cause i’m tired.

the itinerary:

mon oct 1: boise -> sfo

3 days to hang out in palo alto, san jose and sf. 2 job interviews, 2 trips to the chiropractor, visits with everyone i possibly can see, some sushi, maybe a trip to china town and to urban outfitters (window shopping only!), visit my big bro at stanford, eat some more sushi.

thurs oct 4: sfo -> amsterdam

for the next 8 weeks nick & i are going to meander our way from amsterdam to athens. fear not! there will be regular updates here, provided that cannon tech support can fix paul’s scanner.

thurs nov 29: amsterdam -> boi

get ready to move to either buffalo, salt lake, sf, or find my own place in boise, depending on which of four possible jobs i decide on.

i’m trying not to think to hard about the leaving part of this trip, the fact that summer’s over and that i’m leaving some amazing new friends behind. i try to only look forward, not back. this summer held a lot of really good things, and some really terrible things. comes out to about average, then, i guess. cheers, boise.

9.27.01

i’m back from my road trip to salt lake. i seriously have a new flat spot on my ass from spending so much time in the car, but otherwise survived the trip intact. hung around the pioneer theatre where my friend jeff works, saw their production of Three Musketeers which was cheesy but technically it was amazing. turns out that salt lake is a beautiful city. who knew? i somehow thought it was just sort of a larger version of pocatello or twin falls – bleak tract housing on high country desert hills – but in reality it’s this big, spread out city nestled against some spectacular mountains. up by the university, where i was spending most of my time, there are blocks and blocks of tree-lined streets with charming old houses, sort of like a bigger version of boise’s north end. well, since i might end up working in salt lake in the next year or two, it’s a good thing i was so surprised by its pleasant appearance.

the purpose of the trip was to interview with the olympic games committee (i love that their acronym is SLOG). the two hours leading up to the interview went about as badly as possible: traffic jam between salt lake and provo (the interview site), got lost about 18 times because of the damn coordinate system that utah towns use in place of street names (i was trying to find a place called 1515 N 200 W), had to call the interview scheduler and ask him where the building was because i was 30 feet from it and still couldn’t see it. i had planned on changing into my interview clothes in a gas station, but the first station i stopped at didn’t have restrooms, and the second had just had an emergency flood in the women’s rest room that was pouring out into the store. i got dressed in my car, much to the surprise of the mormon family who tried to park next to me. then i discovered that my interview clothes (black) were covered in my cat’s fur, no lint roller to be found. then i realized the interview was half an hour earlier than i had thought, which ate up my get-there-early-and-collect-yourself time. all things considered, i was a bit flustered when i got there and discovered that it wasn’t just MY interview, but that 34 other people were scheduled for the same time. however, as luck would have it, the interview went fabulously. i was assured that i’d have a job as a sector coordinator (basically I’d be managing a work crew of about 25), but more importantly the interviewer, upon learning that i’m a stage manager, promised to pass my application on to the opening/closing ceremonies folks. now that would be cool if I got to do backstage work for the opening ceremonies.

this is good news, since my interview with the theatre in Buffalo didn’t go so well, so maybe i won’t be on the east coast this winter after all. what this boils down to is that by the time i leave for europe (1 week from today), i will STILL have no idea where i’m working when i get back. i might be in SF (1 theatre there is interested), i might be in buffalo, might be in salt lake, or maybe iowa city. ah, the joys of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants employment.