Sweet T. and Biscuits

I wonder if we can ever really predict how things are going to turn out for us in life. We hope and expect that things will go really well and we'll travel the world and find ourselves learning from other cultures and hopefully contributing something in return, but we can't really know for certain until that moment is upon us. What I've seen and experienced in these last six weeks can't really be summed up in words as much as in feelings and realizations, and while I definitely didn't expect to change my mind or convictions about certain aspects of my culture and myself, I can't say that I didn't end up surprising myself in some ways. Well, I think that about sums up the typical expected Eurotrip college response for those of you that wanted something meaningful and boring. For the rest of you... Having successfully made it to Prague without incident, I went about the task of retrieving my suitcase and I braced myself for the nightmare that customs

Atlanta, Chicago, Brussels, Helsinki, Prague. Nonstop. A little over 24 hours of travel time, total. All with the goal of eventually getting me to Prague in time for my Kafka class to start. Where am I now? Currently I'm cruising at some bullshit measurement statistic. (I mean, do you know how high airplanes tend to fly? You do? Fuck off, no one likes a know it all.) Anyway. I'm on this plane to Brussels and I want to jot down all the crazy shit that's been popping into my head since this journey began this morning. My morning started at a quarter of seven after a fitful night of restless sleep filled with anxiety dreams about the wake up call to our hotel room mysteriously failing and single handedly ruining my entire day's travel plans. Mom and I were in a hotel in downtown Atlanta, and in the tradition of a young girl's first European trip on her own, a fight shortly followed our wakeup call. The topic? Quick, if you're a girl and the clothes you wear are

After leaving Las Vegas , we began the drive to Middle of Nowhere, Utah. My two cousins and aunt and uncle all live in LA, and we all decided to meet up this year to make merry in a remote cabin near Zion National Park. Despite my mother's promise that the drive from Las Vegas to Zion was only about two hours, we ended up taking four to complete the trip, with exactly two stops in between. Before heading out, however, we had determined that we needed to make a shopping trip for the week, because we were driving up on Christmas Day (when NOTHING is open, be it run by Christians or dirty heathens), and grocery stores around Zion are few and far between. Due to Utah's Prohibition-esque liquor laws (nothing over 3.2% alcohol content can be sold anywhere except in state or Native American run liquor stores. That's wine coolers and light beers, folks), we decided we needed to stock up on alcohol as well. Now, far be it from me to say that my family is full of lushes, but we cer

Most college kids get a month or so off for the holidays. This is generally about three weeks longer than they'd like to spend with their families, so side trips with friends are common. For me, however, my three weeks of holiday break almost always breaks down like this: 1 week for debilitating illness, two weeks for an exceptionally exhausting whirlwind family vacation, 5 hours for packing/jet lag recovery/preparation for travel. This is absolutely draining (but fun and memorable, blah blah blah). This year's break was no exception-I got sick just as I put my luggage down in my bedroom (literally, my throat caught fire right after I got home, it was like magic. Really, really horrible magic ). The next week or so was pretty tame, involving lots of How I Met Your Mother reruns, an attempt to get my parents to love Dr. Who at least a fraction of the amount that I do, Narnia in 3-D (FUCK 3-D, but I love Edmund . Can't help it. Peter is obviously the hot one and he's a b