Train Problems - October Break (Part 5)!

I forgot to add that two nights ago, I did meet more people at the hostel. I actually talked to these two girls for a while about travel. This one Mexican girl was cute and said, "beach" like "bitch". I couldn't help laughing the first time she said it cause it was in a sentence like, "It was a beautiful beach." She noticed my laugh and told me that everyone makes fun of her for the way she says things. I said, "No no, it's ok, it's just that one of my friends (Cody) calls girls bitches when he's talking generally. He's like, 'Hey, there's a hot bitch.'" So whenever I or the girl mentioned the beach, we both laughed cause it was like a "that's what she said" joke, where it was always funny in context of the sentence.

Yesterday, I also forgot to mention that I went to the top of this steep hill and had the best pizza, better than the one in Pisa at this little French cafe. It was a four cheese pizza. Ahhhh, to die for. I went up to the guy behind the counter after finishing my meal and said, "I'm sorry I'm saying this to you in English, but that pizza was VERY good." He smiled and told me thank you. Then I remembered shortly after that I knew how to say very good. Tre bon. After walking up the hill, I went back over to this waterfall that I saw as I was coming up and climbed over a railing that was forbidden to get a better view of it and the city. Actually when I was coming up the hill, I tried to go behind the waterfall and even leaped over the locked metal door by crawling up the side of the steep hill and holding onto tree branches. A man was looking at me while I did it but didn't say anything. I didn't go as far as going down into cave-like thing that the waterfall was draping over because I was thinking that maybe there was in fact a reason why it was blocked off. I imagined it breaking and me falling all the way down this big hole or something. Then I wished that I had a girlfriend who pushed me just that much further and said to me, "Nah, just do it. You won't die, haha." I want a girl like that. The idea of a girl like that made me more adventurous and when I was walking back down the hill, I felt like I should have climbed into the waterfall cave so instead of walking just on the path down the hill, I ended up sliding down through this steep, forest like area and ending up at a high cliff area that was a little taller than I expected. I climbed down and hung from my hands, then let go, bending my feet when I landed and just avoiding injury. When I landed, I bursted into laughter at myself for acting so strangely, sitting their for about a half a minute in self amusement. Then I came to this gate that was locked and the only way to get past it would be to walk along this really narrow cement wall that overlooked a fall that would have actually really hurt me if I didn't do it right. But I did it anyway. It really wasn't that difficult, only nerve racking for that second of dangerous concentration; the moment when my body protruded over the edge was scary and sent adrenaline through me, giving me images of my feet slipping and everything going wrong from there. But I ended up safely on the other side. Silly boy. If I were my parent I would have been peeing and biting my fingernails at the same time.

I met three Australian people at the hostel, two of them a couple and one of them a guy that I was going to go to Monoco with yesterday but I decided to just see the town of Nice cause I only had one day. I also met a guy who was really into my music yesterday and kept sitting near me when I played the piano in the main hang zone of the Little Prince hostel. That's right, it was named after the Little Prince! It was called Villa Saint Exupery! I was thrilled when I found that out. On a lot of doors were pictures of different characters from the book! But anyway, I played him some of my songs. And George Winston is his family friend! I gave my information and he told me he would email me so I could let him know when the CD was done. I asked him for his information to be safer so I could send him my CD when it's done or send him an email when they're on iTunes but he said, "No, that's ok. I'll email you." I'm scared he won't. Cause that would just be so cool to know that one of my first customers was someone I met in Nice. He wasn't French though. I think he was American. But he kept saying how he thought I was so good and will definitely make it. That was nice. He said he wanted to go to music school too! I wonder if he'll go to Berklee. He said he's not good enough. Interesting.

So guess where I am. Barcelona? Nope. There was a train derailment today right ahead of me supposedly. So my train got delayed like three hours and I missed both of my connecting trains. It was ok though because I got the chance to talk to this really cute french girl on the train. I kept sitting closer to her through time, finding different excuses. The first excuse I found was when the train stopped due to the accident ahead and people started to get up to buy food from the cafe. I asked these other really cute french girls where they got the food and I enjoyed their smiles as well. I came back and decided to "randomly" sit closer to the first french girl (Alice) OBVIOUSLY just because there was more space there and there were fold out tables at those seats. Good excuse. I saw that she was studying and I said, "Escuse mua, parlez-vou Anglais?" She said "A little." I asked her what she was studying and that was that. She told me about how she was going to be a dentist. We talked on and off for a while. Eventually the trains started to move again but we were on a long detour. Other people got on the train and this one guy took my seat. He moved over and said, "Ok, you? Sit down, you can sit down," in a thick french accent. He was trying to be nice but I didn't want to sit far away from Alice again so I just kind of shook my head and said, "Thanks, um, no that's ok." People got up again to get a free meal from the train since they delayed us so much. I went to the cafe, got some more food, free this time and then I sat right next to Alice because there were people sitting at the more open space area now. At this point I was right beside her. Yes, I had smoothly come closer and closer. We talked about how gross the food was and how it smelled like dog food.

So I arrived in Marceille at about 4:30 and it took me about an hour and a half to sort out my new tickets for tomorrow (I got them for no extra charge after a little explaining which was hard to do with people that had a tough time understanding me) and then finally get a hotel room. I had to cancel my reservation with the Barcelona Hostel by going to a hotel (recommended by customer service at the train station) and using their internet. The hotel was booked so I just used their internet and then the guy behind the counter recommended a cheap place that he said is sometimes dirty. Well, I'm here and it's not bad. I'm using internet in my room which makes me happy. And I'm right next to the humungous steps of the train station! So tomorrow will be easy. Anyway, after checking into my room earlier tonight, I went out on the town. I walked down to the port checked out both the left and right sides surrounding the water. I bought a shitty Italien sub (Italien is the French spelling) and a pretty damn good chocolate crepe. The waitress was incredibly good looking too. Are you surprised to hear me say that? I went over to this building that was title something like, "The Famous Marceille Theater" and decided that if they were showing anything, I would try to see it. But they weren't. I also found an opera house but there was nothing showing. I know, I found an opera house finally! I felt so fulfilled after the invisible opera in Venice.

So one more night on my own on this crazy trip. I'm so glad I did this. So very very glad. And the world can happen in one night. Even when I'm getting in at eight pm tomorrow. But you never know. Anything can happen. So my travels are not done. Oh no. I'm gonna live it up tomorrow. Oh and before I go to Barcelona tomorrow, I might get up really early, like six am and go to this beach that's supposed to be well known and really nice in Marceille. We'll see if I go though. I do not want to miss that train at 12:42.

Love,

Stoddy.

October Break (Part 4)!

Today I walked to the beach of Nice, France. The city was all right but the beach was very interesting because there was a whole section that I happened upon that completely surprised me. There were hundreds of huge white rocks haphazardly scattered along one stretch of the shore. They were not just normal rocks though. They had no doubt been cut by someone, a artist or a company with some kind of plan I am unaware of, into irregular geometric shapes. All of these impressive pieces of rock were stacked on top of each other and a little further from the shore were big slabs of cubic rock beside a tall cobblestone wall. First I fell asleep in a little crevice of the scattered geometric rocks and then I walked along the cubes towards another section of the beach that was strewn with similar flat sided stones but smaller and each with two rusted handles stuck to different sides. On the way to those smaller stones, I tripped on one of the gaps between the cubic rocks next to the cobblestone wall and landed on my knee, bruising it and only slightly breaking the skin. I hurt my wrists a little but it wasn't too bad. My two pairs of glasses also flew off my head in the abrupt, unexpected act, probably caused by my state of recent nap delirium and a man walked by shortly after, pointing to one of the sunglass lenses that had fallen out of its frame. I said, "I know...thank you," and shook myself out of it, also stretching my fingers and bending my wrist to make sure my arms were ok.

Did I mention that I had hot chocolate before this and at first it was amazing but then I realized that somehow the girl who made it failed to notice that there were several small pieces of paper mixed into the drink? The paper was hard to rip though so I figured that the hot chocolate melted off some of the thick paper cup and the pieces ended up in my mouth. At first I thought they were just clumps of powdered chocolate but soon I realized that wasn't the case. I was reminded of when I was really young and on multiple occasions, either caused by my drive to impress someone like a disgusted friend at school or simply because of my typical curiosity for indulging my senses with new things, I ate little bits of paper.

I went to a modern art museum today. That was interesting. Like usual modern art museums, or any art museums for that matter, I was very unimpressed with some things but really entranced by others. My favorite was a sculpture of man in the middle of the room, caught in the act of dancing his heart out. The great thing about it was that his eyes were closed and his face was unusually placid. It seemed to me that someone with their head swung back and one leg up in the air would at least show some kind of similar, active movement in their face. But this guy was INTO it. Almost like he was meditating while dancing. Maybe a professional dancer.

I didn't get a chance to swim cause it was getting pretty damn cold by the time I was at the beach and ready to relax. The art museum was before I scraped my knee. When I finally got to the regular beach with small rocks (there wasn't a typical sand beach where I was), I just sat there with sorbet and a coke light and wrote musical ideas on the back of my Barcelona Film Festival voucher. I also skipped a couple rocks on the water. It was nice but then it came time to walk back.

I forgot to mention that back in Cinque Terre, at the last beach, I had to swim because it was such a beautiful day and I had told myself that I had no choice but to do it. The problem was that I didn't have a swim suit. So in front of Nerese (pronounced like Maurice but with an "n") and Shelly, I stripped to my boxers. The swim was incredibly refreshing and pretty. When I was finished swimming, I realized after stepping out of the water that I forgot to consider the downside of wearing WHITE polka-dot boxers. Yeah, so they were pretty much see through. Shelley told me that no one was watching and to not worry about it. I pulled part of the boxers away from my skin as I walked out in front of people and picked up my clump of clothes, retreating to an area pretty far away from my friends. My feet were all sandy and I didn't want to get my pants really messy so I had to put one foot at a time on this small rock on the beach so that while I put one wet (but clean!) foot into my pants, the other wouldn't be standing on sand. I had a difficult time doing this and was afraid I would fall into the water and ruin everything. I also figured that Matt, Nerese and Shelley were watching and laughing at me or even rooting for the waves to somehow trip me. I found out when I got back that they were actually not looking my way the whole time. Or so they say. But then after my pants nestled close to my wet underwear after a couple minutes, the girls decided to point at me and laugh about how it looked like I peed my pants. It's true. I laughed with them and was happy that I swam even though I knew this would happen.

Tomorrow is mainly train travel and a taste of Barcelona once I get there at eight at night. Let's hope I can catch some of the film festival then. Saturday is all Barcelona. The day after is my flight back to Athens.

S!

October Break (Part 3)!

Written 10/28

Tuesday (27^th Oct.)

Tuesday night was a blast. Shelley, Nerese, the guy that they found on couchserfer.net and I hung out in my hotel room for about an hour. I drank beer and the girls drank a bottle of wine. I drank a little too fast and had a little trouble acting normally for a little while. But it was ok. I just tripped on a word every once and a while. We went out to this bar close to my hotel. It was a nice place where the guy plays every Sunday. He’s a singer and a piano player and used to be a pretty successful freestyle basketball player, doing commercials and seminars and stuff. But he quit that. He’s actually really good at music. They asked me to get up and play songs! Of course I played Avery and Hot Damn. I also played Image of You but I messed up tons of cords and lyrics. Then Andrea (the couch guy) and I jammed. He sang while I played piano. He asked me if I knew My Funny Valentine. I said that I kind of did. I started doing something in C minor and he asked me, “What key?” I said, “C minor.” I thought now we were going to do something new and improvised and that he decided not to do My Funny Valentine. But he started singing the song and I only knew like half the cords. Even though we didn’t play it how it “should” be played it really sounded awesome. He has a great ear and changed with the cords I was playing. I kept switching up the way I was playing and it was incredibly fun after not being in front of a piano for so long. I don’t think Andrea was too happy with the fact that the song sounded different but I was doing the best I could. Let’s just face it; I don’t know many covers. Shelley said she really liked Hot Damn and preferred it to Avery, which she said was more typical, “a sad love song”. Or something like that. I didn’t know what exactly to think of that. And she kept saying my music was “formal”. Didn’t get what she meant at all. But whatever. The girls and I were joking around more and more as the night progressed. I mentioned that it felt weird to not have my fanny pack since I left it in the hotel. She made a weird face and said in a funny voice, “I don’t have my FANNNY paaaiiiik, I doon’t hayyve my FAAAANY paaiiiik.” God I was laughing so hard. Then one of those random, improvised a capella songs started between the three of us. I don’t even know what it was about but it was fun as hell. On the walk home, Andrea asked us what we were doing in the bar before we left. We told him about how we break out into song sometimes. So I started another one, beginning it with, “The Unbelievable Wall”. The three of them joined in and we had an awesome time on our trek back to my hotel. I kept accidentally nudging Shelley and every time she would say something like, “Stoddy just had sex with me,” or “Oh no, I’m pregnant.” The last time my arm lightly brushed her arm, she said, “Stop making out with me!” Hahahaha it was incredibly funny. Then it came time for me to say goodbye. They told me to NOT let this pass and to make sure to keep in touch on Facebook. I said of course I would keep in touch! As they were walking away, Nerese said, “And if you get sad tonight, just say Razzle Red.” It was a great parting note. So funny. I miss you Nerese and Shelley!

Wedensday (Oct. 28)

I’m in Nice, France right now. People are swarming everywhere, eating the hostel’s dinner, typing on their computers, reading, chatting and drinking. I’m taking a break from trying to make friends and writing this right now. I did make friends with the family I was sitting with in the train cabin today though! We realized we were going to the same hostel!

I played for about thirty minutes on the baby grand piano here earlier tonight! I was upset that it was as if the sustain pedal were constantly held down but it was nice to play. A French man, probably 60 years old came over to me and we basically played a game of charades as he tried to explain to me what song he wanted me to play. He kept sitting down and very poorly running his hands down the piano before playing the melody he wanted me to play. I found it funny. But I got the hang of the first melody and he was really happy. He then started to play the “Strangers in the Night” song and once I recognized it, I took his place and did my best with it. He was so pleased. I forgot what to do after a little while and he helped me with the melody. He patted my back a couple times after I stepped away from the piano to go get some food.

I met Michael, a fellow lone Australian traveler, Jessica, another Austrailian and this other guy who told me he really liked my piano playing. He told me that supposedly artists can sign up to play music for a set period of time and in return for the show, get a discount on their room. I lit up and asked the front desk. They said that isn’t in affect anymore. It got me thinking that a lot of people must have just gotten up whether or not they had anything planned and no matter how unprepared they were, demanded to get a discount. All right, I should get back to socializing. It’s hard in here. There’s a lot of noise and lot of people. Tomorrow, I’m going to walk about two miles to the beach and hang out there all day, writing, swimming and relaxing. Nice is the place to do it. And I need to take a day off from traveling and just do nothing but think to myself. The day after tomorrow, I’m taking a train to Barcelona to finish off my travels with a little Film Festival. I’m slightly worried about the festival. Hopefully it’s not invisible like the opera. Cause I’m actually not sure where it is exactly. Wish me luck!

I’m getting used to this whole way of life. It’s fun being able to say what the hell, throw caution to the wind and take off to somewhere else. It’s true. Not everyone gets to see the world like this. I’m lucky. And I honestly am really trying to capture all the moments, good or bad, big or small and remember as much as I possibly can. As I might have said before, this trip and everything that has happened before this in Greece and at the islands is like my own story that I’m writing. And I’m the main character. I keep thinking that. So even if I missed a train, a part of me would smile cause I kind of feel like I’m entertaining my readers, or viewers, however you want to put it. That is a big reason why I’m writing this blog too. It’s a good way of reminding myself to treat this experience as a real life story that gets better as I stuff it with more and more interesting things.

S.

October Break (Part 2)!

Written 10/26

Friday night (23^rd Oct.)

I described us as a stampede of drunks. Yes, I did a pub-crawl in Rome. We all walked to each bar, every trip getting crazier than the next with loud singing, laughing and uninhibited conversation. This one girl kept asking me where I was from and what my name was, like each time she had met me for the first time. It was fun until we got to the last bar and my friends left before me. I was dancing so hard and I had been walking all day so my legs were hurting to an unbearable extent. The dance floor was completely packed and I was getting incredibly tired and fed up with being pushed aside carelessly every second by horny drunks. I didn’t even feel that buzzed even though they gave us a free shot at every new bar and I had about three beers other than that. So anyway, my friends left before me and I had to walk home at three in the morning with suffering feet. At least I had my map, which was very reliable. I got to the hostel and took a shower in a dirty bathroom, then went to sleep.

Moving backwards in time, I met some people before the pub-crawl. One of the guys in my hostel was from Stillwater and went to the same high school as I did! That blew my mind. I didn’t talk to him that much though. I asked him if he knew Mr. Lindsay. He said, “Yes I do know Mr. Lindsay. The bald white guy?” Hahaha so weird! I also met two people from Brazil. They said they wanted to go to the pub-crawl. They came with me to meet Cody and Ricky. Then they ditched us when we got to the first bar. Who knows?

Further backwards in time, before the night came, I walked around Rome for nine hours, saw the Colosseum, the Vatican and all sorts of beautiful buildings. It was an amazing experience. At the end of my journey when I could almost hear my legs whining for the first time that night, I stopped at a fountain that was enormous and decorated with Roman statues and threw a ten cent coin in it. I made a wish.

Saturday night (24^th Oct.)

I will return to a normal flow of events now. I left for Florence in the morning. The woman at the hostel was very nice and told me some places to “please go to” as she put it. I was charmed by how sweet and willing to laugh she was. She told me about a place to go to for the sunset (Piazzale Michelangelo) and raved about how it was so high up and gives you a good view of the town. I lit up and said, “I’m going now!” cause it was close to five. I put my stuff on my bed and walked to see Michelangelo’s David. Ok, I was NOT prepared for my reaction to this art piece. I had just seen the Vatican and was aware of how talented Michelangelo was but oh man, this was different for me for some reason. When I turned the corner in the museum and saw David lighting up the room with its brilliance, I involuntarily gasped and walked up to it with great anticipation to see it more closely. The moment I saw how detailed his hands were, with veins and everything, I became incredibly emotional. I couldn’t stop staring at it and thinking about how I believe I had just seen the most amazing art piece in the world. I felt like I was in the presence of a higher power, the higher power of the art world. My heart sped up and I was so amazed of Michelangelo’s ability to touch me like that. I felt almost depressed that this is what I would have to live up to with my music. I wanted to touch people for thousands of years. Wow.

The sunset from the hill was brilliant. There was a guitarist and hand percussionist playing by the steps I was sitting on and it created a great ambiance. I met some French girls and also found a lost camera. I held it up and asked if it was anyone’s. The French girls just told me to keep it cause it would be taken if I left it. I said that I couldn’t do it but one of the girls took it from me and said, “Ok it’s mine. And now I’m giving it to you.” So I did take it. And I feel really bad about it actually. I should have given it to the hotdog vender guy but what would he have done? :/

I walked home, actually quite lonely. I couldn’t stop running into couples kissing and holding hands, families laughing together and I was alone, walking the streets of one the most romantic cities in the world. I wanted to go to the hostel and go to sleep but at the same time I knew I would be lonely if I did that. I stopped at a pizza place that was empty. That didn’t make me feel too good. I tried SO hard to fight the feeling cause I knew I was in a great city and wanted to enjoy it. But here’s the rub. When I got back to the hostel after sort of getting lost in Florence a little, I met some of the coolest people I’ve ever met in my life: Nerese, another girl named Shelly, a guy named Matt and a girl named Phoebe. At first I was all flustered and I could not find the door that the nice hostel lady locked my big clothes bag in with my computer and everything. They were all chilling in the main area and started laughing at me cause I was pacing pack and forth, looking for something. I told them I was looking for a secret door. This was the start of our friendship. Phoebe offered me some wine. There wasn’t much but it was the beginning of me feeling comfortable again.

Phoebe told us that she literally was tone deaf. She doesn’t listen to music and basically can’t hear differences in notes. It was interesting to the point of scary. We talked til about 12:30am and Nerese and Shelly invited us to go with them to Cinque Terre and Pisa in the morning. I said yes right away. Matt had to do some adjusting with his schedule but he worked it out. Phoebe nicely denied the invitation. But that night was the most fun by FAR I have had on this trip. We had to get up in four hours but we were laughing like crazy and they were giving me the warmest feeling. I felt at home with them and I had just met them. I went to sleep with a smile. It was incredibly nice. Thanks so much new friends. If you only knew how truly lonely I was feeling before I met you.

Sunday (25^th Oct.)

The next day we woke up at 4:30am but then found out once we were all ready to leave for the train station that there was a time change so we got there an hour early. So we sat on the floor at the front of the train ticket line eating breakfast. No one was in the train station. We took pictures of each other and bonded even more.

Cinque Terre was unbelievably beautiful. Tall mountainous cliffs dropping off into the water. It was better than Mykonos in terms of being “breathtaking”. We walked on trails right beside the cliffs, climbed rocks, sat with our feet in the water and ate gelato. We stopped by this place where people had put locks on this gate on the cliff. I figured that iw as people’s way of coming to each other and remember when they traveled tot his great place. I used the lock that I happened to have from the last hostel and put my lock on someone else’s lock cause it didn’t fit around the bars on the gate (so am I committed to someone random out there? Haha). I scratched with my pencil sharpener on the lock, the word, “Yes,” and locked it on the other lock. This was my way of saying how proud I was with myself for really going for it and living my life. It was my commitment to myself and me being proud of how much of a yes man I’ve been. I mean hell, to go to these foreign places alone, forcing myself to make friends is not easy at first. But it’s really MORE than worth it in the end. So I was very proud of myself. It felt good.

We all had some ticket problems. I almost had to pay 50 euros because I forgot to write in the date on my Eurail pass. But he guy gave me a break and had me only pay for a regular ticket, which was like 14 euros. At least it was so much less.

At the last stop in Cinque Terre, Shelly and Nerese starting singing about the “Accordian Girl” cause they had supposedly seen a girl playing accordion for money in Greece when they visited there. But this was the funniest thing ever cause they did exactly what my family does. They just started singing and making funny noises, making up a story about the accordion girl. I joined in and I was in heaven. I couldn’t believe I met these people. Matt was quiet at this point haha. He was a little overwhelmed by the weirdness I think. But don’t get me wrong, he and I joked around in our own way. He’s funny as hell. So the girls and I made up all these songs, one about the boy who ate the ocean, a song about how wonderful rocks are (haha) and one about a guy made of bricks I think. Hahaha it was unbelievable. Oh man, later in the day, Shelly said, “Stoddy you are hilarious. And I mean that genuinely.” She has no idea how nice that is to hear. No idea.

We went to Pisa later that day and saw the leaning tower!! It was awesome. Then we ate the best pizza I have had in Italy yet. After that we finally headed home. I was about to nap on the way home when Matt asked me, “So what was it like growing up?” so I decided that it would be a talkative trip home. It was a great, deep conversation and I really appreciated it.

I about died when the girls started talking about how it’s fun to just make weird faces. I joined in gladly haha. My kind of girls. Oh and they’re from Toronto, near Buffalo New York. That’s not too far from Boston! I mean, not REALLY far. Maybe I can visit them in the future! Oh and then we started talking gibberish cause I said I liked to do it. That was really fun too.

So I decided that I will meet the girls in Bologna on Tuesday and stay at their hostel for a night. I miss them already and having friends in a time like this is really what I need. We’re gonna go out and have fun. That’s all I know. Bologna is supposed to be the party town of Italy.

Monday (26^th Oct.)

I woke up today, saw some more of Italy including the Duomo, which is this circular part of this huge church. It was cool cause there were paintings of heaven and hell on the ceiling but I was in a rush to get back down and the steps were incredibly narrow all the way up so I was a little anxious with how cramped I was with other tourists. I got back down and met Shelly. We were going to see this big house with secret passage ways but it was sold out. We got gelato and the chocolate chip was the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. Honestly. Then we went to this market area and looked around.

I’m on a train now and I have a bad feeling in my gut. I’m thinking it has to do with the fact that I still had to pay 18 euros for my ticket but I thought I would get it free cause of my pass. It was too late to go to the “other” station that supposedly would be the correct one for my pass so I had to stay here. Ugh, it upset me. But whatever, I can’t get stressed about it now. I’m on my way to Venice and am about to see the love duet opera. That is if I make it in time. I hope so. And I hope I meet people at least HALF as cool at this next hostel. After that, instead of going to Paris cause it’s so far out of the way, I’m going to Nice in France. I’ll spend a night and a day there and then go to Barcelona to see the film festival before going home.

I have to say, this break has been a great learning experience, completely worth it for the views, the art, the friends and the ability to travel anywhere but what it’s also doing to me is making me really appreciate my home back in Athens. It’s so familiar and I will be happy when I get back. It’s just that, traveling like this, alone, is a day-to-day thing. One moment I’m having the best experience EVER and the next moment, I feel terrified like a little eight-year-old boy. Sometimes for no reason. But it’s funny. I think it’s true that I am growing up from all this.

Written 10/27

Last night I saw the invisible opera in Venice! That’s right, I never saw it. I could not find the church or opera house that it was supposedly playing at. I even called the place and they told me to go to this church. I got to “the church” and it was closed. At least I didn’t pay for the show. All I did was put my name down. But I kept finding myself making up melodies to a new song I just started writing last night in my head called “Running the Grand Canal”. I ran around for close to two hours through the maze of Venice streets and ended up in this stunning area called Piazza Saint Marco. A long shopping building with hundreds of windows and a tower that beat every Venice building I had seen yet in height. Eventually I gave up when I was already about thirty minutes late and I just watched a string group play some contemporary and older classical songs in the palazzo, which was nice. It was also nice that it cost zero euros rather than fifty! Then I ate dinner at Hard Rock Café. I thought it would be cheaper than the other fancy Venice restaurants. It was cheaper cause I got free refills! That’s right, the sodas were also called Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi instead of Coke Light or Pepsi Light! It was nice to feel American for a little while even though I felt guilty that I was doing it in VENICE. I got a bargained ticket for the water tram home and it was the best thing I did that night. Seeing the view all along the Grand Canal was unbelievable. I’ve always wanted to go to Venice. It was beautiful, otherworldly, slightly smelly, hard to maneuver but so so worth it. Kids, this is what you call “Inspiration”! Write it down! Johnny! Especially you.

Now I’m in my hostel awaiting a message from Shelley to tell me (rhyme!) what hostel they booked me in. I will most probably just have to take a train there and find an Internet café to see if they facebooked me by then. If they still haven’t done it by then, I’ll just have to book a hostel when I get there which probably isn’t the best way to do it. That’s what I’ll do at 11 if no messages show up. It’s past 10:30 am now.

I am now in a hotel in Bologna. I ended up taking a train and then going to an internet café then chatting with Shelley from there. We couldn’t find anything cheap for three so I just got a room for one and they’re doing their own thing. I reserved a ticket to Nice, tomorrow (only eight euros cause of my Eurail pass) and then walked out of the train station, asked about the bus schedule but then was told that the hostel was a walking distance away. I actually got a single room finally at this hostel. I think it might actually be a hotel. But yeah, there is a bathroom that I have to share with someone but other than that it's only me! Oh man it feels good to have my own room. I haven’t had my own room since I left home in Maine! It’s so nice to not be living in the same room as five other people. Or even one other person cause I have a roommate in Greece! So it's been since Maine that I've had my own room. I’m relaxed in here. My bags are just strewn on the floor. Ahhh. Feels good. My socks smell also. And I’m hot. But who cares! I’m waiting for Shelley to get back online so that we can plan a place to meet up at and hang out all night. Tomorrow I have to get up at six in the morning to catch a train (at 7:41) to Nice, France. Yes, I’m going there instead of Paris. It’s along the coastline so it won’t take as long to go form there to Barcelona. And it’s on the coast! And someone at the last hostel in Venice said that there was a great hostel there with nice people and people my age. That's very important to me. But yeah, if I stay out with the girls tonight for a long while, I’m fine with just walking back here at 5:30am, getting my stuff together and walking to the train station which is only like 25 minutes away by foot. We probably won’t stay out that late but I really don’t care. I’ll have a total of seven hours to spend on the train. Yes, I have to change trains at one point but still. Does sleep really matter in cases like these? No. I mean, last night was the first night that I've gotten about eight hours but that was eight hours of torture, sleeping on a mattress divided in three segments, which were set on a metal frame that was not level with the ground and had only like three horizontal rods in it, one of them pushing into my back the whole night.

My favorite city so far? Rome.

My least favorite hostel so far? "The Yellow", Rome.

My favorite hostel so far? "David Inn", Florence. 95% because of my new friends and 5% because of the nice painter lady running the hostel.

The best thing I've seen? Michaelangelo's David in Florence and the view of Rome from Palatine hill, next to the Colosseum.

October Break (Part 1)!

Yesterday I got in and was a little scared cause it was so new and I was totally alone. I went to the hostel and wasn't very impressed. I then went out on the metro to a random stop and walked along the river and to a place that was recommended to go to for dinner at Lonelyplanet.com. I ended up at the Palazza Navona. I was starving by then and it was around 10pm. I stumbled into the most beautiful church! It was amazing. Then I ate some very high class pizza and drank some Italian wine. The pizza wasn't great though which was disappointing. Though that was because it had blue cheese in it. I met up with Cody and Ricky after that and we hung out at the Yellow Bar (the hostel's bar) and got to know these two girls that go to school right next to us in Boston, Boston University! So weird!

Today I walked around Rome for about nine hours!! It was soooo sooo sooo fun and enriching. I can't go into details now. I'm going out with Livia and Marcello (I met them here just about an hour ago and we talked about our travels). We're meeting Cody and Ricky at a metro stop and going to The Colloseum Pub. Oh no, I'll probably be out late! But in summary, my day today was PERFECT. I fit in more than I ever thought I could in one day.

UNTIL LATER.

Ugh

i don't care about spelling or grammar

yesterday i went to my class crossroads of greek rhythms and sounds then shared music with ricky and michael later that night i really like ricky's singersongwriter shit and michael is a great filmscore piano writer it was a good bonding experience then i had dinner with six of the others in the hotel like usual but what do you care thats all behind me and doesnt mean anything cause its over i mean i wish i were still sharing music with those two but im not anymore am i?im sitting in my muggy hotel room alone

today cody said if you wanted to look like Stoddy you have to hold the straps of your backpack with your thumbs away from your chest as you do a dumb look on your face and make sure to always look lost and michael said come on! i really have given up on this study abroad stuff cause i think the events here have ended

ive really done all the cool stuff and now i just have to ride it out and wait til i go back nothing to look forward to anymore

today i went to my greek class it was really really hard and my head hurt afterwards and i was much more tired and she told us about a test we will have soon.do you feel sorry for me yet??

then I went to mediterranean percussion and it was fun like usual cause the teacher is cool but he gave us all this homework blah who does homework anyway

tomorrow all that im doing is getting up early even though i dont have classes which sucks ass then i have to get to the school by twelve and get my bank book so i can get proof that i put enough money in the bank that the school associates with and then withdraw enough stupid money for later then i have to do another god awful errand i have to drag my ass to the vodofone store which is the phone store of the little cell phone i have here that i rarely use and that i only call the other kids on this trip with

i have to go to the store to get more minutes in case i run into an emergency later

oh and then tomorrow im starting my boring one and half week trip to

ROME, FLORENCE, VENICE, PARIS, BARCELONA and maybe MADRID which includes the VATICAN, the COLOSSEUM, A LOVE DUET COMPILATION OPERA IN VENICE, THE EIFFEL TOWER, THE LOUVRE, A FILM FESTIVAL IN BARCELONA, all kinds of MUSIC and even MORE GIRLS of DIFFERENT ETHNICITIES so there's no WAY I can even FATHOM the ADVENTURES I'll have.

so fuck off and go do something exciting for me cause i don't know what the hell i'm gonna do other than pick my ass

WHILE A HOT SPANISH BABE does the SAME THING TO HERSELF BESIDE ME!

my life blows.

Funny Day

Ohhhh man funny day. All because I was in a weird mood though. I could NOT stop laughing in my Greek language class. One reason was because I hadn't eaten anything and had just walked to school with my back sweating like hell cause it was really hot today (ohhh yes, still hot here). So what made me laugh was this stereotypical page with pictures of different cartoon people and their descriptions in Greek (we were all looking at this page in our Greek books in class). The tall girl was "beautiful", "blonde", "rich", whatever, the nerdy guy was "smart", "brown hair", he had glasses. But then randomly there was this VERY short man who had this SMUG look on his face. He was really fat too. I already started laughing. His name was Avtam (pronounced Adam). My teacher was telling us what the Greek description words meant. The first three were stereotypical, normal things like, "black hair", "rich", "short" and then the fourth one was RANDOMLY, "gentle." What the HEEELL! Why was he gentle? That was not stereotypical of what he looked like. He looked mean like a mafia guy. I thought it was hilarious cause he seems all bad but if you get to know him, that poor guy, he's actually really gentle and sensitive, a loving guy. And most people don't know that about him. God, I was laughing so hard and trying so bad not to keep doing it so I thought of one of my biggest regrets to try to quell the feeling. It worked for a while but then the laughs came back. What did NOT help was when Cody said, "What the hell, he doesn't even have black hair." I looked over at the picture and he looked like he was bald even though the description said otherwise. I thought to myself that the little fat cartoon man was so misunderstood. OOOH my god I went over the edge. I was so glad when it finally reached one oclock because that meant I could take a break, eat something and get my laughs out. I laughed ALL the way to the bank to get money for food. At least my teacher is awesome cause when I got back she asked me why I was laughing so much and I told her it was because of Adam, the mafia character. She laughed a lot and said it was great that I was laughing. I even told her that I laughed all the way to the bank. Hahahaha this sounds like the kid's thing, "This little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home!" Wow, memories.

Tonight at dinner I started laughing cause I thought of something I said the night before. At dinner last night, we were talking about Disney and how they put sexual things in their movies. We mentioned Little Mermaid and how at the end, the priest has a boner. Someone at the dinner table asked "What does the priest have?" I spoke up, thinking that I could ease their confusion about the matter. This is what came out of my mouth: "In the marriage scene at the end of Little Mermaid, the priest has a lesbian."

I seriously said that so I quickly added, "Wait, what the hell did I just say?" and bursted out into laughter. NO ONE LAUGHED THOUGH! I don't get it. I think they were weirded out. I even repeated again what I said, laughing at myself. I said it because of the musical I'm writing about a guy that becomes a woman and therefore is a lesbian who gets back with his recently out of the closet girlfriend. So that was in my mind from writing it and I think that's why I said it at the dinner table. Oh and right after, I was like, "Uhhh Freudian slip!" but I didn't explain so they probably just think I simply have lesbians in my brain all the time. HAHA. So yeah, tonight I started laughing about that, not explaining what I was laughing at cause no one asked (they're used to me haha) and no one said anything. They must think I'm psycho. Oh and I had two really sugary drinks walking home cause I was tired. So I'm still feeling the effects of it now and it's much later. 1:33 am to be exact. After dinner and after some travel stuff I was getting organized, I made a recording for Whit that could be by far the weirdest thing I've EVER done. Whit is probably flipping out listening to it now. And my roommate heard me doing it all. I said to Michael, "You're the best roommate I could have in this group I think cause I bet Cody would have killed me by now." Michael laughed and said, "Yeah, he probably would have." Ohhh no hahaha.

Oh pfff, I forgot something else I did at dinner today. I can't go into many details cause in case the people read this, I don't want to offend anyone but we were talking about these two adults that we just met that have a daughter we haven't met yet but probably will in the future. Cody knows the daughter. I asked Cody at the dinner table, "So does their daughter look more like her dad or her mom?" He said, "Her dad," and I replied with, "Oh good!" then realized how mean it was cause the mom is overweight and the dad is thin and well kept. Cody quickly said back to me, "That's fucked up." Then he proceeded to tell everyone what I had said. At least Sadayah laughed. Everyone else didn't say much. After I kept saying, "I'm so sorry, that was mean, wasn't it?" Cody added, "Yeah it was..." and then later said, "their daughter is a babe." I felt so incredibly bad that I shut up for the rest of dinner. Mia said, "You guys are mean." It just came out of my mouth, what I said. I didn't even think about it before it rolled off my tongue. Damn, hahahaha. Only me.

Fuuuuunny day. And embarrassing.

When I wake up it will be Tuesday. And that is two days away from when I will be in ROME!

The Amazing Stoddy.

Lots to Think About

Michael and I ate at this cafe we found right near Megaro Mousikis (the metro stop that's closest to the hotel). We each had these two little sandwiches. Ok price. They were simple and good. We had a conversation about movies and talked about the night before.

Last night most of "the eight" went to look for a bowling alley that was supposed to be near Omonia station (I met them at the station cause I was at the school all day writing music on a baby grand that I got to play for about three hours, YEEES, after which I Skyped with Mom and Dad at an internet cafe called Cafe4u). We couldn't find the bowling place so we went to a bar we were at before that was big and fun. The girls left prematurely so Michael, Cody, Ricky and I went back near the hotel and went to a bar there so we wouldn't have to take a taxi home or anything. Ricky and I talked the whole night while Cody and Michael had some kind of wild conversation. Ricky and I kept laughing about how people would suddenly rise from the floor. We found out soon that there was a small elevator platform that would take the bartender down to get more alcohol or something. We called it "The Underworld." Ricky and I also were singing our own melodies to the songs playing. It was really fun. Cody kept hitting me with a bottle in the train and it made me mad so I videotaped him while he was slightly off from the night's events (if you know what I mean) so I hope he is embarrassed by it. I told him I would get him back for the bottle hits. Haha.

Back to the events of today, Ricky, Michael and I did Greek homework on a grassy area near the hotel. We were laughing at this guy lying on his stomach who appeared to not be breathing at all. He looked dead. But I noticed that he had his shoes off and said that he was fine cause who would go, "Oh I'm dying. I better take my shoes off to be more comfortable."

Ricky and I went to the gym. I ran really hard on the treadmill. It felt good. I listened to some rock and jazz to keep me going.

I came back, worked on some music and organized my travel plans. Lots to think about!

S.

New People!

Zoe, Ricky, Cody, Michael, Mia and I went out to a show last night and saw this guy, George (the English version of his name) play guitar. He's really good! The band was not great. But the piano player was also good. They're both from Nakas. George is really nice and he said he has an album he wants to show me. He also said he's really interested in hearing my stuff too! I cannot remember the piano player's name at the moment. After the show, George got us a taxi. He spoke to the drivers and told them where to go in Greek so we had no idea where we were going. Zoe, Ricky, Michael and Mia took one and Cody and I took the second one right behind them. They took us WAY out. A 20 euro drive. Everyone was freaking out in different degrees. Cody was freaking at first cause he had to pee really really bad when we were in the taxi. When we got out and realized we were in a kind of sketchy, random ass area in the middle of nowhere, that's when things started getting more interesting. Mia started acting like Simba if you told him he couldn't be king. Well, a girl Simba. For a while, Cody, some others and I were singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to pass the time. Zoe started feeling guilty cause she felt responsible since she agreed to let George send us away in taxis. But we all agreed on letting him do that. It wasn't her fault. It was the taxi driver's fault. And I even said to him earlier that I wanted to go out. I kept saying to Zoe, "Don't worry, it will be fine." Fiiiinally Geroge shows up, really afraid that he just turned us against him. I assured him it was ok and told him I still was having fun. We headed to the area that we were supposed to go to and it was completely empty. Ghost town. So George was pretty much failing with the whole show-the-Americans-around thing. But I made sure to let him know everything was good. We ate at this amazingly good gyro place which eased the tension of the night.

Today, even though I didn't have any classes, I went to the school at around 2 pm and wrote music until about 8:30. The time slipped by me. It was 6:30 before I knew it and Michael texted me that they were eating dinner at the hotel at 7. I had to tell him that I wasn't able to make it. So I stayed for 2 more hours and then ate at Syntagma (a metro stop pretty near the school). But anyway, I wrote a whole song today. The first song of my musical!

I walked home while listening to Nick Drake which was nice. I had a moment of happiness hit me (a bubble of happiness as I like to call it) while I was walking. I felt so accomplished and excited for what is to come on this awesome trip. And I was looking around at all these people living their normal lives. So weird that life goes on everywhere. And it's more similar than you think even though it seems so different at first. We pretty much all want the same thing. No regrets. Love. To feel accomplished. The list could go on for a while but I believe my point has been made. Haha.

I got home, now with more ideas about my musical, changed around my song a little bit that I had just written, finished watching Corrina Corrina and then exchanged a couple messages with this girl I met on the plane coming here. We were on the same flight to Zurich and we got along really well. Now we're talking on Facebook and what's so funny is that she's studying abroad in Vienna and she'll be there while I'm visiting Paula! (I've decided to visit Paula for the entirety of the November break instead of during any of the October break because it would cost too much and also I really don't have the time for it). But But Sarah, the girl I met on the plane, is going on a trip as well so she'll only be in Venice for about a day while I'm there but still. That would be cool if I saw her. Oh and she will be in Athens at some point! I don't know yet if she'll be here before I leave for the November break but oh my god that would be funny if we met up in both cities.

I leave for Rome on Thursday!!!!

And I'm SOOOOOO excited that I'll just be able to chill in Vienna for a four day weekend with Paula in November. What a change from being on my own for this first break. It will feel nice to know that someone else is in charge and can take me around. Oh, I forgot to say that Ricky and Cody might go to Rome for the whole October break so I might be able to hang out with them while I'm in Rome the first two nights. Then I'll take off to do my own thing! I'm going from Rome to Florence to Venice, then to Paris, then to Barcelona. In Venice, I'm seeing a opera of the best love duets from different operas and then in Barcelona I got tickets to a film festival! I get to choose like 6 films to see from about 25 different ones playing while I'm there. Ohhhhh yes. AND I forgot to mention, in Rome I made reservations to go see the Colosseum and then the Vatican!

Soccer!

I went to a Greece vs. Luxemburg soccer game earlier tonight at the

new Olympic Stadium (where they held the 2004 olympics)! The stands
weren't that filled up but it was still great to see. Greece won 2-1.

Ricky got a discounted sub from Christina today. She asked him if he knew "Stoddart" and he said yes. OHHH sweet, I can hook my friends up with cheap subs. YEAH I'm the coolest.

Monday and Tuesday

My brain is completely fried because all day I've been doing things and I just spent about three hours trying to plan for my travels during my late October break and it is HARD to do. I have a headache from being nervous and not knowing how the hell to exactly be a lone traveler. And plus I don't know Italian or French. Spain will be the best cause I know Spanish pretty well. Today I wrote more at Momus, my favorite place at which to relax and write. I bought a soda from Christina and we had a short, funny talk. I said one of my wishes if I had a genie would be that dogs would live twice as long. She said I should buy a dog when I'm 60 so that my dog died with me. I thought it was sooo funny and seriously thought, "I hope I live past 75" but I didn't say that. I also started watching Corrina Corrina tonight on the internet. So good obviously.

Yesterday also I wrote at Momus. Dinner with the president of the school was canceled so we all had the normal dinner at the hotel. I also met a Greek girl and two guys while waiting for my History of Music class. The girl is named Maria. One of the guys is named Chris. Don't know the other guy's name. Yay! I met people!

Weekend in Nafplio

Highlights:

- The first day (Friday) we ate a lot of food at dinner. That's pretty much what happened then.

- I smoked a cigar when the guys and I stayed in the city longer than the others last night.

- I stood from this really old castle and saw an amazing view of Nafplio this morning.

- Saw an old Greek theater that had unbelievable acoustics today. I sang the first verse and chorus of Hot Damn Got a Woman on the platform in front of tourists and friends. Scary.

New Videos on Youtube

There are five "Stoddy Abroad - Mykonos" videos on YouTube. Just some short, documenting videos of my trip to Mykonos Island with 5 others from my group.

Go to youtube.com/sblackall

Another two days

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time at Momus after class finished at four o'clock. I love my Mediterranean percussion ensemble teacher who's also my teacher for another class called Greece-Crossroads of Rhythms and Sounds. He's silly and will just start singing randomly sometimes. Yesterday he came up to me when music was playing and blew his flute right in front of my face. Then he did his hyena laugh afterwards. And he randomly brought up "La Vita e Bella" (Life is Beautiful) for no reason. I said that was like my favorite movie ever. We connected over that.

Last night, Michael and I hung out with Cody and Ricky in their room. We watched YouTube videos. Two of them were of Ricky's music. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzJoDcn2Rk to hear my favorite song of his so far. I've only hear two of his songs but this one just gets me. I love his style. I kept telling him specific things about what I like in his song Eucalyptus (the one that I posted the link to) and he seemed happy about what I was saying. Made me happy.

Today, all of us except for Sadayah went to the croissant place. I told Christina that they were my friends after all of them had paid for their subs. She told me I should have said that earlier. She gave me my sparkling Fanta lemonade for free (my favorite soda here)! I mouthed, "Thank you" to her and I went upstairs to sit with the others. Cody asked me, "So where's your ho?" I asked what he said and he repeated it. I laughed and said, "That's the girl. The girl who sold you the subs." Mia said that she contemplated putting her arm around me and really flirting with me so Christina would be jealous. I walked downstairs first when we were done and I went up to Christina and said, "Have a good rest of the day," motioning an air cheers to her with my soda. She stopped me and said, "Next time, tell me that you are going to bring your friends because I can give a discount." I was excited and told Cody as we were walking out. He told me, "It looks like I'm getting subway a lot more often." He still calls it Subway which annoys me but I can't blame him cause it did used to be a Subway. However, now it is owned by Christina. I just wish she would go ahead and name the place something instead of just saying it used to be Subway. But hey, look at what I've got for my friends? A place where we can get discounts because of a crush! A failed crush at that...but you're right mom, everything works out for the best. Well maybe not the best but it still worked out in some way.

Voice lesson notes that I want to put down in stone:

- Taste the notes like they're chocolate cake

- Sing from the lowest part of the body

- Strong without pushing

- Make neck feel as soft as a Tempur-pedic Mattress

I forgot to say that on Tuesday night I was upset so I just went to McDonald's for dinner instead of coming home and having dinner with the other students here. It's ok cause sometimes people skip out. You just have to say you're not gonna be at dinner. Before I went to McDonald's (which was normal by the way - I've wanted to try it to see if it tasted any different) I went to a store called Public. Public is just like Best Buy but this one is even bigger. There's a whole floor meant for Videogames. In my pissy mood, this floor was a dream for me. I stayed there for about an hour. The time slipped away from me as I played racing games, this cool zombie game with the Wii gun and a weird frog puzzle game where I shot balls out of my mouth and tried to match them with the same colors. I have to admit, it felt very nice to play some video games again. I felt younger doing it. And closer to Whit haha. But anyway, when I got to McDonald's, I sat there and worked on a timeline for my musical. The story has changed since then but it seemed effective at the time. Well, until I started doubting the story. I realized I had to just jump in and really begin writing it instead of only outlining it. So that's what I did today for a while at school. I brought the computer and wrote at the school cafe for about an hour and a half. I'm the kind of guy that needs to experience it in the front lines to really do it right.

Tonight, we're going to dinner with a guy that flew here to get footage of all of us on this trip. He has a video camera and he actually video taped us a little this morning in my Greek Civ class. I'm not sure where we're going tonight but I don't think I have to pay for it! This weekend, he's coming with us on the trip to Nafplio for my Civ class. I'm so excited! It's supposed to be a beautiful little town. And it has a lot of history there. Our teacher said we're gonna see THE theater. The one that's been here since 300 B.C. He says the acoustics there are absolutely astonishing. I just remembered something I said to my teacher today as I was walking down the stairs behind him after class. I asked him, "Should we bring shoes tomorrow?" He looked at me with a puzzled expression. "I'm just kidding," I finished. He laughed and added, "No, don't bring your shoes. You won't need them." Hahaha I don't know why I said that but I guess I feel comfortable with him, humor-wise.

Two days

I accidently missed my piano lesson yesterday because I was too excited about the amazing weekend I had just had, I was happy about how well it went with croissant girl (she got pretty close to me and taught me some Greek words...and she looked hot as hell) and I was thrilled about my new musical theater idea, anxious to get working on it as soon as possible. I remembered that I forgot about my lesson three whole hours after I was supposed to go to it. In the confines of my own practice room, I fell to the ground, imitating how a woman might faint after finding out her husband died of a fainting accident (which would spark a moment of humor quelled by fear), and lay on my back for a half a minute, groaning with disgust for my random, out of nowhere stupidity.

Today I found out croissant girl has a boyfriend. Ok, I'll write her name down. Why not? Xpistiva (Christina). Xpistiva has a boyfriend. I asked her out again today and she told me the news. I was pretty upset from that today. More than I wanted to be. And I realized two people working on my recent album are disappointed with the way I did things. That hurt and confused me.

But today I also worked more on my musical idea. It keeps evolving and hence, devolving in the process. The more I write, the more I take away and end up with barely anything again. That's just the way it seems to work. However, this is exciting and keeps my brain going during the weekdays here. This weekend I'm going on a Nakas paid field trip to Nafplio with my Civ class teacher (with the 7 other students as well) and I am very excited about that. Nafplio is a town about two hours north, I believe. That should be cool because I haven't really traveled yet on the mainland of Greece. There will be lots of learning, eating and having fun.

Stoddy.

The Weekend of Weekends

MYKONOS MYKONOS MYKONOS!

I had so much fun this weekend, if you tried to jam all the awesomeness of it into one room, you'd have things hanging out of the windows, sticking through the ceiling and poking through the walls. AMAZING. UNBELIEVABLE.

1. Five of us got there and immediately I split up from the group because I had an itch for doing something crazy even though I got less than 4 hours of sleep the night before and didn't sleep at all on the 6 hour ferry ride. I told the other four that I was gonna go jetskiing, which is at a couple beaches over. I went to this little store and asked for bus tickets to the beach but the name of the beach slipped my mind at that moment (Platys Gialos). I remembered the name of the other beach across the island though (Kalafatis Beach) and asked him for a ticket there because I knew there was windsurfing over there. He said I would have to take a bus into Mykonos town which is where we just were when we arrived in the ferry. But then I would have to take a bus all the way to Kalafatis Beach from town. It was already like 2:30 at that point and I was afraid windsurfing would be closed by the time I got all the way across the island but I bought a ticket anyway. It was cheap as hell. When I got to town, I asked around and finally found the other bus station up a hill where I was supposed to take a bus to Kalafatis. Unfortunately, the next bus wasn't until 5 and it was now about 3:15. I was not going to wait that long so I had to find another way to get there. So I rented a 4-wheeler and drove myself! It was so badass. There was a point that I was so thrilled by the absolute beauty of my surroundings, the exhilaration of taking this trip on my own and obviously the excitement of driving fast that I stared yelling "WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO YEEEEEAAAAH! I SOUND LIKE A GIRL!" and then I just went ahead and yelled "I'M A GIRL!!!" even though it made no sense but it didn't matter. I was fucking alive. LIVID. My engine did overheat at one point though and I had to wait by this farm for a while. There were two cows that I tried to feed grass to but they just stared at me, unassuming, not scared, just dumb and interested enough to look me in the eyes. It was funny. The 4-wheeler would not start and I was scared I was going to be stuck there I would have to call the rental place. Finally it worked and I finished my drive there.

2. Windsurfing - This typical surfing dude kind of guy was my teacher. Yes, I decided to get a lesson in windsurfing instead of wasting my time not knowing what the hell I was doing. All I'll say is that by the end of the hour, I was going away from the shore, catching the wind, turning back to shore, going back out away from the shore and heading back to shore without falling once. And it was SO fun! Oh and I asked him if the job ever gets boring or frustrating (cause at the beginning I was falling a lot but I just kept getting back on and either saying, "All right, doing it again!" or started singing a song like "Let It Be" haha). He said with people that take a while to learn it gets frustrating but with me it was good. YAY! I can't wait to windsurf again cause I know how to do it now! SO COOL! One lesson and I could go out alone probably.

3. I drove back to town and we all had dinner. By the way, the island was incredibly beautiful. Driving on the edge of mountains overlooking water and rocky cliffs is breathtaking when you're zooming by with wind in your face. At dinner we talked about what we did. They all stayed at the beach and relaxed. I felt so good at dinner I wanted to climb on the table and dance but I played it cool. I was happier than I've been in a very long time. I was fulfilled. Ahhh. I ordered Ouzo for the first time and it was ok. I don't like it that much but it definitely got to me because on the way back to the hotel in the bus I was laughing at the strangest things to myself. I think it was because I was feeling a buzz on top of being high on real happiness from the day.

4. We sat by the beach for about three hours. I couldn't imagine the day getting better. But it did. It was so fun being on the beach at night with beers in our hands, listening to the waves on the beach and later climbing on this cool tree that you could climb and sit at the top like you were in the Sea God's thrown. I got up there at one point and talked to the others in all these weird-ass voices while they took pictures of me. And yes the alcohol had me in a good place by then.

5. On Saturday, I took a walk to Platys Gialos which I realized was only like 15 minutes away by foot. Now that was a nice walk. The views I saw were the views I imagined when I thought of Greece before coming here. Rocky cliff hills, ocean crashing at the bottom. I found myself stopping and whining like a dog at some points because I couldn't take what I was looking at. I couldn't believe I was there. I finally got to Platys Gialos and they said the wind was going the wrong way so they weren't doing jet skiing. I was upset but I just bought a Bud and sat by the ocean in one of those beach chairs. That was amazingly relaxing. I sat there for a while then walked back towards the hotel. I was told by a waitress that another beach a ways past the beach we lived at might have some other things to do (she wasn't sure if they had parasailing but figured they had some things) but I knew that would be a long walk from where I was. I needed to think of something else to do. I remembered that on the way to Platys Gialos, there was a beach with a lot of naked people on it. I was going to stop there to check it out. I remembered seeing a couple topless girls. Yes, and also some old naked men haha. I got to the nude beach (I found out later that our beach is also a nude beach but I never saw anyone naked there) and sat down on a lawn chair by some naked men and women. Then I said what the fuck and took my shirt off, dropped my swimsuit, and sat back down. I even took off my glasses and my watch. I was completely naked. I even got up to swim a couple times and didn't cover myself as I walked back to my chair. Then I saw this girl walk by and take a gander at my slightly spread legs. She was topless. She walked by again and I was happy. I decided to walk to the end of the beach and strut my stuff since other people were walking around haha. I did that and got back to my chair. Suddenly a man came over to me and said, "Hello." I was confused and covered up quickly by putting my swimsuit over my area. He said, "You have to pay." I was glad that was what he came over for cause if he was going to hit on me I would have been VERY awkward obviously. Finally when I decided it was time to go back, I turned around and pulled my swimsuit back on and then realized that I was directly facing about 4 or 5 old women staring at the bottom half of me. One of them had this open mouth smile that suggested that she hadn't seen a young dick in a long ass time. Hahahaha it was hilarious. I think I just smirked. I was glad I could give that to them.

6. The rest of the day was hang day. I mean hang as in hang out. Not hanging our dicks since that was the subject before this paragraph haha. We, normally clothed in beach attire, stayed on our beach, hit a ball back and forth with these paddles Cody bought. There were some intense rallies. It was fun. We also talked to some girls which was nice. At one point, I was sitting in a beach chair and I found myself right where these people were making a movie so I might have ended up in a scene cause they told me to act normally and not look in the camera. I just kept watching this girl, who was an extra in the movie, throw a ball back and forth with another guy. I was content.

7. We all went to town, had dinner, I had a shot and half of this really good Greek wine. Later, I had some good talks with Ricky (he's a cool guy!) while waiting by the water for a 6th member of our group. She was at the same island with her cousins. We met some other study abroad students from another school who are also studying in Athens and there are like 200 or 400 students in that program. YEAH! Hopefully I'll be able to meet more of them. We got some tips about where to go clubbing from a couple different people back at the beach and from the people we met in town.

8. We went to a club called Scandinavian club or something and it was a blast. I ended up dancing on the highest riser against the wall for like thirty minutes so everyone could see me. I got a couple high fives from these random girls in the club. One of them even got up and danced beside me. Score, haha!

9. One of the members in our group got in sort of a fight which was random but everything worked out.

10. The 6th member's cousins stole a boat supposedly just to have fun. That was a weird story to hear about and I was glad I was not part of it.

11. We took a taxi back and everyone went to bed except for Michael, Ricky and me. We ended up going down to the beach at like 3:30 in the morning and it was HOPPIN'! We danced until 5 in the morning and I met this girl that was interesting haha. A very strange girl. She was really cute with dark hair and piercing brown eyes and kept dancing next to me. Finally I got up the guts to ask her where she was from. She said, "Guess." I swear, it was so embarrassing. I could NOT figure it out and she said at like two occasions, "Fucking Americans," in jest. But it still hurt haha. I felt so dumb. My first guess was Spain and she said she was half Spanish. And half Greek. But every other guess just caused her to drop her head in laughter. She pointed at the poster for the movie that was being filmed at our beach and said that it was on the poster. I was so scared and couldn't hear well that I couldn't figure it out. Finally she told me she was from Australia. What the hell? That never even crossed my mind. Later she was beside me again and I said to her, "Don't tell me I have to guess your name too." She laughed and said, "Guess." Hahaha. So I just said, "Ariel." She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "How did you know...that was my name yesterday, Murmaid boy." Strange haha. But that made her appealing. When we finally left I said, "By Ariel" even though I knew that wasn't her name. Or was it? I don't know.

12. This morning, Ricky, Cody and I had breakfast at the bus station near our hotel. On the ferry back to Athens, I wrote on a little pad of paper pretty much the whole time. I've been on this streak lately where I just write an entire story on the spot and see where it goes. Usually it doesn't go all the way to the end cause I don't like it. But my goal is to make one of these stories into a musical. Today I was on a role. I really like my idea! I'm excited. I decided here that I wanted to be inspired by Greece to write a musical with a fresh, new experience driven story. I think starting over like this and not using any other ideas for musicals that I was thinking about before is the best choice right now. And it's been fun. If all else fails, it's been nice writing a lot anyway. Eventually, I'll find the perfect story and write an awesome musical. I've really been getting excited about that lately. People have always said I should do it and for once I really feel like it's also what I really want to do!

S.

P.S. I also saw the most beautiful girl and the ugliest girl in the world this weekend. The pretty girl walked by me in a crowd of people. Her eyes looked like the inside of one of those rocks that has diamond like things in it when you break it open. She had some freckles on her olive skin face and her hair was dark, wavy and silky smooth. I couldn't believe how amazing she was. Unbelievably, mind-shatteringly stunning. Then at multiple occasions, first on the ferry, I saw this woman with a normal top half of a face but the bottom half was like twice the size than I would expect. Her mouth was humungous and looked like a bee the size of a dog stung her there. I felt so bad for her but then later saw a guy with his arm around her and walking with her. That made me feel better cause most of my hard feelings towards her came from pity. But seriously, she was so intensely ugly. I feel awful saying that but it's true. She was so repulsive that every time I saw her, I literally got sick to my stomach. For some reason, when a mouth is fucked up, it gets me the most. I think it started with the Twilight Zone movie that I watched when I was really young and there was a girl in that movie without a mouth. THAT FREAKED ME OUT. So seeing this woman with such a dysfunctional looking mouth (that I found out later could in fact hold a cigarette) really disgusted me to the core. But to end on a good note, YAY a weekend to remember forever! Haha. What a change in mood. Sorry bee sting lady.

Mykonos!

I'm waking up in five hours to go to Mykonos tomorrow!!! I'm so excited! Courtney, Cody, Michael, Ricky and I are going, sharing one tiny, awful hotel room that I think is the cheapest living situation you can get there and we're gonna have awesome time. I just know it. Jet skiing and going to an open theater at night where drinks are served nearby or in the theater (I think), clubbing, eating dinner, and maybe wind surfing are possible happenings. Well we'll obviously eat dinner. Oh and I heard that there are a lot of nude beaches. Cool hahaha. But I think most of them are gay beaches or something. We'll see. If my friends aren't around, I might go to a nude beach. That is if it is a mixed beach cause I'm not going to a beach with only naked men haha. Sick.

EP

I got the tracks yesterday! My EP is done except for mastering. But now it'll be up on my Bandcmap site soon! YAY! That was the highlight of yesterday.

Today I have some things to take care of before my mind is at ease. One of the things is to purchase a return flight from Spain to Athens. All right, I'm gonna walk to school now.