Halloween Spectacular

Tomorrow officially starts the "BEDIN" quest, but I thought I'd start a day early to deliver a little Halloween Spectacular.

I left Turin this morning at 6am and have arrived five hours later on the opposite side of The Boot. Italians don't generally celebrate Halloween, but why let something like popular opinion effect how I partake in foreign festivities? I have therefore treated myself to a long weekend in Venice.

This place cost an arm and a leg in taxes alone, so I find myself pinching pennies by the sea side. Regardless, the canals are fantastic and the buildings divine. My favorite part is the Gondola Men, always leaning cooly against wooden bridges with their slender boats tucked safely underneath, lapping with the tides. I can't help but to feel that they exude a kind of sexuality that I have never before seen in those working in the public transportation profession. I imagine my bus drivers wearing those body-hugging nautical V-necks and the result is just not the same. Train conductors in ribbon-lined straw hats? Definitely no the same appeal. Gondola men: the only reason why anyone would pay 60 Euro to float through canals.

The city is as confounding as you would expect a city built on water to be. To get from here to there requires maze-like intellect as dead-ends are bountiful and streets signs perpetually useless.

Still, beauty is omnipresent and I'm happy to be here. A domani tutti, and Happy Halloween.

There is no end to the videos of Thailand.

The week is almost over. It goes by so fast. I won't have a full weekend in Turin until December.

I still have countless video footage of my trip in Thailand, and I manage to throw some together periodically. No, I am not living a double life between Southeast Asia and Western Europe, I'm just chronologically impaired. Bare with me.

This is a brief film of my fourth day in Bangkok, though techically it was filmed in Ayutthaya. The palace grounds were so huge that it was recommended that we rent golf carts, which we did with more fun and pleasure than necessary. We encountered monks on vacation and harassed hedge-monsters, then spent the afternoon at the Ancient Market trying all sorts of traditional Thai food. If you can't view the video, allow me to redirect you to my YouTube page here.

I hope the weather is well wherever you are as I have just been driven by necessity to purchase my first legitimate winter coat ever. Let me tell you, it doesn't mess around. It's like magic really. You see, I zip it up and throw the fur-lined hood over my head and it's like Hawaii, but indoors. My legs complain but my body is lying beach-side with a Corona in the inside wool-reinforced pocket. I haven't been in love with anything so wonderful since I last saw the Jonas Brothers on "Disney in English" last Monday. No matter what you say, you can't take my Jonas away.

Next time you hear from me I'll be elsewhere, though we'll keep the destination a surprise. BEDIN is about to begin and November will make you wish you were me.

So, what's everyone going to be for Halloween?

A little experiment

For the entire month of November, I'll be conducting a little experiment which we'll call "Blog Every Day In November," or "BEDIN," for acronymical fun. I've seen this type of documentation done in the form of YouTube videos, but I have neither the time nor the talent to see something of that magnitude through. November is the perfect month as just enough is happening to keep both of us occupied. In fact, so much is happening that it would be a downright injustice to let any of it go unrecorded. I'll be traveling more frequently, so expect updates from different locations in Europe. I'll try my hardest to bring my world to you as my time abroad is slowly coming to a close. In a few days we'll kick this off, so stay tuned.

Busking at it's finest

A surprise orchestration on one of Turin's main streets catches me by surprise. I love buskers and these guys do it right!



If you can't view the video, click HERE!

Liver, lungs and brains.

Last month, I joined the B-family in a trip to the Asti countryside. The weather was near perfect and so we hopped on some old school Italian bicycles and toured the vineyards.

Last weekend, we revisited Asti and the country was colder in more ways than one. Despite the chill, we managed to have adventures without cycles. By adventures, I mean ingesting things that most people wouldn't: Sulfur water, liver, lungs and brains. For me, this was an experience I didn't expect, and yet, one that I would never have passed up. Enjoy the video :)

If the video does not appear, click here!

Venti anni fa.

Tonight at dinner we talked about history. Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and everyone who was old enough to remember it, remembered it. Where they were, what the saw, how the world reacted. They told me their stories, of watching East Berliners and West Berliners come together for the first time in thirty years to friends and family that they had been separated from. It had been half a lifetime for them.

They said people brought food and beer and cried and ate while simultaneously tearing down the wall. The guards, outnumbered and confused by the sudden crowds that had gathered on both sides of the divide, took their weapons and abandoned their posts. Within days, the barrier would be destroyed.

It's an event that I know little about despite its importance, so on the weekend of November 9th, I'll be flying over to Berlin to join in with the celebrations. Museums and tours, it will be self-education at its finest. On Monday, the festivities should come to a head with exhibitions, demonstrations, performances and mass inebriation (all of which I intend to participate in).

Video documentation guaranteed.

Ciao Autunno or How Autumn Killed the Summer Dress.

About two weeks ago the temperature in Turin plummeted. I shut and locked my large glass window for the first time since the start of summer and I haven't opened it since. Already its exterior is coated in a thin layer of dust from nearby construction, filtering what little sunlight that manages to make it through the clouds and reducing my room to a constant state of winter gloom.

Two days later, I pulled out my trusty suitcase, opened my closet doors and proceeded to pack away my summer dresses, one by one. The cotton white number with crocheted trimmings that kept me cool in the intense Thai humidity, the red and white polka-dotted sundress that I changed into in the handicapped stall of Nice Côte d'Azur Airport after staining my favorite knee-length dress when leaving the United Arab Emirates. My heart had atrophied by the time I rehung the hangars so that they swung naked and lonely in the hollowness of my closet. If there was one way to personify the end of summer and the quickly approaching winter, this was it.

Hello Autumn.