Off Time

Well, I'm sitting here in the computer lab using up some time before I return to the venue. This morning we got to the venue at about 9 am, to soon find out that Bolivia had pulled out, there was a reseed, and we had a bye the first round. After watching the Venezuela/Argentina match, we returned to warm up and headed out to the (always) enthusiastically booing crowd. Our first two bouts (Alexis an Emma) against Venezuela was super shakey. When I got up the bout was at 10-3 venezuela, but I managed to bring it back to 15-13 usa. Our final score was something like 45-38 as we were able to hold them off for the rest of the match. Tonight we fence Cuba at 6pm for the gold.

Our team cheer now has a new 'charm' to it. While before, it was (stomp) "drop the a.k. usa!", the new panamerican cheer for the final shall be as follows... 1, 2, 3, (stomp) "Muggle Power!"

Harry Potter is so vogue right now hahaha

On that subject, last night Emma and I managed to secure the english language copy of harry potter at 8 pm the night before it came out! In Brazil, they released the english-language copy at midnight in ENGLAND. It was actually very fun as all the brazilian harry potter nuts were running around the bookstore all dressed up, and they were running live feed at midnight of JK Rowling doing a book reading of Deathly Hallows.

It was difficult to put the book down last night, and I've been reading it in pieces today. Its very exciting and really good (I'm about 100 pages in).

Well, I'll try and send news as soon as I'm back from the final, press conference, and doping so it might end up being pretty late but I'll be calling/writing.

PS. There has been an air traffic controller strike in Brazil, and we're not sure when planes will get out seeing as all the flights are packed and there's only one United flight per day. I'll be in touch about this.

PPS. I've managed to trade some good stuff, as I've come out of here with pins from over half the countries, a brazil shirt, an argentine jersey, a sweet hat, and I'm looking to trade my other polo for something fun as well. This will leave me with a usa shirt, longsleeve usa dryfit, warmups, shorts and sandals. I'm a wheeler and dealer.

PPPS. Just found out, flights should be leaving as scheduled tomorrow.

In Brazil Still!

Cuba just beat USA in baseball, but it makes sense... we have kids they have badass players.

Basically my life here has gone on the same! I've been to the beach again, and have fallen in love with a sport called handball in which the US didn't even qualify.

Last night I went to the mall to get some pizza hut w/ the team, and then went to the village's "discoteca" with the argentines where I danced to Bob Marley. Much fun was had, especially w/ the different food that was eaten than rice, beans, and gross meat!

This morning I fenced for about 45 minutes w/ the argentines since I haven't done anything in a while, and now i'm sitting in the common room about to go grab a shower and some food. Brazil is beautiful as ever and the people are great.

Hope everyone's having a good summer in the states and I'll see some of you in a few days!

Eileen

Hey Everyone!

Sorry there have been so few posts, but things have been crazy here schedule wise! I've been basically hanging at the beach (Copacabana has the most ridiculous undertow/waves ever), eating a lot of brazilian meat at churrascarias, and playing a lot of an excellent card game called THE GREAT DALMUTI! haha

Andras won, hannah took second, and both our epee guys were in the top eight. Tomorrow is womens epee.

Another problem is my computer difficulties. Right now I'm in Cody MAttern's computer so everthing is much easier!!

I hope everyone's doing great! My job here so far has been just to eat and have fun. Limited practicing has happened for a variety of reasons (aside from my own trips to workout and do weights) so tomorrow morning I may meet up with Lucas and the Argentines for some practice.

I've also been thinking about one of those free massages....

AMAZING day #4

This day ws so amazing I don't know where to start. This morning we left on a bus and drove to see Christ the redeemer on the mountain. The views were SPECTACULAR. Unfortuntly my keyboard isn't workin too well so I'm oin to have to use the computers tomorrow to talk more but hree are some pictures.

OK mo pics to com3 my computr htes me... lol


Leen

View of some of the amazing topography outside my window
Part of the village from my balcony view

On the way, Police cleared the entire freeway, and I caught this snapshot

At the Spy museum we got to crawl through the airducts and try not to set off the sound meter more than a specific amount

Mmmm... Tangerine Gatorade... tastes like tangerine juice. Yes, its completely random but I'm always amused by the differences in common drinks among different countries. Gatorade flavors include Tangerine and Aci Guara here. I think I ate some aci guara at breakfast, it was really good but kind of seedy.

Off to practice!

Eileen

Hello from Brazil everyone!

Well we're obviously under a lot of security. They cleared the highway for our bus and we had a full police escort. Now I'm safely in Rio de Janeiro and in the village!

The cafeteria food left a little to be desired but the whole village, and the whole set up is amazing! On the bus ride here, many people almost got in accidents waving at us or watching from cars.

The entire city is decked out for the games, and its pretty darn cool. We have a celebrity status among the general public it seems, and the press is wandering around everywhere.

For those of you who know him, I've already run into Hernan Jansen the Venezuelan who trained at Marcos' club with me. He seemed suprised I was there, of course. I don't think he realizes what level my fencing's at now but anyways it was fun to say hi.

The village is made up of huge towers that remind me of the towers at Ohio State. They each have apartments that have about three rooms with double beds in them, a living space, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. They're all super clean aside from a ton of small spiders lying in wait for us. Evidently all the men have seperate rooms, while all the girls are sharing. I'm rooming with Emma Baratta, which has worked out well for us in the past.

Alexis and I had a conversation today at lunch about the team event. We realized we're the first womens saber team ever to be in the pan american games. We thought it would be amazing to take home the first womens saber team gold in the history of the pan american games or any ioc-sanctioned games (even before the olympics!) We're already planning our tactics to bump off some of the teams. All we can do is train hard and believe!

They do evidently have organized trips to the tourist atractions every day starting at certain times. Aside from those the team is planning on making a venture into the city tomorrow to see the Harry Potter movie, and we're also going to try and go to a good Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse).

Today Yury asked me whether Terrence or Coach gave me lessons... I wasn't sure what to think fo that. I think I may have suprised him when I fenced Dagmara and beat Caroline.

Talk to you all soon!!

Eileen

Briefing

Well, this is a big deal. Our briefing on Rio was made by the head of the USOC, and lasted about an hour detailing security, culture, passes, the village and pretty much everything else. We also had a talk on flag etiquette and media, since there will be a lot of accredited press there. Afterward we headed to check in with the medical staff(they had lost my form so I filled out a new one), get an official picture taken, and head to collect all our apparel. I got a total of about 6 shirts, two pairs of shoes (sneakers/sandals), 3 pairs of shorts, podium warm ups, a cap, a visor, sunscreen, bug repellent, lots of pins, a huge rolling duffel bag, a backpack, and (MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR ALL PARENTS) a prepaid Brazilian cell phone with about 30 bucks on it for international calls (1.20 a minute to US).

We learned too much stuff to put all down here, but here are a few quick facts:

-Heads of security for the US team were heads of security for the president

-We are the only ones w/o a team uniform that we wear all the time

-I can get free tix to all other sports (futsal and soccer here I come!)

-We will be hounded by media

-Ignore anti-american comments and cheers

-Lots of stuff I'll have to read up on in the games athlete manual.

See you all in Brazil!

PS. Pictures to come i I can get a cable

I Spy With My Little Eye...

This morning I made it to Washington a bit tired out already at 6 am. I met up with some badminton players and Emma Baratta in the airport and wee made our way to the dorms at George Mason University. By the time we had lunch I had convinced three other people (Tim Hagaman, Andras Horanyi, and Emma) to make a trip downtown to the spy museum. After quite an ordeal of buses and metros we managed to find our way to the museum, which ended up being amazingly cool and lots of fun. After a couple hours at the museum it ended up we were right near China Town so we grabbed some dinner.

I would say that the most useful lessons of the day were:

Crawling down an air duct quietly is harder than you think

Being a spy has a very large downside; torture/capital punishment

I can now pick a lock successfully!

Washington Monument and the white house are cool in a quickly seen while driving by sort o way.

Fencers are weird.

Nadal is improving as a tennis player

They supposedly do have my passport here.



...I foresee much free clothes in my future.


(PS. Yes I'm tired so this is all slightly incoherent due to 3 hours sleep)

In Bangkok

Hello everyone! Yes I'm on my way home again, with more experience under my belt. Here are some non-fencing closing thoughts on Vietnam:

- You can fit anything on a motorbike; Even your new refrigerator!

-If you do not live in the city, you must have a cow. This cow must be HUGE. If your cow is not as big as a horse you cannot be as cool as I thought you were.

-Hats shaped like cones are all the rage!

-The sidewalks, according to the signs, aer for bicycles and/or horse and buggies ONLY!

-If you have nowhere to live, build a house on top of your neighbors house. Actually, build a house on top of the house on top of the house on your neighbor's house.

-Do NOT smile in pictures. After the pictures, please photoshop out all freckles, and lighten your skin considerably. Your head should be at a nice tilt. (I got my picture taken at a photography place for the competition, and they basically photoshopped me until I looked...Vietnamese)

-Whatever you do... DO NOT PUT YOUR FEET UP ON THE ROW IN FRONT OF YOU, no matter how much dust and grime is already there!

-You are not allowed to be over 5'2, and if you are good luck finding clothes. My teammate, who is not big, was a XXXL in Vietnam.

-Your food must be either bread, rice, noodles or FRIED

Gotta run! I have 1 minute left on the internet!!!

On my way

pictures to come... leavin from nam!

Day 2

So, I lost in the 64 to Kim. Not for lack of trying, because had it been any other day i swear I would have had her.

...on a side note, the Ukraine coaches are sitting behind me listening to "my humps" by the Black Eyed Peas on their phone and dancing.

Anyways, I had the same annoying ref as yesterday who was being a pain to me all day yesterday too. My lame failed yesterday, and I had to write my name on the back of my new one since there were no printers here. I thought I did a darn good job, and they passed it at im\nspection. The ref basically hassled me nonstop about it claiming that it was illegal, and when I had him today and really confronted him about it he was like "well, i said some referees would fail it but im nice and I'll let you fence" grr! lol

I think I was getting heat exaughstion in my bout, because afterward i had a headache and my legs were shaking. That's not why I lost but it had a hand-- I was supposed to fence at 915 am, so I warmed up hard until nine (I was really knocked out by the heat), and I was planning on givng myself 15 minutes to just sit and cool down. When I got in the main gym, they were already waiting for me on the strip (WAY early) and I was exaughsted. At the end of the bout I had the right idea and really had to concentrate to make my actions precise and my footwork not too big. Any other day I should have HAD her, its so frustrating. End score: 15-11

Truthfully, despite my unfortunate loss I really feel this tournament was worth it. My fencing is getting stronger and STRONGER. I see what his happening and I'm playing with the big girls. They're beginning to be afraid of me, and I'm not worrying that much about them. I think this is coming with the more experience I get and its exciting to see improvement despite my placing.

I bought a shirt/skirt combo downtown today, its purple and looks fun (I am HUGE here... I don't feel short anymore, I just feel fat in my size L outfit hahaha)! Very asian. The vietnamese people are really cool, but are scary drivers. You cannot believe what can fit on a motorbike. I think the record for peopel I've heard of so far here is 6, and of stuff I saw them carrying bricks, and HUGE metal poles. I saw chickens today too! (watch out, avian flu!)

Anyways, there's lots to tell bt tomorrow I'm planning on going to a university built here in 1007 ad and probably the Ho Chi Min mosuleum (museum?). 3 people got injured today and a fourth slightly, so if Sada had backed out of tomorrow I would have had to fence the team competition! eep!

Love you all!

Day 1

Went 3-2 in pools... Fenced well except against the worst fencerin the pool.

Lucchino: V 5-3
Nagy: D 4-5
Chinese Girl: V 5-4
Bethier: D 1-5
Vietnames Girl: V 5-2

It was a rough AND small pool, my only mistake being the stupid bout against Berthier. Last action against Nagy was all mine but i missed her arm (GAH!) on accident.

Fenced Trinh (Vietnam) and beat her 15-5 to get in the 64. Tomorrow I'm due to fence Kim from Korea (ranked 10). I'm optimistic, even though it should be tough.

Its about 85 outside right now, which is the coolest its been. When we were fencing today (oh my God), it was over 100 with a ton of humidity. I almost died warming up, because te warm up room was small and not air conditioned. Been drinking LOTS of bottled water!

The food is also a bit dodgy (as my brit friends would say). Everything thats not raw is deep fat fried! So, I've been eating a LOT of rice and found soem tofu today.

I got a ride from Lu-An, the translator on her motorbike to a portrait company for my pictures. They took all the moles and freckles off my face, wouldn't let me smile, airbrushed me way paler, tiled my head, etc. It was hilarious how they made me look as vietnamese as possible. Anyways, I should go since I'm stealing my friend's computer!! Love you all and I'll let you knw how it goes tomorrow.

PS. Bianco is always staring at me now whenever I'm around her. haha.

Hey Everybody once again!

I'm in Hanoi, and yes everyone wears the cone hats! I found out the reason they all wear masks on the motorbike too! Its not the pollution but rather the fact that they want their faces not to get tan!

Well, I fence at 3 o'clock today and there's a big line of people for the internet. I have a tough pool!

Probably should go, since they're talking about me and think I don't uerstand haha.

Love you guys!

I have a translator that I think is actually a "minder" type person haha. I feel like such a rebel here with the "commies"

In Gand

Went out in the 128 but its fine... short messqge cause i shouldnt be on this computer. belgium keyboards are super weird!

To do...

Today the girls are going shopping downtown, so I think I'll follow them and then go see "The Mystic Lamb", which is this supposedly amazing GIANT oil painting. It's the oldest oil painting ever, from the 1200's.

I want to see the castle too, but I have to go do my laundry etc. We'll see. Supposedly the fencing club here is the oldest gym in europe (16th century), situated in the top of a bell tower so even if I don't fence I think I'll go check it out.

Everyone who's been here thinks its the coolest place ever. Though I don't have too much time I think I'll check out what I can.

Some pictures to start..

Gothic Quarter

Church on Mont Juic over Las Ramblas

bell on the cathedral

Jazz Club -- Jazz was ridiculously popular there, an I met a pianist tryin to get into the scene at Casa Beethoven, a 200 year old sheet music shop. On Monday night I went to the Jam Session, and it was lots of fun. It was exciting to see Scott Whitfield on th program!

One of many many street artists. This frog was playing dizzy gillespie :)

Las Ramblas from the Coast side, next to the Columbus monument

Artsy shot from inside the phenomenal cathedral

Camp Nou-- waiting for Ronaldinho. There were hundreds crowding around the parking garage exit.

A little flamenco, anyone?

Outside the cathedral, artsy shot in the gothic quarter

Thinking...bull? On one of the Ramblas

Kid chasin a bird in plaza Catalunya

Lots of Pictures - watch out

I'm back in the hostel on the last night in Barcelona, and I'm only now getting the wireless to work on my laptop.

Verdict: EVERYONE needs to come here.

OK running out of battery-- but in gand when I get to internet again watch out I have pics comin' your way.

I just ate too many haribo gummy bears

Joan asked me today jokingly, as Laela was hitting him= do you hit your coach? I could not explain to him well enough in spanish the fallacy of that statement.

I´m trying to rest up before one final trek outside. I´m exhausted and sunburned from standing around Camp Nou, waiting for Ronaldhino to appear in his car after practice. What a stalker eh? Actually, I was one stalker of many. Didn´t end up seeing him'-- but I did see another player and got a silly picture inside the stadium´s store that photoshops me into a picture with him ;) (I mean, we´re totally friends, like omg)

Now I´m hoping to make one final run down las ramblas tonight, after visiting the cathedral and hopefully La Sagrada Familia. Maybe I´ll buy a ticket on those tourist buses but unfortunatly I´m not sure the price is worth the time I have left to run around.

Fencing-flamenco-sore feet

Sorry guys! Short entry because I have to head over to plaza espanyol pronto to meet Joan and the SAM fencers.

Had a good practice w- Joan and the fencers. They were all sweethearts and pretty young, but there were a couple on their national squads. Ate lunch with them and kidded around--Catalan humor is scathing but hilarious and they were all jokesters (including the coach). Lost a few won a few in terms of bouts... today I´m going to concentrate more on just feeling fencing.

Was told by about 3 people yesterday they couldnt´tell where I was from by my accent! WOOT!

Walked ALL THE WAY DOWN from passeig de gracia, through plaza catalunya, down Universitat and via laeitania (sp?), to the gothic quarter and the cathedral which I couldn´t get to because I needed to cover my darn shoulders! Oops, should have seen that coming. Though I found la Barca shop, and bought myself a tank that was on sale. barca! barca! barca! ole ole ole! viva el ronaldinho!

I took a taxi back up to El Patio Andaluz (above passeig de gracia on Agulai or something st) for the dinner show.

Flamenco started off corny (the lights and music guy was so proud of himself the whole time) but ended up being awesome with live flamenco guitar, singing, and crazy good dancing. They were all great musicians and I got to flamenco w- one of them on stage in the end. The picture guy gave me a carnation and kept trying to ask me out, so I got him to give me a discount on the picture of me dancing. Ha, I win.

Got to go to Plaza Espanyol to get my ride to fencing. The kids all attend a school for the best athletes in Catalonya and it´s very nice... I wish I had had something like that!

Today I think I´m going to shell out the money for a tourist bus to all the cool places if my metro ticket can´t get me everywhere easily, vale? ;)

Uh oh...

Where oh where has a laundromat gone??

I´m in desperate need of non'smelly fencing garb for tomorrow morning but I don´t think its gonna happen. ew.

Stuff here opens LATE so I doubt I can find one tomorrow morning in time to get it done before practice. Oh well. Ew? Sorry Mont Juic fencing club. I apologize. I thought my hostel had laundry stuff.

Finally in la Barca

Finally got here intact! After some creative stuffing of valubles into a very small locker I´m ready to go explore. For some reason my wifi isn´t working on my laptop... so no pictures. Maybe itll work by tonight. Here´s a blog I wrote at the airport this morning-

Well I´ms itting herein the Vienna airport, attempting to write my next blog while waiting for the check in for my flight to open at 12. I still find it funny that word is automatically in spanish, even though I wrote the first paper I´ve written in two years in english only last week. Here in Austria, I´ve already gotten a somewhat spanish start to my trip to barcelona! After asking many people at Wien Sudbanhof where the heck the stop for the airport bus is and getting pointed in may different directions with varying levels of helpfulness/english (ah, europe), I finally found where I needed to be. the sign above the bus stop, ticking off the times each bus was supposed to arrive and depart, seemed to be slightly optimistic. The guy standing next to me )yes, the tall dark and handsome type about my age) didn´t seem so hopeful, as he kept eyeing his watch. A bus, which read "Wien Flughafen" (last time I checked that meant Vienna Airport=, was declared not our bus. the bus came and went without taking any passenfers and a few people started restlessly heading over to the taxi station, ¨"convienently" located next to the stop. It was then I realized that the man was speaking spanish into his phone When he hung up, I asked him ¿hablas aleman? (do you speak german?) to which he answered No, do you? He turned out to be a real cutie named Jesus, fairly worried about making his plane to Madrid. Though I wasn´t in a big rush myself, I felt a little bad for him (cough) so I offered that we share a taxi to the airport. It ended up he had been on vacation all around Austria for a while, turning out to be a real sweet guy. Ge even gave me some pointers on what I should go see in Barcelona, and waited to walk with me over to Iberia´s terminal. Maybe I should have gone to Madrid instead! (no dad I wouldn´t give you a heart attack) Too late though because he made his flight'--thanks to my heroics- which is boarding now and I´m sitting in the airport cafe, drinking my overpriced (3 euro!!!) cappucino, dreaming of spanish boys, and writing horrible run on sentences.

I´ve decided they should make it a rule that whenever on a trip to Europe, a fencer shouldn´t have to get up before 830 am. Getting up way early in the morning during a trip like this messes with my sleep schedule even more. I have decided though that the Austran train system is designed for fencing travel. Invredibly punctual, the OGG train system picked me up at EXACTLY 600.00001 am. Inside the train and eats were impeccably clean, and in the compartments the seats facing each other slide together to form a bed! Perfecto! I slept soundly until about 750, when a knock came at my compartment door. the nice lady sharing my compartment looked up and a potbellied man asked if he could squeeze in with us. Both prior occupants give the hesitant go-ahead-turned-mistake, as the man sits down and pulls two Becks out of his pocket. theother woman and I exchange looks as she also adds an exasperated rolling ofthe eyes. the man asks if it is ok that he smokes. Upon entering the train I had made a concerted effort not to share a compartment with a smoker. I did not know, however, how rude itis in Austria to say NO YOU CANT so (mistake mistake) I said¨"a little" in my sleep deprived state. The other lady then looks at me, at him, declares "NO FUME" and leaves in a hurry. Darn it! At this point I don´t want to give up my med so I hope desperately that he´lltake "a little" to heart and pretend to sleep so he doesn´t talk to me (he was a loud guy). Unfortunatly, and probalby what I get for not standing in solidarity with the lady, another man comes in to join him in a smoke ever after I told mr. potbelly ¨"outside!" The first 30 minutes of the rest of the train ride was spent getting used to the smoke, and the rest was spent dozing.

Hope you enjoy my little anecdotes of European travel. I have decided that although it is not my very favorite of all the places I´ve been, Austria is definitly the most beautiful!

The cabbie from the airport was really cool and he ended up telling me basically the area, where to go and where to avoid etc. Really sweet and helpful, so I tipped him! Off to las Ramblas for me! Plan- Don´t get robbed! =)

Second day

The clouds moved!

Today started off strong-- I beat the #7 world ranked fencer Bianco 15-7. She has always been afraid of me and its fun to just cement in her mind that she can't touch me. Unfortunatly, I lost my bout in the 32 to danion 12-15... some mediocre french fencer who got dominated by Velikaia in the next round(15-2?). I was so mad!!! I've always wanted to fence Velikaia, and I messed up my chance!! I would love to decimate "The Great One" (her last name translated from Russian). Oh well, next tournament I suppose. Stupid french fencers and there odd-timed continuation attack and messy parries getting in the way!!! OK, actually more like stupid Eileen making a stupid decision in the last touch! hahaha. Oh well, I think next time she's going down for sure.

despite everything I'm really having a great time with my fencing and with my teammates.



Off to watch pirates of the carribean with the piratess herself (emma baratta)... I have my taxi, train, an bus all set up for tomorrow + practice at the barcelona club Tues/W.

32nd overall--- why do I always get 32nd?! lol why not 17th?! Goal for next week: fence looser in pools.

First day

Iffy start to the day ended on a positive note. Went 3-3 in pools, but beat China's #2 girl to get into the 64 (good fencing and actually had some good advice from Ed). Tomorrow I'm supposed to fence Bianco, and as my coach just told me she's a good matchup so it should be a fun bout. I promised emma I'd go see pirates of the carribean when it comes out in hanoi. Smart choice? I'm not sure haha. Ok, well I'm off to take a shower.

<3 Eileen

Tweet Tweet

This little cutie was singing outside my window this morning.

Made it to Klagenfurt WITH LUGGAGE! =)

Woohoo I made it. I'm in a different hotel this year but everything's just as pretty! I sat next to this guy on the plane that could rival the geographic know-how of my dad and told me all about the mountains and the "worthersee" (or the giant lake where the richest people of Germany and Austria live) here in Klagenfurt. Here are a couple pics of the room and the view (mountains under clouds):


Apparently the whole dragon obsession in klagenfurt is because mythically, there was this "firewirm" storming the countryside. When it was killed by some guy (I know, so specific) that was when they founded the city in the 1200's or somewhere around that.

Here's a couple sunny pics from last year's tournament to give you an idea of the mountains here:
I know this is a family blog-- but I have to add it. In the past two years I've seen this and refrained from taking a picture of it. The organizers always drive us in these little vans to the venue/hotel etc and my juvenile sense of humor always gets the best of me.




No food here so i'm gonna have to go w/ my bread and butter lunch til dinner at 6:30. I'm STARVING!

Talk to you soon!

Chicago O'Hare

Well, I'm sitting at my favorite (HA!) airport, waiting to go to my second favorite (HAHA!) airport. Things are pretty normal for a trip like this, which means lots of waiting and waiting to wait some more.

I enjoy the plane trips cause they're a chance to sit, relax, and watch a movie. This time the movie of choice is dreamgirls (great so far)!

Soon I'll be in the mountains in Klagenfurt-- I'll make sure to shoot you guys some pictures cause they're amazing!!

New Packing Thoughts

To speed up and ease my travels, I am pondering disassembling my sabers and using smaller rolly bags in the place of a fencing bag for my equipment. I have seen Sada employ this method-- it seems to be a good idea considering the type of travel I'll be doing in europe this time. My only worry: My life is in my fencing bag, so will I remember to take everything important out? Its silly how you develop habits of exactly what routine you go through to pack, unpack, ready everything and how it becomes second nature. Changing even the tiniest thing feels odd.

Introduction

SO! Everyone, welcome to my blog! If this is your first time viewing such a blog, have no fear. It is quite easy. At the bottom of this first post, you may notice a "comment" option. This is where you'll be able to write back to me if you see fit and/or see what other people have said about each post. Please write back! I'd love to hear from you guys. Here is my itinerary:

May 3rd leave for Klagenfurt

May 4th arrive Klagenfurt

May 7th leave for Barcelona

May 10th leave for Gand, Belgium

May 14th leave for home