michigan

Seeing as Detroit has just been named the most dangerous city in America, this little entry serves as a kind of homage to my homeland...the land of some of america's best sports teams, worst roads, capital of cars and highest ratio of violent crimes, muggings, rapes and aggravated assaults. I don't make this stuff up. read for yourself:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/19/AR2007111900134.html

But i really can't complain; i'm a suburban yob. my parents heard the word detroit and covered my ears. I got lost in the car there once and nearly wept.

So i'll just get on with the journal entry, which has little to do with detroit and more to do with the rest of the great state of michigan. I almost forgot that i went home for ten days in august. between not writing my dissertation, working at starbucks and more not writing my dissertation I took a detour home, with Dave, to see friends, family and the elusive sun that people in the rest of the world said was shining. and indeed it was.

The trip was one part college reunion in multiple ways, three part family/friends reunion and many parts frozen strawberry margarita reunion. We spent the first saturday home driving up I-75 to a sorority sister's wedding in Traverse City and then spent the next day "hauling" 55mph on M127 back through Mt. Pleasant, the first time back to my alma mater since I graduated. And other than daily trips to dairy queen, Royal Oak and Rochester park, nothing too excitingly eventful happened. I did get to meet my new puppy, Winston, and i became a minor master of Bomberman and Cow Racing on the Wii and there were Katie's birthday margaritas...so generally it was really nice to be home--a place I associate with permanently being a child. No thinking allowed.

how nice.


small traverse city beach


marina in tc


The Bird! my favourite college bar in downtown mt pleasant


:0)


home


dave at stoney creek metropark


family!


puppy!

Firenze

I just realised that I never continued my Italia blogging and have neglected to post photos from Florence. I'm going to try to do this in one entry, but be warned, there are quite a few. I was obsessed with the buildings, the statues and the gelato; sadly, i took no pictures of the gelato--silly me.

i was surprised by florence, to be honest. I'm not a huge renaissance art and sculpture buff, but after two stifling hot days in rome i was ready to leave the vastly overpopulated and hugely overwhelming ancient capital. i think i need to go back to rome and give it another chance, but i'm thinking december might be a better time:0)

we took the fast eurostar train up, which got us into florence in a little over two hours. the ticket machine at termini station did a werid thing and booked our seats separately, and we ended up in cars C,D and Q. It gave me some good time to silently praise the landscape rushing past my window and drink in Frances Mayes's version of Tuscany in her travel book Under the Tuscan Sun. Though I am slightly weary of travel fiction and non-fiction due to a year of postcolonial and imperial writing coursework, i'd still highly recommend it. That might also be due to the fact that we took the slow train through Tuscany on the way back to Rome, and it really does look that beautiful.

anyway, we did nothing much other than wander around for our two days there. but the architecture and layout of the city were stunning and perfectly exotic in that way non-italians expect italia to be. probably not so much bohemian because florence is a bit too expensive for that, but i love a city where you can turn down the wrong street, get lost and find something new and exciting. like a market, or a trattoria, or a café or another statue, or a building that was once a church/cathedral. but i've said too much. i'll let the photos speak:


the famous ponte vecchio bridge...lots of gold shops and touristy stuff


the Uffizi Gallery


The Rape of Lucretius


Replica of the David (from behind) in front of the Uffizi


Piazza Duomo and the candy cane cathedral


spiraly bit of the cathedral


in between shot


another church we got lost and ran into


things to do in every direction


i couldn't help myself


scenic river shot



down the street


a urinal on busy via de machiavelli. not sure what the point of the dividing wall is seeing as you'd be peeing off a busy road anyway.

that's all she wrote!
my journal will probably be now confined to more domestic ventures around the british isles. employment calls!