hello summer

My sophomore year at Whitworth has finally come to an end.

It feels wonderful to be home again except for the heat wave. Today marks my first full day home for summer vacation and this is what I did: slept in rediculously late, went for a run (which was horrid in the 104 degree heat), downloaded tons of music, listened to tons of music, showered (which felt awesome knowing that I wouldn't ever shower in a dorm ever again), played with the dog (Jack Jack is my rockstar little minpin), started my summer leisure reading, had a lovely summer meal with my mother (barbequed chicken, brocoli & cabbage salad, fresh strawberries, and topped off with a gin & tonic), and basically bummed around.

I've never done this whole blogging thing before and to be honest, it feels kinda lame. Normally I make fun of blogs though I do enjoy the occasional music/fashion/celebrity gossip blog now and then. However, the whole purpose of this particular new blog of mine is to record the adventures of my travels next semester in MILAN, ITALY. So I figured I'd get a head start and experiment with the blog. I'm out of my comfort zone here so bear with me readers. Oh and, the title of my blog in case you were wondering comes from a song title by "beirut" and I thought it was appropriate. Listen to the song if you haven't.

Okay, so I guess I'm supposed to talk about my life and feelings and crap like that, open up to the public for all to read and mock. Awesome, allow the vulnerability to begin.
I will begin with a summer timeline: I'm here dinkin' around at home in the beautiful Bay Area for 4 weeks, then I fly back up to Washington to be staff at Tall Timber Ranch (crafts/counselor) in Leavenworth until mid August, and then I come back home and prepare for Italy. My mom and my brother, Joe, will be coming over with me and we will start in Milan, then travel to Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Rome, other neighboring cities, and then fly into Athens, Greece and explore there too. My orientation begins September 9th at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, located in Milan Italy with 30,000 students. The Milan campus of the Cattolica is the largest (there are 4 others in Italy) making it the largest private University in Europe and the largest Catholic school in the world. I find that hilarious. From tiny Protestant Whitworth to a Catholic giant.

Okay, more Italy musings to come...

So let's talk about my exciting time bumming around the house. Specifically, let's talk about all the music I recently downloaded. No, I'm not ashamed to be a downloader. Music and art should be free. end rant.
I got the following: both Beach House albums (self-titled, and Devotion), Mirah (You Think It's Like This But It's Really Like This), MGMT (Oracular Spectacular), and DeVotchKa (A Mad and Faithful Telling). And the listening has all been wonderful.

Some honorable mentions of things currently on my playlist that I've entitled "Cool Club" since I've officially prononced these bands to be a part of Dani King's cool club that doesn't really exist are....Architecture in Helsinki (Places Like This), Death Cab (Narrow Stairs), Beirut (The Flying Cup Club...whoa a club within a club...), Deerhoof (Friend Opportunity), Explosions In the Sky (All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone), Feist (The Reminder), The Go! Team (Thunder, Lightening, Strike), Grizzly Bear (Friend, and Yellow House), Panda Bear (Person Pitch), Peter Bjorn & John (Writer's Block), Radiohead (In Rainbows), TV On the Radio (Return to Cookie Mountain), Vampire Weekend (self-titled), Sun Kil Moon (April), and various Sufjan tracks, a little Pedro, Netural Milk Hotel and others....

Okay, now that I've bored you, here's what I plan on reading this summer though I know I will not get to everything: Women In Love by D.H. Lawrence, The River Why by David James Duncan, Nine Stories/Franny and Zooey/Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters all by J.D. Salinger and all of which I've read before but feel necessary to reread, some Vonnegut, oh and my Italian language course book. I originally planned on reading War and Peace figuring that I'd love it since I loved reading Anna Karenina so much but the book was too heavy to bring home from Spokane. And I'm all Russian literatured out.

Music, books, a comfortable bed, fresh healthy food to eat, cable television...home is paradise. Tomorrow I might go bum around Berkeley for a while, visit some friends, read more. Oh, and mother okayed the tattoo. Looks like I'll be going under the needle next week. More updates to come (and maybe a picture).

Peace out blog world.