chemchik

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:20:23 GMT

Tomorrow, y'all! Late tomorrow, I'll admit, but tomorrow!

Homeward Bound

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:41:37 GMT

In 12 days! (give or take an hour), I will be on a flight to Memphis, Tennessee. I'll be home for a month (until Jan 9th), and during that time I'll be taking at least two road trips. One of these will be north, wandering through to Chicago. The other will be east, hitting Nashville and maybe Knoxville. I really want to see as many people as I can, so tell me about your plans so I can come see _you_!!!
Originally I hadn't planned to come home at all during my PhD (too much work to be doing, right? Ha. ha. says the girl whose instrument has just recovered from a two month downtime), but I think I definitely need this. I'm starting to say things like "lovely" and "quite", and I can now hold insipid conversation about the weather for upwards of fifteen minutes! It's been quite chilly around here lately, not too bad for this time of year actually, but . . . aaargh there I go!
So anyway, hope to see you all soon!

Missed Opportunities, or July=Month of Death

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:35:29 GMT

Like a drowning swimmer emerging for a second from beneath the waves to describe what the trouble is, I write this post.
I have decided that occasionally missing opportunities is better than the alternative. Especially when those opportunities occur on Saturday mornings. I have not had a single Saturday morning to sleep in for at least three weeks, drat it! And this weekend is not looking promising.
After I came back from Munich, the STM (my instrument) started working, so I started getting data. I handed in my first-year thesis. Then July started, and the following things happened:
July 7th my friend and I went to London to shop (cute pictures later!) and see LOTR:the Musical and Sweeney Todd. Time of return to Cambridge: 1:30 am or so.
July 14th my housing situation became complicated, meaning that instead of living in the north of Cambridge, I'll be living in the southeast. Not a bad thing, but it meant that I got up to look at housing early on a saturday. The same day I went to a concert of the Mediaeval Baebes!!!!!!! in Ely, about 30 miles away. And got back after midnight, thanks to the wonderful (not) reliable (not) and punctual (definitely not) services of British Rail.
Add to these fun activities dancing, frantic baking to get rid of the flour and sugar I inherited from departing undergrads, and the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, is it any wonder I haven't been getting any sleep?
My first-year thesis defense is on Friday. It should be no big deal, but wish me luck anyway.
More later!

Just a short update

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:51:54 GMT

Phew! Eaten by school! I took Japanese last semester, and it Kicked Me Around. It was fun, but a bit depressing. These second year students, whose teacher lets them know on a regular basis that they are her worst students ever, are MUCH better than I ever was after 3-odd years. Anyway, it was still fun. And it let me keep my keep-up-japanese new years resolution for almost three months!
On the work front, the very day that we were to begin actual research, our pumps exploded. So we had to take them apart and fix them. And then we had to fix some of the instruments inside the rig. And then we had to fix them again. And then we had to order new parts. So that´s where we are now. If I'm really lucky, the new part will be delivered shortly after I return.
Oh,yeah, and I'm in Munich right now, on holiday. Internet time is running out, so I'll just say more later!

Phew!

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:55:15 GMT

So the dance show has been over for a week, and I'm only just starting to feel like I have some control over my life :). Actually, I've been having a lot of fun this past week, doing things other than dancing. Like . . . other kinds of dancing. And work.
And on Sunday morning I got to help save the sun! The local Sci-Fi/Fantasy group was celebrating what I assume is a norse sun-festival, which seemed to involve staying up all night and then staggering over to the closest thing Cambridge has to a mystical hill. (we're in low-land swamp country here) I was planning to get there on time for the actual sun-saving ceremony, which involves circling thrice widdershins and calling out invocations to the sun to rise for another year, thus averting the Final Battle, but my watch was slow, so I only got there in time to hear the final invocation and watch them pass around the horn of mead. Real horn. Bull horn, I think. Oh, and the main-guy called out the "aspect" of the new sun as it rose. Apparently this year the sun has the aspect of a Death Sun. "With lasers and stuff." I kid you not.
Sometime this week I should be starting actual work. The past month or so has been spent cleaning out the stuff left by the last guy, and this week should involve starting up the instrument (Scanning Tunneling Microscope, for those interested).
Last but not least, I'm taking Japanese. And it's winning. I'm ok in class as long as I prepare, but we had a (pictogram-type) character quiz last Friday and it was very traumatic. I'm definitely learning a lot though, and keeping my new year's resolution of keeping up my Japanese.
More later :)

Dancers are crazy. . .

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:58:00 GMT

So after stressing the rest of us out last semester with their "you HAVE to have your piece DONE by NOW!", several of the choreographers didn't bother showing up to the run-through today. And the Shim-sham is about like I thought it would be. 60 people in 5 "lines" (they don't have very good data precision), shuffling about pretty much at random. Not all of us have been trained in tap/ballet/etc since the cradle, so the version they taught us this morning, without all the little cheat moves done by the K-town group, is basically a very confusing tap routine. But that's ok, cuz we bellydancers are in the back anyway. :)
Did I mention that we open tuesday and they only taught us the dance today?
I'm tired.

My universe comes full circle

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:40:45 GMT

Just a short update
The dance performance thing I'm in opens on Tuesday. And my group hasn't rehearsed all together since December, and probably won't be able to get together until maybe Friday. But that's not the point. I think we'll do fine--everyone knows the piece, plus it's fairly simple.
No, the point is that the producer of the show emailed us all yesterday and said "by the way, when we practice the bow at the end of the show we're also going to teach you a simple little lindy hop dance that we can all do together at the end." "Ok," Think I, "what dance could this be? am I familiar with it?" so I follow the link to the Utube clip and GUESS WHAT! It's the Shim Sham. And now I have the song stuck in my head.
Actually, it should be fun. Unless they make all 60 of us do it on stage at the same time.

The Christmas Holidays

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:23:55 GMT

It took me a while to get around to my christmas holidays. As of Friday the 22nd, I was still in the lab, albeit only for a meeting with the man from BP who controls my funding :). I used the weekend to knit and clean my room, which was good, because I got SO MUCH yarn for christmas! Yay! Now I have to find things to do with it all . . . except I already have. I got a book of knitting patterns from the 20's 30's and 40's from the library, and photocopied several of them, so we're all set!
After Christmas, which I mostly spent on the phone with the Memphis Rosses or eating or knitting or just petting my new yarn, I went to Salisbury for a couple of days. I spent one day at Salisbury Cathedral (tallest spire in England!) and one at stonehenge (umm . . . kind of wet.) I wasn't particularly impressed by Stonehenge. Ok, it's thousands of years old, and an engineering marvel, but the only thing you can really do with it is be there. And you can sort of do that through the fence, without paying. Not for long, though--they're campaigning to have the highway that's 50 yards away be diverted underground and to move the visitor's center about two miles away so you'll only be able to see it if you pay to tramp through the mud. The barrows were kind of cool, though--they seemed much more human compared to the Henge.
After Salisbury, I spent a day or two in London, shopping and visiting the museums (my new calling is to be in the textiles room of the Victoria and Albert, where they store the 600 year old pieces of cloth). The British Museum didn't make me want to hit them, for once, although that could have been because I didn't go near the Egyptian or Greek sections. Their Japanese and Indian sections are much better guarded and more enclosed from prying two-year-old fingers.
When I got back home I went shopping (what? Again?! -- The british only have sales between Christmas and January 14th, so I have to time it right) and got several cute hats to console me about having lost my denim cap to the Victoria Underground Station, which claimed it as a blood sacrifice for having gotten me to the bus station on time on New Year's Eve. Then I went back to work, which was kind of dull, and so I stayed at home, which was fairly dull, so I went back to work again. Because of the meeting with BP, I at least know what experiments I'll be starting. The instrument I'm going to be using hasn't been used in almost a year, but it was in working order then, so the next week or so will be spent clearing the last guy's debris out and making sure nothing's fallen off.
All for now :)

I'm baack

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:54:45 GMT

Ok, so the last time I updated I was about to enter an extremely busy couple of weeks-not the absolute busiest of my life, but let's just say I was thankful that I didn't have classes and papers and so on. At the end of said weeks, the play was over, as was the thanksgiving dinner (20 people showed up, and if we do it again I think we're going to have to change venues). The rest of my time has, more or less, been spent recovering from that. Actually, the friday after the thanksgiving dinner, my advisor gave me a fairly sizeable research assignment, so I've been working pretty hard during the day even though my evenings have cleared up. That's right, now that term is over (it lasted about two months!), all of the undergrads have left, and all of my dancing/taichi/etc has stopped until january.
Not much else to report, except that I'm in the process of doing christmas shopping (Fun!) and will be sending packages (or having them sent) this week and next.
Oh, and my christmas-holiday plans have changed at least once a week since I last updated, so I really shouldn't have posted them. According to local bus schedules, it is not possible to get any further north than York (York does not, apparently, connect to Newcastle), and it would take me 6 or 7 days to do that anyway, so I'm just going to Salisbury during the week between christmas and new years. I'm booked in and everything, and while I'm not going purely by local bus, I am using three seperate bus systems! I may need everyone's best wishes to make all of my connections!

Settlin' in

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:54:12 GMT

I'm actually settling down into a routine! Ok, so it consists of "go to work, read boring things for eight hours, go to rehearsal, fall into bed", but it is a routine nonetheless! Rehearsals for the play are amusing--the cast has fairly good chemistry with one or two exceptions--and going to the bar afterwards for socializing really helps us come together. Tomorrow is going to be a bit awful, since the rehearsal will consist of the director telling us only the things he hates, but I've bought a great deal of chocolate, so I should be ok. Let's just hope I fit into my pants on tuesday ;).
Rehearsals for the bellydance performance are also amusing, but more haphazard. The instructor really wanted us to pick up the piece just by a) listening to the music and b) watching what she was doing. However, a) we're not that advanced and b) we can only do one of those things at a time. So she's had to spell out the choreography, something she seems to dislike.
My friend Roisin (pronounce Rosheen) held a 10-person dinner tonight, and in two weeks we've agreed to get together again for a Thanksgiving dinner that one of the other americans and I are organizing. Although how I'm going to find time to bake five pies while rehearsing for the play, I don't know . . .
Oh, and I think I've decided what I'm going to do over christmas break. The local buses are a fair bit cheaper than the nationalized buses, and I'm thinking about packing a backpack, taking my hostel card, and seeing where I can get on a local bus. The bus company that runs the local buses also runs buses from place to place all over the country, and for only £19 I can get a weeks worth of travel! So, I'll see if (or rather, how quickly) I can get to scotland and back!

The British eat their clothes

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:15:28 GMT

So, on November 1st, the Powers That Control The Weather decided that we'd had quite enough of this wimpy warm early-autumn weather, and it was now time to Prepare For Winter. The temperature dropped ten or fifteen degrees overnight, and that was that.
Interestingly, they do trick-or-treating around here.

Fact 1) The clothing stores around here have no clothes from previous seasons, and no sale racks.
Fact 2) The thrift stores in the area carry only the usual early-90's clothing (and not much of that).
Fact 3) Very few women walk around in clothes that are more than a few seasons old, and many of them seem to be continually shopping.
Fact 4) Housing space is at a premium, so it is unlikely that one woman will have multiple closets.
So where do all of the clothes that were fashionable between 1995 and 2003 go? My theory: The Brits eat them. This would also explain the curiously tasteless food they serve.

Phew

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:29:47 GMT

Well, this past week was much less productive than the one before it, sadly. However, it left me more drained, which may mean that this week will be even less productive as I try desperately to catch up on my sleep.
Last week was Safety Lecture week in the chemistry department. Curiously enough, it actually left me feeling a great deal less safe, as I've never before worried about fuse boxes exploding as I walk past. And, in the mornings, I got to see how LEED experiments (which I will be doing) are done. Maintaining ultra-high vacuum basically requires OCD.
IN extra-curriculars, I managed to strain both legs during Tai Chi such that going upstairs was a slow and painful process for upwards of three days :). Also, I auditioned and got into a belly-dancing performance group, which was rather surprising, but I think it will be fun. Play rehearsals for Maskerade (yes, peter, the one by pratchett) start in earnest tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.
And now on to more important business. As I am in another country, I have decided to do christmas presents on my own--so any christmas lists would be appreciated ASAP, so that I can get the presents bought and sent before the end of november. :) I would love to send UK-specific items, or I do have an amazon account for non-UK items.
Off to bed :)

My life is perfect

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:58:51 GMT

Ok, so part of the reason I've not updated is that I'm either out doing things or asleep. Which is good! It means that a) I've started looking at literature related to my project, b) my "transferable skills" (aka leadership and communication skills) have been acquired, and c) I have lots of late-night activities, including, at the moment, belly dancing, tai chi, and a minor part (thank goodness!) in a play.
Added to all that, I got paid this week and set up a bank account to hold it all! It seems like a lot of money right now (half again as much as I originally expected) but I'll probably blow it all on yarn and postage for christmas presents :).
So, I'm settling in quite well--several of my activities have overlapping members now, which was certainly not the case last week. Also, I have a public library card and access to both the university and chemistry department libraries, so plenty of book-opportunities. The chemistry department library is especially amusing, because although you are allowed to stay after the librarians have left, they lock the entire building up at midnight, and the security guards will throw you out, bodily if necessary. Sounds like a good idea to me.
I matriculated to Queens' college on Thursday, which meant that I got to go to a very tasty free formal dinner. They seated people by age and subject matter, which meant I was surrounded by fellow-grad-student chemical engineers, physicists, and materials scientists. We didn't talk about our work much because it's too early in the course for most of us to do that, but there was a great deal of interesting general conversation.
I love my life!

Over the river . . .

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:19:25 GMT

This college life is wearing me down, and quickly! I'm exhausted and a bit frustrated because I've got to do a week and a half of silly things before they let me actually get down to researching.
But, anyway, the subject of this post is actually going to be "where I live"
I live in Owlstone Croft, which means my address is:

Mary Ross
Room B35
Owlstone Croft
Owlstone Road
Cambridge
CB3 9JJ
UK

I quite like my dorm-- my room is spacious, with a large window facing a wooded area (with pheasants!), and the previous occupant left me a dirty but plushy pink rug. I've bought two potted plants, one yellow to match my walls, the other red to match the rug. The entire right side of my room is taken up by a floor-to-ceiling wardrobe, with three above-wardrobe cubbies that I haven't found anything to put in yet. The left side is of course my bed and desk. I also have two chairs, a tv-table, and a small sink, so the whole thing is snug but not crowded. I'll try to get pictures up next time.
Owlstone Croft is in Newnham Village, which is slightly south-west of Cambridge proper. It only takes about fifteen minutes to walk to Queens' (my college), and twenty or twenty-five to walk to the Chemistry department. The Chemistry department, though closer on the map, takes longer because to get to it you have to cross not only the River Cam, but also a field full of cows. There is one major road (with tiny sidewalks) that does this, or you can do what I did this morning and walk through the cows.
Like I said, I haven't gotten into a formal schedule yet, but I've met lots of people, mostly through the college.
More later ,
Mary

Phew!

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 21:53:09 GMT

Guys, I have rugburn under my arms.
Please, ask me why.
I went to a "welcome international students!" international dance event, where we danced the "cumberland square reel." This involves two men, two women, coming together in a tight circle, then the women place their arms on the mens' shoulders and the whole group begins to spin very fast. The womens' feet leave the floor and it is amost impossible to get back to places on beat.
Very fun!
Also (for my parents) the teacher taught an only-slightly-simplified version of Dashing White Sargeants to a room full of newbies!
I'll definitely be joining the scottish country dance group!
I'm settling in pretty well here at cambridge--I got here yesterday, and was thoroughly orientated (sic) today.
Actually, I both love and hate orientation-type-things. On the one hand, you meet a lot of cool people in a short span, but on the other, everybody (including yourself) makes really bad jokes and generally acts out of character. Also, I'm going to international student orientation, so half the jokes I make are not even understood! That's ok, though, because my landlady keeps making jokes I don't understand. Today I asked if I could have a plant and she said, "sure, but no cannabis" except I thought she said "cannibals" and made a little shop of horrors joke that made no sense. oy. Maybe I just have to get used to the rhythm of the speech, but right now I'm not catching above half of what people say (especially small children).
Also they don't sell tupperware
On a slightly different note, does anyone have a spare/second-hand cell phone? Apparently it's cheaper to pay for calls as you go, but to buy a phone without a plan is quite expensive (starts at $60).

Also, please comment! I need feedback, since I'm not seeing anyone! It'll be like a mini-penpal thing :)

To boldly go . . .

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:34:46 GMT

Hello, all--I'm in London as of 4 hours ago, and functional/checked into hostel as of one hour ago.
I'm just going to leave it at that--three hours of sleep in an upright position are not congenial to thought processes.

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:10:25 GMT

*jumps up and down excitedly!!!*
Ok, so I was just bumming around cambridge's website, something I probably should have been doing all along, but whatever. And I got to the bit about clubs and societies!!!
Clubs I will definitely join, barring scheduling conflict:
Scottish dancers
Swing Dancers
Tai chi or Women's self defense
Anglo-Japanese Society (I can't not--they meet across the street from me)
Other clubs to check out
Blind wine taste-testing club
Bobbin Lace club
The Spanish Inquisition (a Monty Python club)
The Tiddlywinks club
And many others!
Oh, my, GOODNESS

Field Trip

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:57:11 GMT

Today something happened! I didn't just sit around the house like I have, very literally, been doing all summer! I went to Knoxville! (Technically that was monday) And I bought Yarn! And I hung out with people that I didn't know (which, if you know me, is quite a feat)!
Thank you.
For an encore, I will drive to Charlottesville tomorrow! And hang out with Gail and other astrophysicists!
In other news, I strongly dislike limbo. A prolonged state of in-between is my worst enemy. I was able to hold it at bay for the four months of being in Europe, but being at home, in familiar surroundings, with not even enough time left to start a class (apparently most martial arts make you pay for six months in advance, isn't that crazy?) or a life-altering project or anything, is indescribably frustrating. The first month or two was relaxing, and then I spent a month or two stressing about various aspects of my study abroad (the housing, the visa, the money), but now, with less than three weeks until I leave, I've quite simply run out of things to do. Everything is packed away.
Admittedly, I get this feeling every year the week before school starts. I always feel that I need to be learning, doing, growing, NOW! So maybe it just means that by the time I reach Cambridge I'll be triply ready to dive headfirst into my research.
Whine whine.
It was a very nice day today--just cool enough for long pants and t-shirt, but not rainy, just calmly (as opposed to crisply) autumnal.

Fun stuff

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:47:05 GMT

We laid tile in the kitchen this morning. It was actually very fun, if a bit goopy. Something else interesting happened, but I can't remember what. It may have had something to do with yarn. Thanks to everyone who called/wrote on my facebook wall for my birthday!! I had a very relaxing day, made interesting mostly by being able to determine what food was served, no matter how many people hated it. I made quichelets with those little aluminum pans they have in supermarket baking aisles, and all was well with the world.

Post-fun post

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 04:42:04 GMT

So the first (in living memory, at least) Ross Family Vacation is done! And everyone came back alive!
Actually, it was fun. We all trooped down to Chattanooga, Mom never having been there, and did fun touristy things like ride the incline railway at lookout mountain and buy books at McKays.
On Monday we went Rafting on the Ocoee, which was actually very fun (note: extreme understatement!!!! Anyone wanna go like next week maybe?). No one fell in, and although Mom doesn't really like being in moving water (despite life jacket and helmet) we all enjoyed the experience. We had a really good guide, and he set a nice easy/challenging pace. (Note: being a rafting guide seems to require lots of muscles, a nice tan, and general eye-candy-ness). I shouldn't say no one fell in. The tour we were with also had about 50 high-school youth group kids, and several of them fell in, possibly on purpose.
And now, back to the same-old-same-old. Carol goes back to school Monday, and Peter the week after that, so it'll just be me and mom bumming around the house.

mild grr

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:28:25 GMT

Some of you may have seen that I had an update, but it didn't work--no pics. My new red-head status and other things can be seen at chemchik.shutterfly.com in the album Summer fun. Also there are some shots from the italian period of my trip, although i haven't got the captions fixed yet. :)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 03:48:18 GMT

Since I'm west of all y'all, that's true. Life is good. Also quiet. I'm averaging about a library book a day, which pretty much means I'm in seventh heaven. Quiet also means that I'm working on some age-old projects--I've finished two pairs of socks and am working on a shirt, as well as refurbishing a gorgeous vintage blue taffeta dress that I bought in seventh grade and will (EXTREMELY sadly) never fit into again. Carol can, of course. Karate has stunted her growth, horizontally at least.

Peter actually found a job for the summer, although he's working in northern Arkansas as a Boy Scout camp counselor. Carol is off to Indiana this week for a religious youth retreat at an arcane monastery (arcane because the order of Monks there was founded by a 6th century Swiss martyr--so weird). Her kitchy-coos, who shall remain nameless because she freaked him out by asking him out and has gotten a bit sensitive about him since, is also attending. Tee hee. Dad has the best toys, I swear. First it was the ping-pong crossbow, now he has a plant known as a "Mother of Millions." It spawns new plants on the edges of its leaves; these little plants grow roots before falling off, which is so cool-looking. If you don't brush the babies off, they often just continue to grow on the mother; we've currently got two baby plants that, while still being attached to the mother plant, have babies of their own. Dad's trying to get great-grandkids, but I'm not sure he'll succeed. The babies get to be about the size of a nickel, the grandbabies are the size of the head of a pin.

Cambridge plans are progressing gradually--I sent in my application for housing and they've formally admitted me to the school (those two things are, btw, completely unconnected). I'm taking some interesting classes at my church but they sadly only occur on Saturdays, so I'm at loose ends much of the time.
I check my friends page fairly often, and it's good to hear about everyone's summers. Does anyone know anyone other than myself whose birthmark is an external pinhole? I mean, if my birthmark were in my heart, it would be a fairly common birth defect, but as it is, I don't know any others with one.

Yesterday evening was perfect. Not in the sense that "everything went as I had planned" or "it was very exciting," but in the sense that the temperature of the evening was neither cool nor warm but (to quote Goldilocks) just right. The yippy dachshunds next door had been shot with tranquilizer darts, the sky was a gentle rose, and I couldn't bring myself to read and ignore the evening.

Oh, and next time I'll upload a picture of my new black velvet slingbacks. 40's style open toe, 4" stiletto heel, very nice. :) (also v. cheap at sears, of all places)

Cute Story

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:35:32 GMT

Just to prove I'm alive. So mom and I went to the Gray Family reunion (her side of the family) and afterwards we visited my aunt and uncle and their two daughters, Audrey (5) and Emma (2). Audrey is a very active kid, so at one point we decided to play hide-and-seek, involving lots of running and screaming. Mom volunteered to be "it" first, so Audrey hid (inside a vehicle, that's cheating!) and I hid Emma. I told her to stay behind the car, and she said ok, and that lasted about as long as it took me to get ten feet away. Then she followed me to my hiding place, so I took her in (we were hiding behind the AC unit or boiler or something) and told her that we had to be quiet so mom wouldn't find us. She was so cute! She said ok, and put her finger to her lips, and we listened as mom found Audrey. Then mom came around the corner of the house and said "E-mma, where are you?" Emma jumped out from behind the boiler, shouting "Here I am!!" So cute!

Whee!

Sat, 27 May 2006 04:04:55 GMT

ok, so I'm home--actually I was home three weeks ago, but the following has been happening:
--Went to Knoxville the week after I got back to retrieve my desk and watch mike graduate.
--went to Laurence, KS two weeks after I got back to retrieve my brother and see my godmother, Joan
--applied for a job at a bookstore cafe
--slept
--sorted out some cambridge requirements.
That last point may require clarification. For Ph.D. study, I'm going to Cambridge!
I am also:
--working on getting my pictures from the trip uploaded, sorted, and labeled. this may take a while.
More later

Venice and Verona

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 10:58:39 GMT

So, Venice. Complete Tourist trap. No, seriously, folks, I would not be at all surprised if there was a city-wide ordinance that all venetian houses must be painted one of the colors used by canaletto for his famous 18th-century paintings of venice. I liked it though, if only because everything is so . . . Cute! I mean, where else in the world can you take a boat to work? Or visit a lace museum that has an entire type of lace named after it? Or buy real Murano glass objects. . . on Murano island? I simply have a love-hate relationship with Venice. On the one hand, there's the cuteness, and the ability to just wander the streets and find yourself in a random canalside park, and the thousands of shops to go bargain-shopping in. On the other hand, it rained half the time I was there, most of the things were much more expensive than they needed to be, and there were a large number of street performers. (For those of you who have not heard yet, street performers and mascots in general give me the creeps/screaming heebie-jeebies) So, mixed reviews for Venice. I would definitely recommend going there, and would probably go back, but not for more than two or three days.
Exciting side note: I've been _in_ the Bridge of Sighs twice! Once while having my finger mauled by a baby!
Verona was beautiful. It's a quiet town, definitely less tourist-oriented than Venice (read: has two hostels, one of which is run by nuns), but soooo gorgeous. It's in this little river valley, and just about every one of the hills around it has some sort of Panorama where you can look out over the city. It also has a 1st century BC theater and 1st century AD amphitheater (I think--The older one is the half-circle, the younger one is a smaller Colosseum) and several Rennaisance-era castles. Oh, and it has this pizza restaurant where your pizza is shaped like an ice-cream cone!
Next time: Rome over Easter and Munich, take two. I'm in Munich right now, and should be moving on to Bayreuth on Friday.