Loose ends

I have a few birthdays I have failed to publicly celebrate. The first is my lovely room mate Kaitlan who was the last of us to turn 21. I can't wait for all of us to celebrate in May!! And my grandma's birthday was on Saturday. I don't know many grandparents who are savvy enough with the internet to post comments on their granddaughter's web site, but she figured it out and leaves me nice notes :)

Saturday was our friend Karem's birthday (Interesting side note...Karem is from Istanbul, Turkey, went to a British boarding school in Turkey and has a visa to study at KU...from which he has ended up in Italy). My room mate Carolyn loves to cook and has been deprived while in Italy. She talked one of her professors into driving her (in his mini little smart car) to the grocery store in Bassano to get ingredients to make Karem cheesecake. Friday night five of us went to the professor's apartment for cheesecake and wine. The cheesecake was just out of the oven and hadn't been in the fridge the recommended seven hours, so it was more of a creme brulee/custard kind of cheesecake and was incredibly delicious. Karem, Kim, Carolyn and I are planning on having food-oriented get togethers once we're all back at KU, but unfortunately we're all put to shame by Carolyn's cooking. Hopefully my presence and a prepackaged bag of cookies or such will suffice!

On Saturday we took a fieldtrip to Padova (also known as Padua)which is the home of one of the oldest universities in the world and intellectuals like Galileo studied there. Unfortunately it is closed on the weekends. We were able to stand outside and think of all the smart things that have gone on inside. We only had two hours in Padua and we spent a significant amount of that wandering around trying to find the university. After that wasted time, we went to some church whose name I never saw but it had some religious person's bones under ground but visible through a glass hole. My favorite part of the trip was going to St. Anthony's Basilica. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, died in Padua and the city's main draw is the Basilica with his relics (including his tongue and denture-looking teeth). Mass was going on while we were touring the church, which added quite an authentic feel. Sometimes the empty churches just feel like art museums so it was a nice change to see it in for it's intended use.

As it stands now (and as some of you may know this has been an ever-changing dilemma), I will be spending my travel weekend in Interlaken, Switerland. The friend of a friend in the South of France Carolyn and I were going to stay with will be in Germany. Plan B to Dublin also failed because of a rugby tournament squandering all the rooms. I'm sure it would've been nice to be surrounded by fit rugby players, but alas, that plan did not work out. Luckily there's a big group taking a bus in Interlaken and my friend Leigh and I can take an overnight train and arrive at about the same time. I'm not sure what my plans are once I get to Interlaken, but I've heard it's beautiful (and also expensive). If there's one job I've realized I could never have, it would be a travel agent. This semester has provided me with a newfound respect for those people. If I knew any at all, I would surely send some sort of condolence card for having such a stressful, up in the air job.