And now I look like a crazy lady.

I just checked out what had posted and saw that not one, but two of the previous entries that weren't able to be published, that say basically the exact same thing, both mysteriously show up now. Fantastic. I swear I'm not losing my mind.

Was just informed that I have a "well-earned" day off - riiiiiiight. It looks like more exciting inquiry fun for me next week; the most annoying thing about this is that I have to remember to keep a journal regarding every little detail, which makes it tricky when I have days off and am not officially supposed to. It's also hilarious when I send it in for comments and near where I've commented on the relative level of attractiveness of various male barristers, the professor has critiqued it with "Is it difficult to find a balance between performing effectively at your job and finding a suitable life partner?"

What. I seriously busted out laughing at that, in the middle of this hallway at the law school where nobody I know is currently hanging out. With that, I've pretty much cememted my status as the weird girl in the building.

Well, best make the most of the money I've already paid to the gym and go use it, since otherwise I will mostly be sitting on my ass for a large portion of the day. I need something to liven up the proceedings in general over here, I think.

Will it finally update this time???

Yes, life has been fun. If by fun I mean "there are about eight MILLION people I would like to slap, right now." Tops on the list are the apartment managers, who still don't know when the IT guy will be coming back. I'm pretty sure I'll be marching right over there after my little online session at school and yelling a lot.

I moved my flight up a week - just cannot wait to get home, plus spending the $55 to switch flights is a loooot cheaper than it would be spending another week in London. Good Lord, that makes me sound spoiled.

I do have plans, though - the first thing I'm going to do when I get home is get a burrito. People here do not believe in tasty "mexican" food, real or otherwise. Second, I'm baking some damn cookies in a clean, well-kept kitchen. Third, I'm buying a new cell phone, so if anyone knows of any companies that are having deals/good rates/whatever, let me know. It's finally time for a Milwaukee area code, scaaaaary.

Yeah, stealing school internet again.

I'm such a badass. But I AM infuriated with our apartment managers, especially the mysterious IT guy who managed to aaaaaaaaaalmost complete the setup of a wireless network before coming down with some crazy illness that has caused him to miss three days of work. Including today, and probably tomorrow too. I HATE PEOPLE.

Ah yes. Anyway! The trip was good; beforehand I had been all prepared to write the mother of all trip recaps, but now I realize that it was just good to travel and soak it all in, and writing about it really couldn't do it justice. Spending a few days on my own made me realize several things, namely (a) that I liked traveling with who I had been traveling with, and it may have been stupid to go on my own, (b) that some people are incontrovertible dicks who are not worth the time or effort, and (c) that I really could handle Rome and all its lively inhabitants on my own, but I still, for the life of me, cannot go and have a sit-down dinner in a restaurant by myself. I have no idea why this last one is, but I guess it's not that big on the chain of life's worries.

So now it's just internship/laze around time until May 25. Scratch that; actually, it's only internship time until May 10. After that it's solely lazing around time, so that ought to be good for me before I get home and am forced to do about eight bazillion things at once. Yay summer classes. I'm hoping that Patrick will be able to hop over here (instead of Barcelona as we'd hoped - sucks, but I can go back there after I'm earning big bucks at a job (HA)), otherwise I'll be all by my lonesome until I fly to Chicago. Lucky for me, the boys at the internship are more than a bit distracting, so that should at least keep me somewhat entertained for the time being. :)

Back in London is a good thing.

It's really one of those "you don't know how good you have it" things that's just happened. I mean, yes, it's great to be in Europe in general, but it's extra-good to be somewhere that speaks the language, doesn't force you to feel like you need a male escort, isn't politically unstable (or potentially so), and has reliable public transportation. Ahh, good.

I had been planning to write the recap of all vacation recaps, at least before the trip, but it dawned on me that (a) that would suck to have to post and type and all that blaaaaaaah, and (b) I kind of have, and the details are just that - details. The rehash is enough. I honestly don't think there's really anything I forgot to write, minus a few Italy things that made me miss those who I had to leave behind in Zurich and realize that some other people are just not worth the effort.

All in all, these past few weeks have made me very excited to go home; that has been tempered by meeting new people at work (which, yeah - now I know where all the hot guys have been hiding in this city. Damn), but I still cannot wait to get back.

Also cannot wait for them to install the damn wireless in our building, but that shall happen soon enough. If it doesn't, I'm taking a hatchet to the door of the office, I swear.

Well, the place I live sucks. Again. Some more.

So they spontaneously took away our internet. That's "cool". I'm all covert right now, having snuck into the law school building and am using their internet. I'm awesome.

The internship has started and wooo, not so much with the activity. For the last two days I've been observing a public hearing regarding the building of a bridge over the Thames, and now I've been informed that the school is closing. Great.

Shortest! Update! Ever!

More fun times in Germany (Alternate title: MTV Deutschland is SO GREAT!)

So the brother and I are here, in Germany. Two odd things: first, the Peruvian flute players must be on their European tour, because after seeing them in Bratislava, my brother and I saw them AGAIN in Munich. Except this time they brought a bass into the equation. Exciting.

Second ... oh man. So the girls (Liz and Jeanyne) had learned of my slight fear of marionettes while we were in Prague a month or so ago. Well, they clearly did not visit the ode to marionettes or whatever museum there was in the Salzburg Castle. Oh. My. God. I absolutely refused to take a photo of the wall of scary-looking marionettes for my brother, who had just happened to forget his camera. His loss, because I am not dealing with that creepiness on my camera. Just no.

Anyway, it has been relatively nice while we've been here, but nothing like my parents and sister are currently experiencing in India, where it's topped 100 degrees for several days of their trip. THAT is sweaty, my friends.

Will write more in general about the trip probably a few days after I've been back in London - I get to entertain the brother and participate in the first days of my internship while he's here until Friday, so that should be quite an act.

I turned about three shades darker, just from normal sun contact. This is why London bugs.

But other than that, it is SO GREAT to be back in an English-speaking country. I realize how ugly-American that makes me sound, but after the three day solo Italian odyssey, I feel slightly justified in saying that. Except now I've caught myself giving cars here the staredown, which isn't really necessary. Well, it kind of is, but less so, and I feel like a bitch after about two seconds of the "withering glare" that is now my trademark look for walking in the street. Oops.

There are new, vaguely-labeled photos on the flickr site, though, so that's something I've accomplished. Also done is the spending of far too much money in a two-day timespan, but I figure it's for the good of my sanity, which justifies it entirely.

So yeah - Michael is probably boarding his plane as I type (yaaaaaaay!), and he'll arrive around 7:30 my time, which gives me ample time to find the bus I have to take to Paddington since of COURSE they're doing tube station closings for repairs, and then show up triumphantly with the gigantic chocolate easter egg I got him. I am such a good sister.

He better have damn well packed some peeps, though.

Rome: Really Very Good for One's Self Esteem, for Five Goddamn Minutes. Then ENOUGH.

Oooh my. No, not lost - this past week has really, incredibly flown by, though! I'm finally in Rome, where I'll be until the morning of the 12th, when I fly back to London for two days before heading to Munich with my younger brother. I am SO looking forward to staying in a real hotel, oh dear god. So much.

But yes - the first wave was kind of like "oh, okay, so the rumors are true." And then? The following. And pestering. And me having to ignore and walk into traffic like any good Roman would do, just so it looks like (a) I know what I'm doing, and (b) NO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I AM NOT INTERESTED. I AM WALKING INTO DIRECT TRAFFIC TO AVOID YOU. JESUS.

Ahem. But the people here (mainly female store clerks I'm talking about, here) are very friendly when I attempt my piss-poor Italian phrases, so that's enjoyable. It's also gorgeous.

Recapping the trip a little bit, just so I remember in case I have time to write a longer entry later.

Bratislava: small, cute in the old town, but when you discover that 2/3 of it was knocked down during the Cold War, you kind of understand why it is so very small. It wasn't exactly depressing per se, but once we got to Budapest, I realized just how very much Bratislava, well, kind of sucked as a tourist destination. It was great for flying into early, catching some warm, sunny weather, and napping for a first day, however.

Also, Jeanyne had put the rest of her poppyseed roll in her pocket in a bag that felt like someone had put a dead rat there when she reached in for it later. It was one of those beyond-priceless moments.

Budapest: GORGEOUS. The people weren't as friendly as in Bratislava, but that's probably due a great deal to tourist overkill in the past few years. We spent two days here, and it was so leisurely and just great. I loved it. I wish I could speak Hungarian (or Maygar, as I learned they called it. I am so smart). The Danube was floooooooooooooded, though, so some of the street signs were covered.

Vienna: nice; it was one of those cities that would be great if you went there with a ton of money to spend, but alas, I am drastically running out of funds. It was very pretty, but felt very compact - definitely less walking around to do. I even ran into Amber really randomly on two separate occasions, once when I was wandering the center, and the other time when we were both catching the tram to Schloss Schonbrun (which was pretty, but is a palace, so that's to be expected).

Innsbruck: I decided to hit this place after realizing that no money in Vienna was not going to be a good time at all. It was so chalet-tastic, it was great. I stayed in an actual hotel, and I swear to god, I bought some truffles, wandered the little Alpine town, then went back to the room and ate those truffles while I took a bath. THAT won't be happening again for a loooooong time, I can tell. The people there were incredibly friendly; if I skied, I'd really want to go back.

Zurich: I met back up with Liz and Jeanyne after they spent the day in Vienna and subsequently headed to Munich (which they kind of told me was boring, so it sounds like my brother and I will have to wreak some havoc next week). It was SO nice there, but SO EXPENSIVE. MY GOD. THE PRICES. It's extra-insane, too, because the franc is actually valued lower than the dollar, which means we should be getting a deal. Unfortunately, even the chai at Starbucks (shut up shut up shut up) was priced at 6.30 francs, which isn't so good. Ever.

And today I took the early train from Zurich to Florence and Florence to Rome, which is where I am now. It's warm, it's lovely, and I'm so hoping that my friend Matt shows up here tomorrow like he said he would so that I don't have to spend two more days here by myself, getting hollered at. Ugh. (But other than that, it really IS great!)

So. Bratislava.

We are here, and I cannot find the apostrophe key for the damn life of me, so this is it. Unpunctuated splendor.

Anyway, got here after getting up at 250 am for the flight, so running on two hours of sleep is not so fun. Its lovely weather here, and very sunny, but man. Old soviet relics indeed. We walked to our hostel, and the trip there really was reminiscent of parts of Eurotrip, so well see how the rest of this goes.

And these no apostrophes are killing me (and i have GOT to eat something), so thats all for now kids.