A Blog in Reflection

One year ago today, I left on the adventure of my life.

I packed all of my bags, said "Ciao!" to my friends and family, and high tailed it out of the country. That got me to thinking about all of the amazing places I've been in 365 days and holy crap, there are a lot of them.

You are more than welcome to peruse my adventures as they have happened to me here in this blog, but here's a little (geo)graphical explanation of my adventures: Map o da world. Or if you don't want to see the names of the places, here's just a picture.

But the link should show you all of the names of places too. Granted, I probably forgot some a long the way (like Assissi.... I loved Assissi. St. Francis is awesome)(And Duluth. I was for sure in Duluth this summer), got them out of order, or didn't list every time I was back in KC this year. But the main point is here are the 25 (more like 27 with the ones I forgot because I'm a dumb ass and Google Maps won't let me add more than A-Y) cities that I've considered part of my journey this year. 

I don't know if this year will hold as many cities, or as many "adventures" but I'm glad this one was so thrilling. 

THEMED THURSDAY: Are You Looking At Me?

THEMED THURSDAY (friday) GET PUMPED YA'LL!!!!

So SSI starts TOMORROW and in honor of such a memorable time, the theme for this week is "Fictionalized version of the meeting between Kelsey and Michelle. Must include the line, 'she's cross-eyed in both eyes.'"

Ready? Here we go.

I was sitting calmly in my room. Finally arrived at this infamous speech camp, and intensely curious if there were people that were both sane AND speech nerds. I knew the pickings were going to be slim, but provided that I put on my charming smile and winning personality and hope for the best. So sitting in this quad in Uhler hall, I waited. Suddenly, she burst through the door and into my life. Forever.

Now there are good and bad things to this bursting thing.  First of all, bursting is bad for blood pressure. It’s a pressure problem, and there’s just no fixing much of anything once it’s done been burst. The good thing is that you get there quickly and efficiently with maximum rubble. And this, my friends, is Michelle.

I think I should explain something key to the choice of burst. It’s not her fault. She’s cross-eye in both eyes. Both, it is not a repercussion of her actions that she’s cross-eyed in both eyes. But that she can’t help but move in a rambunctious manner through doors and walls because she is in fact, cross-eyed in both eyes. Does that make sense? I think it does? Ish. Anyway, she comes bursting into the room and I knew, in that very same moment that my life was about to significantly improve. There was only one problem. There can only be one mega diva here. This quad is just not big enough for the both of us.

Thus the most epic battle you’ll ever hear about occurred. I can say this confidently because you don’t “hear” about the Iliad or the Odyssey, you read it, because it’s assigned reading. So boom. And the battle of Isengard? Hogwarts? Yup, you read that too. And I’m going to give you the police report bullet points (kapow, did you catch that one? I didn’t know you could catch a speeding bullet.)

-Extensive burning in the surrounding areas due to fire throwing contest/fight

-Other trampled areas likely due to the extensive crowd heard by locals

-Quotations from spectators include, “Intense. I’ve never seen a pop off like that before.” “Looked dangerous, but it’s good to know where you stand with that.” “Wouldn’t want to get in the middle of that.” “Would have loved to get in the middle of that.” As you can see, there are mixed reports.

-Case left unresolved.

And because there’s no reason to get innocent bystanders, like Katlyn, involved in this act of aggression, I think it’s important to leave the details out. Because I’ve told you too much already. And the police report is still out there and I’m trying to be nice, and that’s a struggle for me so take advantage of it. The important point is that there was fire. And flame throwing. And I won.

But how hard is it to be a two-time cross-eyed chick with a bursting problem?

I Spy- But with Strangers

I know, I know. All of you are so excited for Themed Thursday tomorrow (and there's a good reason for it. Michelle and I have something splendid up our conjoined sleeves). But I will attempt to add a little bit of flavor to today's post just to even out your excitement for the week. I don't want you to get too psyched out on hump day.

I want an owl. (I swear this is going somewhere.)

So part of my duties as an assistant to the Summer Academic Programs Director is to check the mail. Makes sense. (PS, SAPD should be read in a "mustache" voice. This basically just sounds really hoyty-toyty. Use your imagination).  Naturally, Justin and I check our own personal mail boxes at the same time as retrieving the program mail. But I do say "check" and not "retrieve" because that's all we get to do is check. There's no point to bringing back what isn't there. [insert sad face here]. I have received multiple confirmations that the letters I sent the past few weeks have been accepted into the homes and hands of those to whom they were addressed-and that I should be getting replies. Oh I long for those splendid days of smeared pen over paper. Ah, those are indeed my favorites. Plus it should give me something to do in the evenings. I have yet to stumble on a suitable hat pattern that doesn't make me want to commit genocide.  Let's face it, I knit so I don't kill people-those kinds of aggravating patterns are counter-productive.

This is where the owls come in. I want an owl for two reasons. 1) To deliver my mail, that way I don't have to check it and be depressed all the time and I can just be really excited that my owl delivered my mail. 2) There's a sweet owl sweater pattern I found, but I want to knit a hat so it's just distracting. Boo. I mean Whoo....

Whooo brings me to the question Justin and I asked each other at lunch, "Who are these people?" The caf was simply flooded with all kinds of pimple ridden, braced out, and printed backpack wearing middle schoolers. Woof. (Not to be confused with Whoo, they are different animal sounds). And it turns out that Mormons flock where ever I am.

True Story. I live about 40 minutes from the exact location where Jesus is going to make his reappearance on Earth. Independence, MO. Look it up. So naturally, I assumed they just came up to MN to visit me! So far this theory appears to be less true, but I do have my hopes. My bigger concern is not what they believe (a Mormon just believes), but rather that there are so many middle schoolers. Ugh, those were some hard years amiright? There are approximately zero things that are good about middle school. I was lucky enough to have at least one phenomenal teacher, but quite honestly, that's the only thing I've got-and not every other kid can say that. There are hormones everywhere, and zits, and boys trying to be tough, and girls refusing to be civil (much less human), and more generally confused conniving adolescents who thrive on making each other miserable.

And all I have to say is God bless the teachers (and sometimes parents) who opt to put up with them.

I hoped that I had come up with a hoot for a last sentence to tie in the owl theme.

OH WAIT.

"And Sheets With Holes in Them...And Regular Sheets"

I'll admit it. I caved. I'm actually playing Pottermore. And if you're not familiar with this advent of my childhood breaching its way back into my daily life, it works like this: children of the 90s and regular children get to play an online computer simulation that gives you inside information about Harry Potter and what JK was thinking at all hours of the day. This, of course, is done through becoming, essentially a HP character-getting a wand, being sorted into houses ex cetera, ex cetera, ex cetera. (Name that musical for 10 points) (Ten points to Ravenclaw!)

But here's the big ticket item. I've told you that I've started playing, now you're intensely curious as to what I have for a wand, and what my house is right? I thought so. Well, my wand is English Oak with a Unicorn core. It means a lot of things ok? Deal with it. And [Drum roll please] "Who has two thumbs and is a Hufflepuff?

I'm a Hufflepuff!"

Surprised? Me too. I figured something more in line with my intense sense of honor and loyalty-Gryffindor. Or my extreme intelligence and love for books-Ravenclaw. Or my competitive edge and keen sense of plotting-Slytherin. My Hufflepuff traits are as follows: I always have the best lines, I make people laugh, and I do character pops?

Yep. That's all I've got.

Well that and this video:

Top notch cinema, really. Hufflepuff is obviously the highlight of the clip, so I'm the life of the party? I have an intense knowledge of random semi-mostly non-hostile magical creatures like house cats? I think house-elves are the shit?

Basically all things that describe me to a T. Good work JK and your magical hat of the sorting, you know me too well.

I'll Take Mass for 500

It's a Double Blog Bonus Day!
That means that it's kind of like double Jeopardy, but without the buzzers, theme music, or really smart people with their names written on podiums. So basically, that means that I'm posting two times in the same day. Still, hashtag winning here.

Today was mostly spent working on homework (see step number 2 from previous post).  And if reading Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology for several hours doesn't sound thrilling, you don't have my life. And last time I checked, you didn't have my life, and that's ok.

But that's not the fun part. The fun part comes when Molly and I decided to go to mass.  That's fun. So remember way back when and we had decided to go to mass, but mass didn't happen? Well this time, we got smart, and showed up and hour early to the place we saw mass going on the last time. This time we went to Santa Maria in Trastevere.  This is possibly the oldest church in Rome. You said what? Yup, that's right. Think about the third century.  Then put this floor plan there. Then put the mosaics up around the thirteenth century, and a few other things after that, and BAM. Basilica. The short version goes something like: It's beautiful, it's stunning, I can't stop looking around, and it's all in Italian.

The long version goes something like that except in another church. Why? Mass was only 38 minutes here. Did someone say "Fastest mass ever?" Then there must be an echo. World record for sure. It was short and sweet, and I still had no real idea what was going on, but the art was wonderful. And for me, that's a pretty good day.

I'll put some pathetic pictures so that you can kind of be involved. Nothing does this place justice.

The ceiling 

Can you say wow?

One wall

Alter area

Stunning. 

How Dare You Play That Song!

40 pages of Italian high Renaissance reading later, I am dying for a decent light, or a super nifty piece of technology that allows me to zoom in on details and appreciate the actual colors. But alas, the rest of this might have to wait until morning.

Speaking of morning (what a snazzy transition), Erica and I had an early one today. We decided that because we were both in photography classes, we would take a trip up a hill to catch dawn shining on the city of Rome.  So 5:15 comes, and I manage to roll myself out of bed, grab breakfast, and putz around facebook until Erica needed to "rise and greet the day" (that's a Kate phrase, incase you didn't recognize it).  So by 6 am we were strolling out the door, cameras in hand, and rubbing sleep from our eyes. Honestly, the last time I think I was up that early was at a speech tournament....  NFA? Anyone? Of course there, we hadn't actually gone to bed, considering we were driving....  details. But we managed to hike all the way up the hill, noticed some of the early morning life of Rome (buses and trams still running and fairly full, vendors getting newspapers, taxis looking at us strangely-the usual). This was actually the hill crowned by the Tempietto and San Pietro in Montorio.  Both of the places were things my Italian High Renaissance class visited on Wednesday.  And although the view of Rome is relatively extensive, there are these things called 'trees' that have a strange tendency to get in the way.  Secondarily, there are similar things called 'shrubs' that we short people have issues seeing over as well. And no, I do not want a shrubbery. NI! Moving on. So we took what pictures we could, walked back to the apartment and promptly went back to sleep.

Zs-ville.

Now for those of you who know me well enough to realize how much I enjoy sleeping will not be shocked to know that we got home at 7, and I slept soundly until 11. The trouble is that I could have slept until about 2 or 3pm without another thought. But alas, I felt some sort of remorse that the rest of my roommates were most assuredly awake by this time. So I dragged my poor sleepy body out of bed for the second time today to investigate what the crew was up to.

By this point, plans were being tossed around discussing an afternoon of shopping. Shopping? But Kelsey always ends up finding the funny things to look at and try one.  And today was no different. I did end up trying on a lovely antiqued gold blazer-but Kate said I looked like Elvis.  Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I thought it was lovely. We wandered around Rome, me pointing at beautiful things like feathered dresses, and reflective pants, but Erica and Kate didn't like them. For shame. We also managed to eat Chinese food on this little extravaganza.  If you would like a culture shock, please consider the following: Chinese food, in Italy, listening to an accordion player play "La vie en Rose" and "Yesterday" (yes, the Beatles version)(side note, he also played 'That's Amore' which cheapened the entire situation. Really dude? You're going to be 'That' guy, playing 'That' song? Boo. Hiss.), and speaking in English. Enjoy every aspect of that would you? It was beautiful.

We shopped for a while, looking here, looking there. Found that magical grapefruit gelato again, saw the Disney store (This one is for Phil-miss you!!!)

Eventually, we made our way over to the GAP store in Rome. If this isn't on your "to do list" in Rome, you're just not Kate, and otherwise you are perfectly normal. For being a new store there were many confusing aspects, like the return policy. Now I won't go into all of the nitty-gritty details and just suffice to say that while in the Gap, I managed to read the following books while waiting for this little fiasco to go down: The Allure of Women in Hollywood, the Allure of Men in Hollywood (which was significantly worse than the female version, I recognized maybe 4 people in that entire 250 page book), The Fashion of Dogs (not enough real dogs in sweaters pictures. Disappointment), Rebel Style, American Style (this was was an interesting one), and the T-Shirt book.  Consider me well read.

We then made it all the way home, only recognizing this guy I met in my Philosophy class on the tram (awkward encounter: 1), and eventually ate dinner. And that, is a wrap.