I’m in Venice, so Exciting!

Venice Waterway

Today was a gloomy day - cloudy, no sun, and rainy.  At around 8 P.M. we arrived in Venice, Italy. It took only an hour from Zurich by plane. On the plane I could already see the famous island, although the waterways aren’t so noticeable. The weather here is great, about 69 to 70 degrees, much warmer than Switzerland.

This city is pretty damn weird. The tour guide drove us to this huge parking garage where the road ended. From here on you can only get anywhere by boat or by walking. There are several options here, too. There were water taxis, waterbuses, or swimming… Well, just kidding about the swimming part! So we “rode” a water taxi to the hotel, and called it a night because everyone was so tired.

Cultural Shock!

We went to eat at Denny’s today. I was the translator because my cousin had the language barrier and the culture shock. Things are pretty difficult for her, I imagine. She also hated the food, but we took her to an American place on purpose because she’ll have to get used to it. Americanized Chinese food is infinitely times worse.

I learned something interesting. Arizona has its own time zone, titled Arizona Standard Time. It’s not subject to Daylight Savings. So in the summer, it’s on Pacific time, and in the winter, it’s on Mountain time as it should be. Must be convenient for them, I thought.

Weird Bathrooms…

Other than being much cooler temperature wise and the mountains, I’m reminded of Gainesville, which I already miss greatly. But for each person, I believe there’s that one special place they‘ll gladly live at for the rest of their lives. I haven’t found mine yet, but I’m suspecting it’ll be Kailua, Hawaii. The one time I went there, I can relive it as if it was yesterday. I can sit at the beach there for hours, writing, sketching, thinking, or even doing nothing.

Anyway, that’s pretty much off topic as usual.

Around 11 A.M. I met up with my mom and cousin at her dorm. It was a nice dorm, but one bathroom and kitchen per floor made it inconvenient. I don’t know what’s up with the bathrooms there also, or what kind of freak women they have, but the women’s bathrooms have urinals in them… hmm.

Taking a Walk Through Flagstaff

I think I have adjusted to this altitude, because I feel fine now. I still have a persistent cough, but it isn’t accompanied by a sore throat anymore.

After I woke up, I took a walk through Milton Rd. (the main street here), as well as Northern Arizona University, and…

I love Flagstaff! I’m in love with this place. No kidding.

Light breeze and mild weather all day. It doesn’t feel like summer at all, it feels like April or May! I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I was born in May, but I really only like mild weather, or about 65 to 75 degrees (70 is perfect). Oh, and the town is surrounded by mountains on all four sides. How cool is that?

Phoenix to Flagstaff

After arriving in Phoenix, we rented a car and drove to Flagstaff, AZ. It was only about 150 miles away, but we drove for nearly 4 hours on the treacherous and congested mountain roads before we got there.

The funny thing is the altitude here, 7,000 feet. Compare that to Phoenix, where the altitude was only 1,000. I guess we must have been going uphill the entire way. The only reason I knew it was so high was because I started having a terrible headache about halfway through the road trip.

When we got to Flagstaff, it was… yes, get this. It wasn’t even 6 P.M. locally, but it was dark as night, freezing cold, and literally pouring. Am I still in Arizona or some other country? I wasn’t sure. I was originally going with my mom to shop for my cousin and also pick her up from the airport. I don’t know what happened, but as I rested on my bed and watched Little League on TV (I distinctly remember wondering to myself ‘wow, a 12 year old who’s 6’2? Crazy!), I must have fallen asleep. I didn’t wake up until 11 A.M. central (9 locally) this morning.

Interesting Conversation

So she went on and on about why I should sacrifice everything for family. She asked, “Don’t you love your family? Why are you so cold hearted?”

Should I honor those terrible questions with a response? Does being related by blood with someone mean I have to love them?

I think for a second and I tell her, “I can’t. I don’t have any love left to give her.”

Then she starts laughing. “Why do you over dramatize everything?” She asked.

“You don’t believe me? I lie to you sometimes but I do tell the truth most of the time.” I replied.

Then she said, “Like that time you stole the car at 3 A.M. when you didn’t even have a license and drove all the way to Katy?”

Without thinking, I blurted out, “You know about that?”

Oh well. I guess there’s no helping it. She knows more than she lets on, I suppose.

On the Road Again…

Today is another traveling day. My mom and I took a flight to Phoenix, AZ, where the temperature was 105 degrees. People have told me dry heat is not as hard to deal with, and they were wrong. I felt like I was in an oven the moment I stepped outside.

My mom and I got into another small and petty argument at the Phoenix airport. All of a sudden she said, “Why do you look so bored and depressed all the time? Can’t you just smile for once?”

To which I told her, “I’m always smiling… when I’m actually happy. If you want me to pretend, I can. But I‘ll do a shitty job at it.”

Of course she throws a fit at my statement. She demanded to know why I was so unhappy.

I asked her why I should be happy. I’m on a trip that I wasn’t told about or even consulted. I was still sick and I would get even worse because of the trips. I’m on trips constantly when I’m having to deal with personal problems. I can’t communicate well with my agent when I’m overseas and I barely just got a positive response from one. Did I need to go on? I didn’t think so.

Yay for Interstate 10

First, a little tribute to Interstate 10…

I’ve been to the Eastern end of I-10 (Jacksonville)
I’ve almost been to the Western end of I-10 (Los Angeles, about 15 miles away from the “true” end in Santa Monica)
I’ve lived about 9 years in the middle of I-10 (Houston)
I’ve traveled the eastern half of I-10 between Houston and Lake City dozens of times.

Now I’ve visited another place where I-10 goes through - Phoenix. I-10 is really a big part of my life. When I become a writer, I imagine the most important roads are going to be somewhere northeast, so R.I.P. I-10! I’ll miss you… the number “10” will always mean something to me.

10m Men’s Diving

I watched one of my favorite events, the 10m men’s diving, on TV (not live, unfortunately!). Thomas Daley from Great Britain was really good, but he looked like he’s 12. Damn I love diving. So much fun to watch such grace. David Boudia from the U.S. also did amazing. He picked the most difficult style. Apparently I’m not a good judge though. Every person I think is decent gets a bad score and the ones I think are rather unimpressive get like 90+. I’m a bit surprised that the style which starts with the diver standing upsides down on their hands are rather low on difficulty. It sure looks like the hardest thing to do to me, having to not only keep your weights entirely on your hands, but also pushing yourself off the platform.

New House

Today we came to the new house. After like three or four years of building and decorating, it’s finally ready to live in. The house is pretty nice. I especially like the basement. It has 3 rooms and a huge living room type thing. My parents are going to turn it into a bar. I’m a little mad at them for not adding a hot spring pool down there, but I probably won’t be living here much, so I have no right to talk about the decorations.

The only problem here is that there’s no internet yet. So hopefully we won’t be living here for too long because I’m like a cripple without the internet. I’m having to use a web cafe just to post this, in fact!