Posted by Cristalia on Oct 21, 2008 in
Travel Stories 
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.
Posted by Cristalia on Oct 16, 2008 in
Fun Stuff 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.
Posted by Cristalia on Oct 13, 2008 in
Anecdotes 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.
Posted by Cristalia on Oct 8, 2008 in
Travel Stories 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?
Posted by Cristalia on Oct 4, 2008 in
Travel Stories 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.
Posted by Cristalia on Oct 2, 2008 in
Danger! 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.