title: welcome back!

greetings, blogtopians and internites! i have return from the great, bright beyond with photographs. yes, real images of the strange and physical world in which i have lived for the past few months. as the summer season draws to a close, let me boggle your mind with these snapshots!
above, you will see pictures from chicago. my brother now goes to loyola university. congratulations, stevie! next, i have a couple pictures for you from the united states botanical garden in washington, d.c. if you ever go, make sure you spend a long time in the mosses and ferns room. it is a cool, damp, silent place; a place full of spores and peace.
and finally, allow me to introduce the newest member of my family. she's a cat. her name is ms. minoes. show 'em some love, minoes!squeezable, no? see you next time, and my (repeated) apologies for such a prolonged absence of photography!

title: the "other" boston tea party

the tea party express rolled into town last wednesday. i'm not going to say anything else about it. allow my photos speak for me.
these colors don't run.
because they're all white.

title: the last day in january

i had a wonderful day today. the only bad part was when nathan had to leave.
nina, max and i got lunch with my aunt and uncle, then walked across the public gardens and up the esplanade to sweet where we got delicious, heavily icing-ed cupcakes.i always feel stronger after i see them. hopefully that isn't just because i eat more then.

title: the grounds for sculpture

often when my cousins visit, we find ourselves with a beautiful fall or winter day and nothing to do outside. solution? the grounds for sculpture in hamilton! the landscaping is beautiful and (sometimes) the sculpture is too. but we always have fun.they have peacocks and peahens strutting around the premises. i am sure they are fed up with cameras by now.

i am working on getting my head around florence and san gimignano. there is a lot of beauty to attempt to condense.

title: venezia di diurna

it's quiet and mysterious at night, but vibrant and alive by day. you really visit two venices when you go.the above picture grabbed me in the daylight and under the flourescents at night.i like them both.

title: venezia di notte

i have been having some strange experiences lately. nathan is playing assassin's creed 2, which takes place in the vital parts of renaissance italy: florence, venice, rome, and even san gimigano among them. it gives me a constant feeling of deja-vu. i have never seen a game so accurately depict reality before. they bathed florence in the right light, detailed all of the intricate decorations of il duomo and st. marco's (which, incidentally, you climb all over), captured the insanity that is rome. we have been joking that i got suckered into paying for the real tour when i could just have done it in the game. of course there's no truth in that; italy must be lived to be understood.

i took the classic college student course through italy: venice to florence to rome. from florence i also visited san gimigano, which was probably the most beautiful place i've ever been to. and i've been places.
the train ride from munich was staggeringly long, but tempered by the stunning magnitude of the snowy alps passing by the windows, good friends, and a card game called scopa (heard of it?). we stepped onto the platform in venice's central station at night, and wandered in awe for quite a while after checking in to our hostel (which happened to be a 3-bedroom-apartment-cum-hostel). we actually did get lost, but that's supposed to happen in venice. enough yammering, here is a visual description:
often the camera will distort the colors of the night, but i promise these are accurate. venice really is green at night. it's eerie and peaceful; feels thick with ghosts who dance and laugh and cry and kiss and kill each other. i will share with you how bright venice can get in my next post.

title: nighttime in paris

we come at last to the end of our paris series!
i took a small break in between posts to go to belgium. no big deal.
the last day i spent in paris was a monday. at night the city was deserted (parisians have to sleep too), and alex and i walked around with a cheap bottle of wine and all the time in the world. an interesting fact about this night: it is the first time i have peed on (not in, mind you) a foreign country. don't worry, i managed to avoid peeing on myself. check this first photo out extra close: alex took this little baby at night without a tripod. he has the steady hands of a surgeon.
this last photo is my absolute favorite ever. alex's idea, my drunken execution.
coming up are photos from belgium, including bruges, ghent, and my birthday in brussels!