My One Week American Re-immersion

I don’t get a lot of American influences these days. Yes, I still watch a lot of US television, I still talk to my friends via e-mail quite frequently, and talking to my mom once a week on the phone has given me this strange Michigan twang when I talk. But my everyday life, feels less and less American. I call french fries Chips without thinking twice. I ask questions with some strange English inflection pointed out immediately...

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My 6th Annual 21st Birthday Celebration

I was so lucky to have my girls with me for my birthday, as I always am, as they are amazing about coming and seeing me wherever I am for my birthday. Today was our city day. What is a trip to Tuscany without a visit to Florence. But, being that I had already been to Florence on several occasions, I wanted to get something in for me as well, so we took a morning trip to San Gimignano. Which. Is exactly like Vejer, except...

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Wine Tasting in Chianti or MADD’s Worst Nightmare

Today is wine tasting day. We are bound and determined. We’ve got out little rental Clio and we are heading out into the Chianti region of Tuscany and we are going to find wines and drink them. And then we are going to drive to the next place that makes wines and drink them. We start our day with a lazy morning, a long shower and an early lunch. We drove around Poggibonsi for a while before finding what appeared to be a small...

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Getting Lost in Central Italy

I sort of have great friends. And this year, three such friends are coming to Europe for my birthday. I really don’t deserve them. Instead of coming all the way over here just for a couple weeks in the campo, we’ve decided we’re going to also do a bit of Italy. Basically how this is going to work, is I’ve taken a weekend off work, the girls fly in on Thursday to Rome, we’ll spend the weekend in Tuscany, they’ll go back to Rome for the...

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TYW Detox or How to Loiter at a 5 Star Hotel

I love Greece. I know I’ve had this sort of up and down and all around kind of relationships with my little Ελλάδα. But now. I just love it. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I actually slept 10 hours last night, on a real bed, in real air conditioning. It might also have something to do with the fact that I woke up and took both a shower and a bath this morning and I didn’t have to drain my own...

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TYW Day 7: Sail of Shame

Blah. Blah blah. There’s not a single one of us that’s not feeling completely wrecked. Our bodies have essentially rejected us. They are looking at the crackers and water we put in front of them and they’re screaming rejections. We’re taking turns being sick off the back of the boat. Partner puking on either side of the steering column. We lazily pass large bottles of water around hoping and praying that this sip will be the one that stays...

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TYW Day 6 (Part 2): Drinks like a… cat?

You may assume that the after the events with Louise’s sailor-mouth, we breezed into port, parked and had a nice leisurely day strolling about Hydra’s old beautiful Greek-ness. But if so, you obviously do not know me well, as there was much more drama to ensue. And not just from me. No, Louise wasn’t finished either. As we pulled into our sweet spot, just one boat off of land (and therefore an easy hop and skip onto land - or so we thought), we sandwiched ourselves...

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TYW Day 6 (Part 1): We’re All Queuing Mother F**ker

There weren’t many people who recovered well after the all night party on Dokos (Δοκός). Mostly because it was one of the latest nights yet collectively, since it was difficult to sleep while there were people playing Fuck the Dealer on your bed. We knew we only had a short sail to our next (and final) destination, Hydra (Ύδρα) but we also had been informed that it was a relatively...

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