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Alright. Peace out livejournal. We've had some good times, and lots of bad ones as well. At this point all I do here is waste time, which is something I trying to get away from. So this is my last entry, I hope we can keep touch in the real world, or on facebook, baby steps.

OH MY GOD!!
OHHHHHHH MY GOD.
oh my god!

Do something.


Also, I spend too much time online, listening to my ipod, watching tv, etc, and as a result waste an obscene amount of energy. Committin' to change, gotta start regulatin'.

The final date is set, I leave Bologna July 17th, get home the 18th. Fuck, I suddenly feel the best year of my life spinning and winding down. So many places in Europe I haven't been to yet, people I don't want to say goodbye to, so many books to read and exams to take. Lin Lin leaves today, so I get the room all to myself but have to say my first real goodbye. Silvia is still studying in England, and Alice just decided to move out in a month, so my apartment is all fucked up and full of yelling and arguing. On the awesome side, it's full-on spring in Italy, and I just got back from an incredible trip through the Tuscan countryside. But now it's back to the reality of the fact that I'm still in school, not just 'partying abroad' as we like to joke.

These past few days, for the first time since I got here, I've really just wanted to be back home. 7 months has suddenly caught up with me. And it kind of felt like god was just fucking with me all day to see how shitty he could make me feel. But I think I'll change my mind tomorrow when I arrive in Gimmelwald and get to chill with this lady:

These past two weeks have been nuts. Traveling is wonderful but it feels so good to be back 'home' in Bologna, if only for two days. Krakow was kick ass, as has been hanging out with the broham, but I am ready for a break and need to remind myself that I still am in school. Today I got a wave of homesickness, but then on the train back I read 'Man's Search For Meaning' by Viktor Frankl and am feeling a lot better about that and a little more inspired in general. Going to Auschwitz was terribly intense, but I'm really glad I went, and that I bought that book, although I keep having to remind myself that it is a work of non-fiction.
I'm really starting to dislike livejournal. I'm 22 years old. I started a real journal yesterday, and realized my terrible handwriting hasn't changed in 10 years.

Holy shit, fuck this recession.

1 EURO = 1.58102 US DOLLAR

I am so fucking pissed/upset. I spent a lot of time today reading/thinking about the Iraq war today. 5 years of bullshit, lies and manipulation by a government that wasn't originally elected by the people of our country. 4,000 American deaths(not counting veteran PTSD related suicides). An unprecedented amount of Iraqi civilians dead(50,000 since 2005 alone). And they are still pretending to link Al-Qaeda and Iraq? WTF.
“Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand”

Then tonight my roommates had a big dinner with some friends and somehow their boyfriends got on a rant about gay people. I tried my best to stay quiet because I was drunk, but when they asked me if I'd rather have a gay son or a drug addict son and their response was a drug addict, I freaked out. And in the end Lina's boyfriend had the fucking nerve to be mad at me for 'offending him' for not agreeing with his fucked up reasoning that it is ok for him to joke about gays because he has gay friends? Jesu cristo, non ce la faccio.

It's official, I am in love. Hopelessly, but it's better this way, because he's too skinny, lives in Italy, and doesn't like dogs. I am content just being giddy all the time when we hang out. The broham will be here in less than 2 days, and I am super fucking excited for our 3 week long epic adventure. I am putting school on pause in the meantime. Have been for a while, actually. Instead I've been reading The Assault on Reason by Al Gore(in Italian, though), in which he discusses a lot of extremely important things that are wrong with our society and our government. I definitely recommend it.

Paolo, who I haven't seen for 3 months, came back from studying in England for Easter. He said he thinks I speak perfect, fluent Italian now, which is wonderful to hear. He's been asking me to help with his English, but is always saying absurd things like mimicking his Korean roommate who apparently always talks about how 'fuckable' girls are. This would be a lot funnier if I included a video of the impression, so I will just end here.

In spirit of the fact that I will be in Munich tomorrow for a week, here is a photo of the German band Tokio Hotel, who for unknown reasons happen to be the biggest band in Europe. I can only hope they've infiltrated the states.

A video for some lolz

FYI their singer is male, not female. But the ghetto one with the dreads is my favorite. This could not make less sense:

I am so so ready to see my parents Friday, pretty homesick right now. I could not have fucked up much more in the past 24 hours. I hate oral exams, and couldn't be much worse at them, and also dislike skeezy Italians. Thank god for nice professors. And No Country For Old Men. Hands down one of the best movies I have ever seen, so glad we went to English movie night at the theater because that movie could not translate well into another language. I'm pretty sure half of the people there weren't fluent enough in English to understand that sweet bastardized English Texan talk. The Danish dude next to us would not stop laughing at lines that weren't even remotely funny. Anyway, I will officially be haunted by that character for the rest of my life.

My roommate Lin Lin spends an unprecedented amount in time in our room, sitting under the covers in her bed with her computer on her lap. If she is at home, that is where you will find her. Today Silvia finally discovered what it is that Lin Lin does all day in her bed: she is incubating her eggs, like a mother hen.

Love my roommates.

Oh, WEIRD, my best friend from junior high is engaged. Matrimony.

They play spin the bottle in China and Italy. Globalization.

But there are no Taco Bells in Italy... no crunchwrap supremes): And no bidets in America, boy are we missing out.

I don't think there is any explanation necessary here.

Dear Boeder,
Balls: grow some. Time is running out.

Oh, if I start saying balls a lot when I get back, don't be surprised. There is a lot of Italian slang that when translated literally instead English instead of figuratively is pretty funny and doesn't make much sense. Hence, I have chosen to add the direct translations into my vocabulary. Examples:
What balls.
Accidents!
What the cabbage?!
What dick!
Go fuck in the butt!

Wow. Storytime. In my art history class yesterday we talked briefly about Robert Mapplethorpe, a very interesting and provocative contemporary photographer. My professor showed us this picture, which she said was titled 'Bush-Cheney', describing it as a photo of two men, apparently named Bush and Cheney, taken from the gay community in New York city:

One of the students tried to explain who Bush and Cheney were because apparently my professor had no idea, and he proceeded to explain that Cheney is the ex-president of the US as of a few weeks ago(what?). I was beyond confused at this point, because Mapplethorpe died in 1989, ten years before Bush was even election. Finally after class Kathleen explained to me that this happens to be the real Mapplethorpe photo, and the other one is just a photoshop joke:

So, not only does my professor apparently just taken images offline and not really know what she's talking about, but she doesn't even know who the president or vice president of the US are. I love Italians.