Bringing the Right Side Back

I still have it grained into my brain that I should be studying. Well, I should be studying for the NCLEX but i'm not doing that hardcore until after Europe.

But this is how my thought pattern goes:

Wow this T.v. show is great, but I feel guilty for watching it because I should be studying. Oh wait, I graduated.  Or maybe, I'm gonna draw! I am so gonna draw! I am gonna draw til 4 am! I am gonna draw EVERYTHING i see! I am gonna draw that banana. I am gonna draw my windowsill. I am gonna draw that picture. Oh wait, none of this is a good idea, because I really should be studying something academic related. Oh wait, I graduated.

I tell you, its like I have a 5 minute memory. I keep thinking I should be studying, and I have to remind myself I really, actually have no homework. Its creepishly weird.

I can read books again. For FUN. WHAT? When I'm not working, if I want to kick back and watch mindless t.v. for 8 hours, I CAN.

But more importantly, I am fully charged to bring back the right side of my brain. My artistic side is coming out again ready to go. I think partly to getting a new camera lately in preparation for photography in Europe, mixed with photography apps on the iphone, mixed with drawing, painting....I love it all. This week is all about packing and working but after I get home--And wind down from all the European excitement- I am so gonna draw everything I see. I'm going to draw so much so much so much that I am going to get so much practice and be as good again as I once was. I want to paint again, too! And Not make orange people! I actually think I am going to paint something really abstract. That way you can't tell exactly what it is--and you won't be able to tell that there are orange people or things look weird, because its abstract. OoOoh. With like...shapes, and weird colors in place of people and trees, and things. So, yeah. Art!

UNEXPECTED DELIGHT of today!

I was in Barnes & Noble today, doing my "after I sit for two hours drinking tea and reading The New Yorker- browse walkthrough through the store picking up random books and look through them and want to buy them but know they will never be read so I put them back-  kind of thing when I graced upon the travel section. Obviously, I checked out Europe, and the countries I'll be visiting in particular.

Call me really stupid, insane, unwise, pathetic, unworldly or whatever, But I am not exactly highly knowledgeable about sightseeing in Europe. I'm really not. In fact, I'm not really highly knowledgeable about sightseeing in America, so don't ask me anything. I've even been across most of my country.

Anyway, besides knowing some major cities in each country and knowing each countries major tourist attractions (i.e. Paris=Eiffel tower), I really don't know much else. Now you'd think, If I were really smart- I would like....research....these sorts of things before I went there so I could get a feel for what I would really like to see. But thats not the way I'm doing it.

I'm actually just gonna wing it. Because for me, just walking down the streets of Italy is enough of a tourist attraction for me. I could take 1,000 pictures of just the street. So It really doesn't matter to me if I hit the "must-see" tourist traps attractions. Also, I hate  getting "typical" tourist shots that you could just as easily find on google and save yourself a boatload of memory space on your camera and computer. I'll obviously get a shot of the Eiffel tower, but I do not need 30 different shots of the tower. Instead, I will find some way to make shooting the tower different. Like no other photographer yet. I'm not sure how. But I will.  I like to get shots that you could never find on google- or anywhere else- Like of an old couple enjoying ice cream sitting on a park bench or by an Italian fountain or something. Or of kids playing in the street. I'm the one taking shots of everything else but the tourist attraction we paid money for that everyone else is taking pictures of.

HOWEVER, my unexpected delight of today- I was flipping through a book about Italy. And I turned to a random page- and it happened to be about Juliet's house. Then I realized that this was in Verona (If this is really really common knowledge then I greatly apologize for being so drastically under a rock), and I am SO GOING to Verona! SO this is one of TWO tourist attractions that I MUSTTTT visit!!!   I already knew Verona would be amazing, but this- this I have to go to. I am SO excited to see Juliet's house. The other one I have to see is FLorence Nightingale's Nursing museum in London somewhere (I have to find it). Other than that, I'm just gonna go with the flow. I have nothing on my must-do list besides those, and I think its better that way. Because without any expectations, you can't be disappointed.


I sat in B & N today with all my  Barne's & Noble's language phrase books, and sat there in the aisle mouthing silently all these European phrases. Some phrases I am trying to learn in all the languages I'll need: (German, French, Italian) are:

- I am an American (even though I'm pretty sure they will already know this without me having to tell them).
- I can not have food with milk or cheese.
- Where is the toilet? (everyone in my group will so thank me for this).
- I like your shoes. (brownie points).
- I'm lost (I know I will need this).
- My name is...
- Thank you, please, hello, goodbye....etc.

I've heard that Europeans kind of hate Americans because we are all fat and ugly. And that is understandable because a lot of us are and the typical tourist with their fanny packs and sunglasses that NEEDS mcDonalds everywhere they go and push people around....I would hate them too. But I assure you, we are not all like that. But if silly Americanos come to my country and asked me stupid questions In English, I would throw a rock at them too. But I also hear that tourists are treated a little nicer if they make at least a small effort to blend in and speak a little of the native language. So that is what I am trying to accomplish....whether its via Iphone translation, having a phrasebook in my hand or just literally throwing a couple syllables out there and hope they form a word in that language- I'll figure it out.  ONE WEEK!!


~WNB

P.S. - Ciao! Au Revoir! Auf Wiedersehen! Sin seveder! Pfueatti!

copyright - picture taken from going to google and typing in "Eiffel Tower" and then i clicked on the prettiest one (naturally) and then it said it was taken from www.dailycontributor.com so this is my fancy schpeel of a copyright.