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5:30 p.m. - June 01, 2002 Around me: the scent of honeysuckle and jasmine. Palm trees growing in sunshine, Lake Como outside our window, villas all around...the Italy I was given at the age of 16 (not that long ago--perhaps only six or seven years ago)...was a tourist-infested, vendor-swamped Italy. Crowded, people hawking sunglasses and cheap t-shirts saying "Rome" on them. This time, just Lake Como and the villas. Not yet major tourist season, so it was fairly quiet. If it were not for the fact that Italians drive like maniacs on roads about the size of spaghetti strands and that the only Italian I know is limited to musical terms and some pasta varieties, it might be a nice place to live. And the food is wonderful. The first night, we ate on a terrace overlooking Lake Como, and it was just so wonderful. As far as the conference--it was great. My friend gave a great presentation--her first international presentation, and it was a hit. I am so proud of her. And she was so unbelievably surprised to see me there (as were other people that I know from previous conferences--like the director of the organization.) However, my hairdryer wouldn't work at the hostel, and my perfume bottle decided to open and spill all over the inside of my travel bag (you know, the one where I keep things like shampoo and a toothbrush), so my bag smells like Body Shop's "Tobacco Flower." The incident also explained why I felt like I was brushing my teeth with cologne. That was before I realized what had happened. My bag smells. I tried washing it out last night, but I've got a beautifully scented bag, but I hope the smell fades away. Karen was trying to get me to stay in Italy. I wish I could have, but I don't think it would have been right to back out of the travel plans I made with Markus and Isabelle. The other plans that we had made was to also go to Schruns, Austria. We were to stay at the cabin that Markus' family owns, along with a few other families (like their family friends.) On the way to Schruns, we stopped by a store to buy some food so we could have a campfire and make some sausages for lunch. We stopped somewhere in the Alps and built a fire...cooked some food... What I didn't realize, though, was that Markus' aunt and uncle were also going to be staying there. What Markus didn't realize was that there was also going to be a ton of other people there, helping renovate the place. I think there was something like 10 or more other people there. Crowded. One of the other guests staying there was a dog named Rex. I do not understand why dogs like me so much. I mean, do they just intuit that I'm not a dog person and come running up to me and think, "oh boy oh boy! let's play catch! pant pant pant oh boy oh boy!" I mean, what goes through their heads? Rex kept running up to me to get me to play catch with him, picking up gardening gloves and dropping them on my feet. Hmm. Can someone answer me this? The stay in Schruns was not completely pleasant because my allergies decided, at that point, to go absolutely haywire, so I was sneezing and blowing my nose all the time. Pure misery. My Sudafed didn't help, and I found myself wishing I had Benadryl with me, even if I would be asleep within three seconds of taking the medicine. Today I'm doing better, but I've got the door to my balcony closed so I can keep my allergies down to a minimum. I'm glad it's June. I can rest now. Today: One and a half month before I go home for good.
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