ciao! i have returned from italia and nice, france. we accomplished a lot, conquering many cities in a short time-span, learning about the history of civilization, art, and more importantly, ourselves. after spending so much time with one person, you don't really realize how much your personality changes. you need a control group to gauge how you behave differently with people you have not seen in a long time. for me, i think i changed for the worse. i have become a lot more confrontational and impatient - which some has translated as becoming more self-confident. for instance, i am not afraid to raise my voice - especially with people i do not particularly like. perhaps the best example was when i threatened to call the police to a street vendor who did not want to give my friend his change back. another example would be criticizing others very easily.

one thing that has not changed is my dis-interest in art, or more specifically paintings. i have grown an appreciation to sculptures, especially with the Michaelangelo's David, but the next time i go to an art museum i am going to do thorough research beforehand and also purchase an audio guide. this way, i can learn to appreciate the uniqueness of certain paintings and find out why it's so famous.

in any case, there are numerous stories to tell but i will leave that to Dave, assuming that he will update.

if you want to see pictures, click here.