We're back. I have a million stories about Italy. Jenn, Lisa and I had the best time. I think everyone should go to Italy with their girlfriends because the best part of the whole trip were 3 hour long dinners we'd have every night, drinking house wine, eating the best food imagineable and laughing our heads off.

Venice - loved it but was unable to find really good food.

Florence - loved it - found a fantastic restaurant the renewed our hope that Italy would have the best food ever. We had a funny waitress (who was British and had never actually eaten at the restaurant before). At closing they actually played "When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie", but I swear they were all Italians and we were the only tourists (really).

We missed our train to Rome because we were trying to find "The Best Gelatto in Florence"... after eating the best gelatto (this is 10am) we sat down in front of a church and had a picnic with bottles of wine we were carrying, salami from the Salameria, bread, cheese and apples dipped in Nutella.

Brad, your advice on Florence: "Eat at Zsa Zsa and see the David" was perfect. I'm just re-reading it now... we found Zsa Zsa on our own if you can believe it. We tried to go to the place next door but they weren't serving food and directed us to Z.Z. It was fantastic. And I don't know if I would have gone and say the David otherwise and I'm so glad I did.

We made it to Cinque Terre for a day (thank you Ming and Jackie for your fantastic advice). It blew us away. It was not what any of us were expecting (it was just special...). We did the soft-core hikes and visited 4 of the 5 towns.

Then Rome. We saw (not quite) all of the sites. At this point (half way through the trip) we were drinking a lot of vino. At dinner we were working our way to a 3/4 litre each, and one night we were invited to drink with some Italians and a man from London Ontario (none of who were creepy). We drank Limoncella and Grappa - both very Italian. I think this was the night that we actually attempted to go to a bar after dinner (dinner was normally 9-12). But at the bar we ordered cappucinos and nearly fell asleep.

Our third day in Rome we realized how desperately we needed a guided tour (we had 3 books with us, 2 borrowed, but when you're in the Roman Forum you don't know what you're looking at). We were in this, "Wow, that's old" place. So we went on a walking tour which was so, so worth it.

I saw the Pope on Sunday. He didn't speak in English and was sooo far away. We went to the Sistine Chapel which is in the Vatican Museums. The whole experience was hell. We were cattle being herded through this museum that no one was interested in (we did our best but it really was awful). We made it to the Chapel and it was fantastic but the experience wasn't. You're in this room with 800 other people all looking up. And every 10 minutes a booming voice comes over the intercom telling everyone to shut up in 5 different languages (quite ironic actually).

We really did do all of the touristy sites. Going up into the domes in the Duomo (Florence) and St. Peter's was phenomenol. But what else can I say...

Jennie and I bought 4 pairs of shoes in total and bought 8 bottles of alcohol in Duty Free... One was a 2L bottle of Chianti.

Overall, great vacation. Ciao.

Gone to Italy. Be back later.

Jenn, Lisa and I are going to Italy. We're going to arrive in Venice, Wednesday morning and spend one night there. We're spending two nights in Florence and then onto Rome. Does anyone have an advice/ideas? (Do I seem desperate with the public feedback?... because I am! Someone validate my existence!!)

On Saturday me and the boys went to the Oxford Beer Festival. Since the festival was on all day Friday and Saturday, admission was free because they were almost out of beer. While there, Sean joined CAMRA, the biggest single issue consumer group in the UK. The CAMpaign for Real Ale is fighting for your right to:
Drink when you want to drink,
Cut beer tax and are protecting your British-born right to
Demand an Honest Pint (this one's the best!).

We are considering opening a Canadian chapter. Any joiners?

I also realized that Matt and John would not last in this country. eg.

"You mean it takes cheques 4 days to clear (longer if it is crumpled, good tip if you don't actually have the money in your account) because it is physically shipped to a mythical 'cheque-checker' building"
"You mean I can't deposit a cheque outside of business hours (which are 9-5:30, conveniently my own business hours)"
"You mean the 24 hour grocery store closes at 10pm on Saturdays and 4pm on Sundays!!??"

Although there are many good things... on the weekend I was asked what I missed most about Canada and actually couldn't think of anything, but I would have to say Customer Service. And I pay $0.00 in bank fees every month (for debit, chequing and an obscene overdraft).

Matt's drinking

This weekend was great. Matt arrived on Friday which was also "dress-up day". Everyone went to the bar after work looking snazzy (hopefully I'll have a group photo). I think Matt was immediately frightened when Gareth made a rule that anyone getting drinks had to buy Matt a shot of tequila...

But Saturday Matt really showed off his new-found liver by drinking Gareth under the table. (I'll admit that Gareth had been drinking since noon, and according to him was sick with a bug... which somehow coincided with numerous shots of vodka with Matt at the bar!) So congratulations Matt! This term's alcoholic-esque drinking has won you the respect of my co-workers (who have vowed to destroy you in Amsterdam).

This weekend we also drank tea and read the paper.

Jenn's Paris pics are up. Use username=jennsfriend, password=password.

I just finished two afternoons of interviewing co-ops. I guess it's weird that I was interviewing (along with Gareth the boss-man). It was an insanely boring yet enlightening experience. I might put an interview study guide up on the web. Everyone should be able to explain polymorphism (at the very least...?) in an interview... am I wrong?

Other than that all is well. Friday is "dress-up-day"; everyone in the office pretends they're business people and wear suits to work. Then after work we head to a posh bar for happy hour. Matt's also coming on Friday for a Thanksgiving visit and I think some people here have the goal of making him extremely ill (through alchohol). Red Bull and Vodka is good but "supposedly" gives you a wicked hangover. We shall see.

Tonight is salsa dancing.

Back from my weekend jaunt to Paris. I had a fantastic time with Jenn and Francis. Both brought their digital cameras so I'll have pics to show soon.

Paris was the most beautiful, romantic city in the world. We saw all the sites (of course), went to Printemps for Petit Batou t-shirts, loved Musee d'Orsay, liked the Louvre, ate the best moules and frites in the world, ate crepes (about a million), drank wine and smoked shisha. It was a great trip and if I have a chance I'll write more...

Natalie Gordon's class schedule for Winter 2003:

CS341 - Algorithms
CS354 - Operating Systems
CS370 - Numerical Computation
CO 331 - Coding Theory
HIST 258 - America: 20th Century

Amsterdam: November 22 - November 25th.

And I'm getting sick and am going to use all my energy to get better for Friday. Wish me luck.