Rebecca's travelling again...

Hello from Sicily!

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:38:35 GMT

Hey, everyone!
Sorry, I know I have not updated yet. However, there was no internet access at the last place we stayed at all. Actually, I am not sure there was actual plumbing either. This hotel does not have wireless, unfortunately, I am using the computer in the lobby for 0.50 euro per 10 minutes.

Today is actually our last day in Sicily. We are visiting Palermo, and then taking a ferry back to the mainland, where the tour guide that took us through assures us that there are a lot of famous people, apparently? Then we will go bakc to Naples and take an overnight ferry to Rome.

A couple of days ago, we went swimming in the Mediterranean. It was afternoon, and it was cold. Warmer than Hampton or Maine, though. Mr. Frazetta just came in from swimming this morning, and says that in the morning, the sea is much warmer. Actually, Cassandra, Karen and I were supposed to go swimming this morning. Karen set the alarm for seven, since wakeup call was at eight, and breakfast at nine, because we thought that would be enough time for swimming and three girls taking long showers. Unfortunately, Karen told us when the alarm went off, and we were basicly like, "Yeah, yeah," and rolled over. However, at eight, when the wake-up call came, we were like, "What? What did we say?"

Anyway, there is some guy who speaks very little english waiting. I have been doing more detailed journals on my laptop, but the lack of internet connection prevents me from posting. I will try to find an internet cafe and post everything while we are in Rome.

17 Days Until Take-Off

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:12:17 GMT

Yeah, so... the school Italy meeting went well. The teacher in charge of this whole trip answered a lot of useful questions, such as whether or not we can lock our luggage (answer: only if you have a TSA-approved lock, which I do so HA HA).

As for the constuction of this journal thing, I added the image at the top today. Hooray! At some point I need to add some user icons and stuff, but that can wait, since I still have 17 more days and I'm going to work in half an hour.

This whole liquids rule, while perfectly understandable, sort of makes me want to stab people in the forehead, since I am a normal, law-abiding citizen who doesn't want to sneak nitro glycerin or whatever onto planes in shampoo bottles. I understand that there are mean, nasty people out there who would do such a thing, and I understand the need for such rule. However, I think that mean, nasty people could find some other method of getting their point across, such as making signs or jumping up and down on Oprah's couch. They do not need to commit terrorist acts that mess around with airport security so that normal people who just want to go on vacation for God's sake get practically strip-searched over a bar code in their teddy bear, are looked at with suspicion over braces, scowled at when they explain that, yes, those contact lenses are packed in liquid, how else would you keep them wet, and beaten over the head with a club when your laptop takes more than 22 seconds to boot up. Basically, the poor, law-abiding people are bullied by airport security because someone else got upset over someone elses religion or politics, and decided to make a statement by attempting to blow up a passenger jet, failed, and gets to spend the rest of their life being observed at a lunatic asylum.

I guess that not too long ago, TSA personnel at some airport got very upset with some poor woman due to her unique choice in body jewelry, and made her remove it. Apparently, it was painful and humiliating to the poor woman, and I personally think she is well within her rights to file a lawsuit. While I, personally, would never get such piercings, due to my extreme dislike of, among other things, pain, I think that things have gone to an extreme, and we seriously need to step back and think: What act of terrorism can be accomplished with, say, an earring or similar jewelry? Or braces?

Like I said, the rules make sense. However, I think TSA officials could show some common sense. A twelve-year-old with braces and a teddy bear is not exactly America's Most Wanted.

However, parents who let their small children run willy-nilly all over the airplane cabin, dumping tomato juice on other passengers, screaming, and grabbing things away from other passengers should be considered terrorists. If a parent goes through security with a badly-behaved child, they should not be allowed to get on the plane. Especially if the flight is more than two hours.

I don't care how much they want to go see Mickey Mouse.

27 Days Until Take-Off

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:05:07 GMT

Yeah, so... This is Rebecca, currently writing from... home (did you seriously think I was going to trust the Internet with such valuable information as my city? Or even my state? You, my friend, underestimate my intelligence, and I fail to appreciate it).

I like to travel, which sort of sucks because flying terrifies me, to be honest. Turbulance is scary. And some of the planes I've been on felt really shaky, like there wasn't any luggage in the luggage compartments down below, but rather, people pedaling. Plus, there is the risk of demons making the plane crash, apparently. I think the Federal Airline Administration and the Transportation Safety Administration, and Homeland Security too, I guess, need to keep tabs on this sort of thing, but apparently demons don't exist. Or something. But you can't be too careful, right?

Anyway, a couple of years back, I went to Spain, France, and England for about ten days, about two per country, plus travel between them and stuff. I took a whole bunch of pictures that I meant to put on a website at some point, but I got about halfway through Madrid and sort of lost interest. Plus, you know, it takes a long time to upload all that stuff, and I have a relatively short attention span.

Anyway, in April of 2008, I am going to Italy, and this time, I am hoping to update things the day that they happen, or soon after. So, I'll go back to the hotel at night or whatever, and upload things before I forget what they're actually pictures or videos of (I have a lot of pictures like that from my last Europe trip), so that my family and friends know what I'm doing and things, and so that I don't get so far behind getting that stuff out to people (I'm about two years behind on the stuff from last time). So, I guess, here you'll get to see all of the pictures and videos and stuff that I take, more or less when I take them. Actually, that's pretty accurate, since Italy is about five hours ahead of the Eastern seaboard. So, if I take the picture at six PM, Italy time, and upload it at eleven PM, Italy time, you can look at it by probably 6:30 pm, EST.

Okay. Anyway, if you are a total stranger who came across this LiveJournal totally out of pure morbid curiosity, I hope you enjoy looking at random pictures of things that will probably only make sense in my demented little head. If you see photographs of Starbucks, it's because I am keeping tabs on the CIA outposts in other countries.
If you are total stranger about to become a deranged stalker, please close this little internet window and calmly check yourself into the nearest psych ward.

If you're family or friends, then you are totally surprised that I actually took an initiative like this, but are hopefully surprised and pleased that I didn't completely drop off the radar like last time. And you will look at some of these pictures and wonder what possessed me to take them. The answer to this question is totally logical: obviously, the demon who crashed the plane. Seriously, though, some of these pictures are gonna be weird.
Like Starbucks pictures. If you see photographs of Starbucks, it's because I am keeping tabs on the CIA outposts in other countries.
The previous sentence will probably only make sense to Tricia. Hi, Tricia!