Venezia!
I'm fairly sure that Venice is the most beautiful ground I've ever set foot on. There are 117 islands here with thousands of bridges and I very well may have crossed them all. The water is beautiful. The people are friendly, and the men are gorgeous. They have been saying "Ciao, bella" (Hello, beautiful!) to Kate and I and our self esteem is through the roof! The tiramisu here is better that I ever imagined and the ice cream is about 10x better than in the states. We've been enjoying long walks through the city, pasta dinners at night, art museums full of 18th century frescos, and the beauty of the Murano glass. I'm still in shock that I'm somewhere so beautiful. I feel so lucky for getting to come here...what a dream come true!
We'll be in Rome 2 days from now, but today we're just enjoying sunny weather, temperatures in the 70s, and each other's company. Kate is a wonderful travel companion, and a great friend to see the world with! We've been on sensory overload so much that we go to bed at about 10pm and wake up at around 8 ready for another adventure. I love Venezia so much...this place is absolutely gorgeous. It feels like a tropical paradise...I've written about 5 pages in my journal every day...I want to write everything down that I possibly can so I remember as much as possible when I get home. When I read my journal, I want to be able to come here in my mind and see the beauty of everything all over again! Ciao!

Arrivederci...a presto!
I'm going to bed soon..it's not even midnight yet. I've completely packed my backpack up with what I'm praying will get me through two weeks of travel around Venice, Ancona, Rome, Siena, Florence, Pisa, La Spezia, Nice, Avignon, and Barcelona. Lord help me. Kate had to say goodbye to Lucas tonight, which I know makes her very sad as they have become really good friends. I hope she gets to make a trip to Aland to see him next summer!
It's going to be nice to leave Preston for a few days, but I'm already getting sad about realizing exactly how short my time here is. I've officialy only got three days left at the end of the month. I've seen Jess leave, Liz has come down from Flat 67 to say goodbye to me, Yadira leaves in an hour, and I feel so weird. I've been thinking so much about this all coming to an end that I never thought it would. Alas, all good things...you know the rest.
Chris, I'm not sure if you even read this anymore. Why would you? I guess I just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me to come here. It's been lifechanging and I suppose in some weird way, I owe it to you.
It's time to say my prayers and get to bed...I'll be praying to St. Christopher tonight (the patron saint of travellers) to watch over Kate and I and bless us with a good and safe journey. I'm not sure what is ahead of me, but looking back, the best adventures have always been the ones I was uncertain of...
Ciao for now and keep reading...I'll update while I'm on the road...Tomorrow: train from Preston to London at 7AM, flight from London to Venice and I'll be in Italy in the afternoon. Dios mio. :)

hair cutters anonymous
I was over at Kate's flat sharpening my eyeliner (I realize this makes me sound like a complete ditz, but the stupid thing had gone dull and Kate draws a lot so I knew she'd have a sharpener) and Liz called her looking for someone to cut her hair. I volunteered and went over to her place and gave her a cute little bob...I was quite impressed with my work. Liz, you look BRILL!
Todd & Carl from SIU Carbondale, Jasmine, Jess, Liz, Lucas, Kate and I had dinner in Flat 67 and then everyone ran off to Greenbank to see Harry Potter 2...I stayed behind and got my bastard economics paper finished! It's turned in right now and I couldn't be more happy. Kate and I are going to Liverpool today to dick around at the Beatles Museum and find some trouble to get into. It should be a lovely day. Jess is catching the 2:20 train to London and I'm missing her already. She lives in the room directly above me, and I could hear her packing her stuff up this morning and it made me really sad because I'll be doing that soon. I always hate to see people go...goodbyes blow.
I've been really trying to have lucid dreams lately, to little success. It's really frustrating because now I can tell when I'm dreaming, but I can't do anything about it. I've got to work on my super powers.

Thai, Rum, and Dear Friends
Kate, Jessica, and I met up with Adrian and Carolie at the Shipp Inn last night for some pre-dinner drinks. I had the strongest rum and coke of my life there...I could barely drink it...holy cow! We proceeded over to the Thai restaurant and had a lovely meal at which I laughed so much I could barely eat. It was a great night: our dinner conversation consisted of body hair, fat women, and midgets. What lovely topics for discussion!
When Kate, Jess, and I got back they came up to my flat and we discovered Ella, Ryan, and Lee scarfing down some Dominoes so we hung out in the kitchen with them until nearly 3am. Lee was making fun of Ryan's hiccups by making "walrus noises" as he called them. I made it to bed really late and didn't get up until noon today.
I've got a list of things to do...I want to make out a daily forecast and list of possible activities with details so we can maximize our time backpacking. I'm breaking in my new North Face shoes today...I'm so excited! Anything you get to buy shoes for is OK with me!
I had another lucid dream last night...I realized I was dreaming so I tried to develop some X-men like super powers to attack the bad guys with...it didn't work, but at least I realized I was dreaming again! Woo hoo! I'll be manipulating my carbon molecules and shifting myself through solid objects in no time!