Urban Woman Faces Big World in Small Body

College Life

2005-09-13T17:07:00.001-07:00

Okay, Okay, I'm sorry I haven't been writing on this, but I'm gonna try, I promise.
So I'm in college now, at Occidental, which is technically in LA but in the general Eagle Rock/ Pasadena vicinity.
I'm in 4 classes: Silence and Speaking out (Mandatory writing class... professor is really sweet but a little scatterbrained), Anthropology 100 (Professor from South Africa... really smart and nice and pretty! There was a little bit of a shock the other day when she pushed back her hair and everyone discovered she doesn't shave her underarms-- what woman power!) Anthropology 200 (Women's movements and Gender politics in Africa, same prof. as Anthro 100) and Soc 101 (with this really bizarre but interesting guy named Jepson). My roommate is from St. Louis, MO. She's been to all 7 continents. Wow. So I'm really loving everything right now, aside from the homework thing... but what can ya do, right?
Hope y'all are well out there,
Carly

College Life

2005-09-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh

2005-08-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

I am in Edinburgh. How exciting. You might not even have known I was here. Anyway, I went to stonehenge this morning... I went with this tour group Astral Travels (astraltravels.co.uk)and got to go in before it opened... there were only like 15 people there... I got to take pictures of Stonehenge without a million people in them! Yay! Then I took a train up here... It's so freakin' crowded. There's this festival going on and there are SO MANY PEOPLE... some event was happening at the castle and the 'line' to get in was the width of the street 10 BLOCKS LONG. Anyway, I'm going to Rosslyn Chapel tomorrow, so that should be nice.
Hope y'all are doing well.

MSI 2005

2005-08-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

Group at fountain, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

Sorry it took so damn long to get this up. This is a photo of some of my classmates and myself at the summer program I did during July... it was hardcore work, but really fun and insightful and lifechangeing and all that good stuff. Two of my best friends were Natasha, in the purple standing next to me, and Rob, who is crouching on the ground in front of me. I think I will post a couple more pics of this program before I leave for Scotland on Thursday.

My favorite Italy picture

2005-07-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

IMG_0580, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

I am officially back from Italy, I have been for a week and a half now, but I'm just getting the chance to do this. I started a sumer program at Occidental about multiculturalism in LA... very interesting. I will comment further at a later date. Anyway, this is my favorite photo from my trip. Oh, by the way, I'm going to Scotland and England in August. Suckers.

Cibreo for Dummies

2005-06-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

If you want a killer meal at a killer price, just be female and smile a lot. That is precisely how I got possibly the most amazing meal of my life. On Saturday afternoon, I headed to Cibreo Caffe, the less expensive counterpart of the famous Florentine restaurant, Cibreo. I was the only English-speaking person in the place, which perhaps gives some idea of the place's caliber. Anyway, the young, attractive waiters sort of took pity on me for eating alone, and gave me half my bill at lunch. Which was nice. But the story hasn't even begun. I went back that night with two roommates in their mid twenties, because the dinner menu is bigger than the lunch menu. Anyhow, the waiters remembered me and sent the three of us a bottle of champagne as we waited for a table on the patio. We sat down, and before we even saw a menu, were surprised with one of each and every appitizer on the Cibreo menu. The Expensive Cibreo, that is. After finishing that with large glasses of complimentary red wine, we got the menus-- but not the cafe menus, the Expensive Cibreo menus. We ordered food-- I got this incredible ricotta potato flan thing that was better than 99% of desserts I've ever had-- which was brought with every side dish on the menu (about 7). At this point it was about 11:30 pm-- we had been there since 9-ish-- and we thought were going to explode from fullness. And we were vaguely worried about the bill... we had eaten about 350 euro worth of food at this point. Seriously. So the lovely Italian waiter Josef asks us if we want dessert, and we just start laughing. Yeah right. Like we could eat anymore. But, nevertheless, he brought us a huge bowl of cherries that had been 'pickled' as it were in red wine, so the wine sauce tasted like cherries, and the cherries like wine. Delicious. Oh, and three pieces of flourless chocolate torte. Irrisistable. Probably the best dessert I've ever had. Ever. So, at the end of the night, 1 bottle of champagne, 6 glasses of wine, 6 glasses of water, 8 appitizers, 7 side dishes, 3 main courses, and 2 desserts later, our bill came to 60 euro, which we split for a grand total of 20 euro each. Damn, life is good.

Firenze

2005-06-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

I am officially in Florence! It's 90 degrees, humid as hell, but gorgeous nonetheless. I am happy to be here. I met some girls from the states and we had this amazing dinner (with wine, I might add, since I can drink here ;-) ) with a view of the duomo... then we walked the streets in the lovely nighttime cool of about 80.

Big Red Bus

2005-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Today I went on one of those doubledecker bus tour things... saw the classics: Big Ben, Parliament buildings, Tower of London, Westminster Abby... all that good stuff. I saw the crown jewels... they're glittery and expensive, but they honestly look really gaudy. Like, didn't the designers know what symmetry was? I mean, they border on tacky. But whatever. They're worth a s***load of money, so I guess that's what counts. Not really missing home... wish there was better food here. Miss you guys

London!

2005-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm in London now; it's incredibly hot but really beautiful. I went for a 4 mile walk with my hostelmate Neta, who's from Toronto via Romania. We saw St. Paul's cathedral as well as this church from the 1100s, St. Bartholomew's. That one was amazing. Unfortunately, I am unable to download photos from my camera onto the computers here, but I will post or send them as soon as I can.
Lots of love.

Chelsea Backstage

2005-06-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Chelsea Backstage, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

Right now my class is working on our senior play; it's actually seven short plays tied together by their offbeat and ironic sense of humor. My scene is about a student at the God Academy (basically) who brings two humans in to show to her professors and they turn out to be idiotic hicks... it's pretty funny. The show is this Thursday night. This is Chelsea, our stage manager, and possibly the sweetest girl in the world.

Daddy and me...

2005-06-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

IMG_0074, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

God, I'm finally going to have to come out of my denial. I am graduating one week from today and that is that. Sheesh. Seems like 2 weeks ago this picture was taken... 2 weeks, 14 years, whatever.

MyCamera!

2005-06-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

MyCamera!, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

I just got the bestest graduation present ever. It's my first digital camera! It's a Cannon PowerShot A510 and I love it. This is it's picture. You might not be able to read what's printed on it because I had to take the picture in the mirror (you can't take a picture of a camera with that camera otherwise). Don't expect me to follow in my father's footsteps now or anything.

Me and Stephen

2005-05-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Stephen and me, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

This freak is the person I'm most nostalgic about leaving when I leave high school. We've gone to school together since we were 3 years old... that's, like, more than a decade and a half, man. We've known each other forever. It's kind of like he's my cousin or something. Anyway, he's going to this random college called Gonzaga in Washingon. Which means I'll see him in like, 10 years at our 10 year high school reunion. How depressing.

Me with a Hairy Armpit

2005-05-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hairy Armpit Me, originally uploaded by Carlyjoy86.

So this is my blog of life after high school...
I figured I should get this going before I actually graduated so that you all could get into it and keep up with my life after I actually do get out of here (aka when I'm too busy to REALLY keep in touch) and go on many great adventures.

Itinerary for the fairly near future:
June 16- class play. I play God.
June 17- graduation. Thank God it's over.
June 18- flight to London
June 23- flight to Florence, via Paris
June 28- train to Venice
June 30- flight back to London, then back to LA
July 1- home
July 2- graduation party for me! You should come.
July 3- off I go again for a summer program
July 30- home again
August 27- start college at Occidental in Eagle Rock