Eugene is in the Willamette Valley which the native american's named more aptly "the Valley of Sickness and Death" The allergen counts here are insanely high and I've developed allergies for the first time in my life- brutal. I ran out of my medicine yesterday and this morning I wolk up with swollen eyes. I took the picture below after using my eye drops which brought down the swelling significantly but as you can see I'm still fairly puffy.

Brazil

Okay so I went to Brazil a year ago but my parents tell me that my blog is extremely boring and I should add more stuff. Since my life is not all that exciting I've decided to post some of the pictures from my last trips.


Above is a favela (squatter settlement) in Rio. I happen to be writting a paper about favelas right now for my Anthropology of tourism class.

James caught an itty bitty pirana on the Rio Negro. I ate some while making a very dignified face. Hee hee.













Though the sun shone most of the time, there were occasional downpours . . . and my parents were prepared!







Brazilia was really interesting. The architecture was very cool and the city was built around the car so it was difficult to get around on foot. We were there on the weekend and the city felt really empty. Perhaps it's true that everyone leaves on the weekend to visit family in other cities.

This is a market in Salvador. I think. . . .

Italy

James studied in Macerata, Italy for 3 months last spring. I went to visit for his last week.
The pictures below are taken at Maracua, the cafe close to school. James spend many a languid afternoon sipping esspresso there. Well okay maybe not but it does sound nice.
















There were these funny water fountains all over town with potable, deliciously cold water.

It was really really hot! This is in James' bedroom where he slept in a hammock bed .

I went on a few day trips while James finished his final project. The church below supposedly holds the house of Mary. It's in Loretto a small town few hours by bus from Macerata. I was harrased by the police on the bus ride because I didn't realize that I had to punch my ticket when I got on the bus. The officer was upset because there was another passenger who had no ticket or identificaiton. I had a difficult time explaining my situation in italian to the police officer. Compounded by the fact that i had no idea what the address of James' apt was. I finally made him laugh explaining that the apt was above the pharmacy on a street with lots of cars. How much of my italian/spanish interpretation he understood isn't clear but anyway he let me off the hook. I was glad that I happend to have a copy of my passport. Then after things settled down I realized that we had just passed Loretto. I asked the bus driver who confirmed and let me off in the middle of nowhere so I could hoof it back. Anyway the town wasn't that special but I met lots of nice Italians that day who spoke no english.

After my day of adventure I decided that I deserved a day off. So I took the train (far more straightforward) to Civitanova to hang out on the beach. it was strange. The beach was covered with these chairs for miles. You had to pay a nominal fee to reserve a chair for the day. It was actually quite lovely and the umbrella was crucial.


We spent two days in Rome before heading back to the US. Our friend Iain treated us to an awesome hotel on the outskirts of town for our wedding gift. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and it was in a nice quiet neighborhood walking distance from the center of the city.

Unfortunately James got sick the last night in Rome so he spent the evening in the bathroom and still felt under the weather the next morning when we caught our flight home.

China

I went to China this fall for two weeks with my MBA program. I didn't take very many pictures.


My friends Monica and Emily. notice the Bamboo scaffolding.

james dudley and I went hiking. Pela stayed home and cool, blu not so much.