Bad Girls

If someone were to ask me what one thing I would take from my travels these past two weeks, I would quote a friend of Francine’s, a Bernese shopkeeper:

My mom and I had done something wrong (nothing serious, but slightly funny or something – I don’t remember what), and Francine was recounting the story in Swiss-German to her shopkeeper friend. Then she looked at us and said in English “they’re bad girls.” Her friend said something in Swiss and gave a smirk – then translated:

“Well, you know, good girls go to Heaven; bad girls go everywhere.”
Francine: “Well, I think I’d rather be a bad girl.”

We had a good laugh. Or maybe a bad laugh.

And indeed, if Heaven is as depicted by Giotto on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, I’m not entirely convinced I want to spend the rest of eternity sitting in a chair in the sky looking down on the world below. I’d probably fall asleep, or get painfully bored like I do in lectures that are way too long. And this professor is not likely to be so forgiving…

Would I be committing a sacrilege if I gave up my chair in order to go everywhere instead?... That is, if I even get one... hm.

La rentrée

The Return

I have a problem. It’s a vicious cycle deal.

You see, I go through these spurts of blog-writing excitement when I have some stress- and presse-free moments, then I get busy with something, and then in that busy-something I have some exciting experiences and lots of mundane ones that I want to write about but I don’t get a chance before the next ones start. Then I get a moment and I cower at all the writing it would take to catch up (just as you would probably cower at all the reading it would take), push it off until later, collect new experiences and writeable moments, sit down again to write (this time running away screaming at all the writing it would take), and it just goes on and on.

I really should work on that thing called “being concise.” How many times have I said that now?

All of this to say that I’m sorry (or not?) but the recount of my Christmas vacation is going to be a little stunted… However! check out my photos because that is quite possibly the best recap of the trip with lots of more lengthy descriptions of some funny historical tidbits and some thoughts and descriptions…

I had a lovely trip starting in Milan to meet my mom, then to Bern, Switzerland to meet Francine, a long-time friend of my mom’s who lives there, then to Francine’s family’s chalet in Mürren (Swiss alps) for Christmas, back to Bern, a last minute decision to spend a few days in Verona before our week in Venice, and a day trip from Venice to Padua.

Two weeks in one sentence – not bad for me!

If I had exams and papers more often, perhaps all my blogs would be this short!

Wish me luck.