canadian fall

my european travels have ended for the moment, and on the whole i wish that they had never ended.
my summer in italy was incredible. it surpassed many of my visions of the people and culture which i had experienced through mass media, and my week long sprint through some of it's larger tourist destinations.
from beginning to end martina's family welcomed me, even though initially they may have thought me to be a stupid mcdonald eating, suv driving, football playing, poorly dressed white boy....well i suppose it's very possible that they still think that, but if they do, they were very polite about accommodating my canadian-ness.
italy was fantastic. hands down, flat out amazing. the positive stereotypes are all true, the history is mind blowing for all us north americans, the food is the best you could ask for, the wine is excellent and cheap, the countryside is rolling and painted green with the right ingredients for all that wine. the sea is out of a dream, the water feels like you jumped into a salty bath. basically, i can't say enough great things about this country....i hear they play soccer as well....

a place that wonderful needs a bit of negative to outweigh the positive, so throw in a bit of corruption and drivers who think theyre all behind the wheel of a ferrari and you get a pretty well balanced place.

martina has booked her flight and should be arriving in new york on the 14th of october, which although close still seems to be an unidentifiable length of time away in my mind. she will be here for over 2 weeks, and we will do our best to see toronto, ottawa and new york in that time. i am incredibly excited to be able to show her the familiar places and people which make canada home. i have been using quite a few international phone cards, and i can't wait until she is here so she can use them to call her family instead...

school,..its back. back to toronto and ryerson. i am living with dan, a friend from first year. our place is a couple blocks from campus, in a good sized townhouse style development. we've got things that suprised me quite a bit, a washing machine, dryer and a little gift from god...a dishwasher. definitely a plus.

other than that, everything is moving along.