Gender Blender, New England & Settling into Atlanta

After stopping into Atlanta for a short break, I headed to the frigid North (65 F for the summer) of Toronto, Ontario. I went a few days early to visit with a friend of mine, Jamie, whom I'd met at Hopu Ka Lewa tournament in Honolulu. Sweet, fun guy. We had fun seeing the sites of Toronto. It's a pretty cool city, but not so different from any other big city. I was disappointed that no mounties or beavers were walking around. So much for stereotyping. Otherwise, it's a very clean city with that big CN tower in it. There's also a really long street (name escapes me) that has A LOT of cool shops and hippie stores. Good times. Eventually some other friends that I know from Hawaii joined up with us and we all had a great night at the bar getting sauced in Canada with some real Canadians and even a couple guys from Mexico. Once the group was assembled the next day we all headed to Fergus, Ontario for the tournament known as Gender Blender. Essentially, it's at the back of a park including a forested area where each team comes up with some theme and sets up an entire area with a game (usually dirty) and a blended drink to give out to the winners. Debauchery and memory loss ensues. It was a lot of fun! Met some great teammates and proceeded to have a great time at the pirate shit foam dance party, the strap-on obstacle course, the Double Dare station, failed keg stand, Price is Right Plinko, strip hang man, our own ro-sham-tackle station, and lots more that is a bit fuzzy. Even after all that we still came ready to play the next day and our team did really well. Sunday was more chill with a dance party.
After the tournament ended and we said our goodbyes to Jamie, Becky, Jess, Gilda and I all headed for Middlebury, VT where Becky's brother lives. We didn't plan to, but we ended up driving the whole 9 hours that night and got in at 3 am. yikes. To start the drive off right, the stuff that we had tied to the roof flew off onto the interstate and five lanes on racing cars all stopped to let us run out and collect it. Another notable part of the drive was going through customs where we couldn't stop giggling because what we said for where we're from, reason of visit and then our occupations, it sounded made up. Nothing more suspicious at the border than a car full of gigglers. "Where are you from?" "Hawaii" - "Hawaii?!" - "Reason for visit?" "Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Fergus." "Frisbee?! and Where the hell is Fergus?" "Ok, occupations?" Jess: "Grad student with solar cells." Becky: "Epidemiologist." Gilda: "archeologist for the military." Then me: "unemployed." We spent a couple days in Vermont hanging out on the brother and wife's small farm, hiking, and seeing Burlington, VT. Good times. Then, off to Maine through New Hampshire. VT, NH, ME are all beautiful, but they definitely all look very similar after awhile. Quick stops in a famous bar called Ebenezer's, and a small local place in Maine for lobsters. Eating a lobster whole instead of just the tail, is a very disturbing experience. I won't be doing it again anytime soon. After staying at Becky's friend's house we made our way to Boston (Bawstin) road the train, saw Harvard square and Harvard then to the bus station to take me to my flight for Poultry Days.
Poultry Days: met some new people, didn't play well, ate chicken, saw old friends. Flew home on business class, drunk before take off. Lots of complimentary cookies! YES!
Now I'm back in Atlanta. Things were slow the first week and a half or so, because I didn't have a job and other people work for a living during the day. eyeroll :p But, now that summer league is in full swing, I'm making plans with friends again, and I got my library card activated things are going pretty well. : ) Living with Nick and Rick is going really well. I live in a small room in the back. It works. I have an interview for a dogsitting position tomorrow. Don't know what to expect, but it could be a good source of flexible schedule and money for which to spend.

I can do this!

I seem to have failed as a blogger. Keeping this up is tricky, tricky. Let me try and catch up, assuming there is anyone left to read this after my textual absence.

So, I headed to Rimini, Italy for Paganello over Easter weekend. Awwweeesome. I spent a week at the tournament with my team Arrrrrr! (pirate themed, you know?) They were a great team, very spirited, talented, and silly. We played pretty well and enjoyed playing pirate themed games with the other teams. We made it a team goal to put our pirate tattoos on the whole tournament. We started out with 1500 and ended the tournament with only 200, so we must have done a pretty good job. :D The parties were fun, but not as crazy as I was hoping for. Even though I had a great time, I wouldn't call it the best value. You pay almost 200 dollars and they don't give you liquor or food (well, a little of each the first night, but not much). One thing that was cool, though, was going on a boat cruise the second night that had a playboy theme. I went in a sexy dress and a bathrobe in honor of Heph. Lots of dancing and debauchery, of course. Anyway, a great tournament, but I still think Kaimana in Hawaii is a way better value. Everyone should go! After the tourny, I had hoped to find some people to travel with but wasn't able to find anyone. So, I set off on my 6 day trip across Italy alone. I took the trains everywhere. First, to Florence, then Cinque Terre, Siena, and Rome. I was in a hurry to see as much as possible and I didn't have more than two days anywhere. It was rushed, but I'm glad I got to see as much as I did. Florence was such a beautiful city, overflowing with statues and domes. Plus, it had some of the best city views and sunset. Next was Cinque Terre, which a grouping of five towns built along the NW Italian coast. The small towns are all built up upon cliffs and tucked in among enormous olive groves. Numerous trails traverse between the cliffs and connect the towns. I was able to do a few of the hikes, and they were incredible. There was so much color! Not just in the green hills, but the towns especially. The typical colors on the buildings were: pink, moss green, mustard and rust. Amazing, simply amazing. I rode on the local trains there, had some local food (gelato, baked chickpea something, pizza). There was wine, too! Man, 1/2 a liter is so much more than I thought. So drunk. So quickly.

Next was Siena, another Tuscan town. It was pretty cool, and pretty old. At this point I was getting kind of lonely, and I don't think I was enjoying it as much as I would have liked. But, that's when I ran into two guys from Colorado who happened to play frisbee, too! Perfect. We traveled around the town that night and went to Rome together. They were a lot of fun, very silly. We tried to hit up a European soccer game, but proceeded to have an ultimately fruitless adventure no finding any tickets. The rest of the time in Rome was spent seeing the seemingly limitless supply of statues, fountains, and art. The Colosseum is prettty big, but not as big as you would think. So, a whirlwind trip then back to Hawaii for one month before I left again.

I finished up my work at the University, including The Sustainability Fest. That was a crazy day. We were up for 19 hours straight setting things up, managing the day-long event, and then the concert, then the clean up. It was a long day, but a good experience. The best thing that came of my time with the Sustainability center was that my supervisor said she would write me a glowing recommendation for any sustainability job I applied for. Bonus! On Memorial day I left Hawaii and headed to Austin, TX to stay with Tank and Cara. I had a great three days there seeing the city and all of its cool little quirks. Of course, my hosts were wonderful and were a lot of fun to be with. I also got to meet up with a friend of mine, Jeff, who happened to be in town. After that, a quick pop into Atlanta to drop my stuff off. There, I got to rest for a little bit before off to the next adventure.