Please send yarn. And an air freshener.

Spring break starts today. Do you know how I will be spending spring break?

Sitting around a dark apartment, or wandering a smelly city in search of something that isn't a bar or a museum.

We were going to go to Paris, and then Berlin. We were going to take a week off from being students and spend a week being tourists. We were going to see the places in Europe that we really wanted to see.

Italy was never our intended destination. It was just a jumping off point to get to Scotland, Ireland, England, France, and Germany.

When we signed up for this trip, Alice and I were horribly misinformed. And it just keeps getting worse.

There will be no traveling outside the city because Alice barely has enough money for food, thanks to our school charging us $4600 unexpectedly. She had to pay most of it out of pocket, while my parents took care of it for me (I'll still have to pay them back when I get home though, at least half). So unless I want to go to Paris and Berlin alone, I'm out of luck. And really, what's the point in going to your dream city without your best friend, especially when she's already come this far with you?

Paris is my dream. I'm a six hour train ride away, but the closest I'll get is flying through French airspace.

I've been trying to distract myself by working on the podcast. We're actually done with two episodes, but we're still waiting on Alice's brother to send us an mp3 of the music for episode 1. I've been doing all of the editing and mixing, since I'm the one with garage band.

I've also been knitting. I hate the Turkish rib tank, so it's getting frogged and turned into something useful--dish clothes and kitchen towels, probably, since we've been going through paper towels like no tomorrow. I bought some yarn at a nearby shop, and started making a scarf for my mom. I really wanted to make her something more creative, but I think a scarf is the only thing that yarn will willingly turn into. I tried socks, because it's very fine, but it was so fine that it would have taken me years just to get to the heel.

So that is my spring break. No internet on weekends or evenings. Stuck in the middle of a stone city, with the sewer down the street all torn up and smelling up the neighborhood.

I've been exploring. Florence and I do not mesh.

I want to go home. I want to go to Paris, or London, or Edinburgh. But not here.