Milan, Stendhal & the new Ryan Adams' EP

My last official trip was this past weekend in Milan. Nice city, business captial of Italy, art museums all over the place--you get the picture. It's very expensive to go out at night, though. That's the only downfall. In spite of that, however, I found a little tabacco shop with excellent prices on cuban cigars. Always a plus. I also had eggs and bacon for the first time in months at breakfast in the hotel. Another plus. Oh, and I saw the famous Duomo di Milan, the second biggest Gothic catherdral in the world. It was no doubt the most ornately decorated piece of architecture I've ever seen, which kind of got me thinking, what if they took let's say half of the stuff inside and auctioned it off, how many people could they help/save? I kept thinking of the end of Schindler's List when Oscar Schindler goes over everything he could have sold to save more Jewish prisoners. Just a thought. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a rant there.

Again, despite the high prices, I also found a good price on a small book by Stendhal. I think I have a mild/moderate addiction to buying books. Oh, well. In the words of Will Ferrall in Blades of Glory, "It's my cross to bear." Anyway, there was a great quote in there that I'd like to share with you, Constant Reader. He says, "Everything can be acquired in solitude, except character." I think that should be the universal slogan for study abroad programs. For me, it means that you're never really you until discovering yourself after the friction of foreign experience. All in all, a very nice quote.

And lastly, I picked up the new Ryan Adams EP entitled "Follow the Lights." Since this was my last trip, the next time I'll be on a plane is two weeks from now on my way home. And the lyrics to the title track go: "Follow the lights/ that line the streets connecting telephones/ Follow the lights/ from house to house/ and they will lead you home/ cause there was never anywhere to go/ there was never anywhere to go/ but home." A nice little sentiment to think about two weeks out. Well, that's it for this week. Cya!