I randomly got a lot of text messages last night about things like “I was really pulling for you guys” and “When does basketball season start?” and “Wow.” I am confused as to what people are talking about. I mean, I can only assume that we’re talking about football, right? But UVA’s season doesn’t start until next week! Season and home opener vs. Richmond Spiders, right?

Alright, I don’t think I can pull that off. Yesterday was apparently UVA’s worst loss since 1984. In fact, last year, all of our losses combined only to losing by 40 points. Yesterday’s 52-7 blowout was nothing short of embarrassing. I thought about going through my previous entries and deleting anything I’ve ever mentioned about the game, and just going on with my life pretending like said game never existed. But alas.

Yes, I am surprised by the blowout. I did not think that it would be that bad. But at the same time, only in the end did it really feel like a blowout at the game. Throughout the entire game, you had a strong sense (confirmed by stats and the scoreboard) that USC was clearly the bigger, faster, stronger team out there. But I had some positive things to take away too.

First, Lalich is not abysmal. His passes were not dead on, but our offensive line gave him very little time to actually read the coverage. Alright, he threw into quad-coverage at least once. That you can blame on him, and I will not defend.

Second, our safeties were doing their job. We only saw one real big play from USC - the TD reception that keeps getting replayed on SportsCenter (I use “keeps getting replayed” loosely - few people in the real world, apparently, are actually surprised by the score). In years past, our secondary coverage has been weak at best, so it was comforting to me to see them functioning this game.

Third. Hmm. I don’t really have a third. I was really excited when our kicker made a pretty strong kick after our first failed drive. But after that, he reverted to mediocrity. Oh well. So it goes.

I was somehow able to avoid the masses at bars this weekend by going downtown Friday night and McGrady’s Saturday night. I would have liked to have seen a few more of you 3Ls, but unfortunately, not at the expense of fighting through drunken USC fans and first-weekend-at-college first years. Egad.

I don’t know when the next time I’ll be in Cville is, but it’s a very strange feeling for me not to be there right now. Apparently I am close to growing up. Boo.

Well, he’s a poor actor, but Lou Holtz’s new segment on ESPN is awesome.  His intro cracked me up, on his qualifications for being called a doctor.  Some of these include “my mother loves me” and “I’ve written three NY Times best-sellers…making me the only person to have written more books than he’s read,” among others.  This is way better than last year’s Pep Talks.  Between Lou Holtz during the football season and Bobby Knight during the basketball, ESPN’s halftime shows are just getting better and better.

“Behind every successful person stands a very surprised mother-in-law.”

Happy Kickoff Day!

I am still alive.  I just got in yesterday after two weeks in Europe, a weekend in Lynchburg for Kirby’s wedding (and Foamhenge), and a little over a week in California.  It’s been an absolute blast, but it’s left me exhausted and homeless.  No seriously.  I am just now starting to look at apartments in New York and I haven’t found any yet.  I’m relying on a couple brokers to make some magic happen for me.  I also need to pack, apparently.  Sifting through seven years of crap plus the plethora of junk sitting at my parents’ house.  Blah.

Anyway, pictures to come.

Today we docked at Villefranche, France.  From there, we visited Monaco, where we got to visit the Monte Carlo.  Unfortunately, it was closed today.  They must have known that I am a high roller and that the house never wins against me.  Alas.  Next time, Monte Carlo!

We also checked out Nice.  There, we visited St. Nicholas’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral.  That, too, was closed today.  Weird.  It’s like all of France is closed in August or something.  Oh wait.  It is.  We also went to the beach.  Apparently beaches in Nice have rocks instead of sand – that I was not expecting.  But the water was beautiful and boobs were plentiful.  The openness of Europeans is something that we in the States should really try to emulate, methinks.

Ungh.  It is now 12:30 am and I just got back from eating like the eighth meal of the day.  It wasn’t even anything remotely healthy.  Cheese sticks, buffalo wings, and chicken tenders.  I feel gross and fat and disgusting.

Oh, and McKenzie, I had a you moment today.  At dinner (our first dinner) we were trying to figure out how to raise the blinds over the window so we could see the sunset over the water while we ate.  After a little bit of a struggle, I looked up and realized that there was a motor thingy.  So I said “It’s electric.”  …and then instinctively followed it up with “boogie woogie woogie.”  I can’t believe that happened.  I can’t believe I have to spend a whole week with you.

Forgot to post today, so I am pre-dating this entry and keeping it short.  Visited Pisa.  Took lewd pictures involving the Tower.  One British woman commented, “that was extreme” in response to my pictures, haha.  We also visited Florence with very little time available, so we did a whirlwind tour involving the Michelangelo’s David (we didn’t get to catch Donatello’s David), the Duomo, the outside of the Uffizi (sadly, we didn’t have time to check out the Birth of Venus and the Duke and Duchess of Urbino), and Ponte Vecchio.  So much more to see in Florence though!  Oh well – next visit.

Things I miss:

1. Internet.  I know – this is weird to put up on a blog post, but I’m really doing offline blogging.  So…typing into Microsoft Word and hitting the save button.  I miss checking my email.  Sweet, sweet email.
2. New York.  I can’t WAIT to move up to the Big Apple!  I’ve been starting to tell people on the cruise that I’m an attorney from New York, haha.  I should probably stop.  If I learned nothing else during the Bar (you guys knew I wasn’t done talking about the Bar) it’s that we’re lawyers 24/7 worldwide, including on a cruise in the middle of nowhere.  I am pretty sure that I am not allowed to call myself a lawyer yet or something.  I am an associate pending?
3. Seeing everyone every day.  I miss seeing everyone in the library or in Scott Commons everyday this summer.  That was pretty sweet.

Things I don’t miss:

1. Seeing everyone reading BarBri or flashcards every day.
2. The idea that I have to sift through like ten boxes when I get home (after Kirby’s wedding, after California) to figure out what I’m going to bring to New York and what I’m leaving forever.
3. The concept of me finding my own source of sustenance.  But then again, after this cruise, I’m going to need a meal every hour on the hour.  A full meal, not some skimpy snack.

Today we were able to explore the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and Trevi Fountain, all of which were awesome.  I cheated and made two wishes at the Fountain – am I allowed to do that?  I hope so.  I couldn’t prioritize which wish I wanted / needed more, so I did both.  At Vatican City, I made a shout out to Dean Jeffries, as seen here.

Seven is really, really early in the a.m. to be docking at port and getting off the boat.  I’m going to have to start going to bed at like 9:00 or something to make up the difference.  Unfortunately, I am still eating at 9:00, usually.

Someone needs to figure out a way to roll me off the boat at the end of this trip.  I’m giving them a 3-day warning, so I think that’s fair notice.  Start working on that.

Pompeii was awesome.  Good ol’ Quintus and Caecilius and Cerberus and whatever the stupid mom’s name would have been happy to see me, if Caecilius and Cerberus didn’t die in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (sorry to all the Latin I students out there whose entire storyline just got ruined) (and sorry to everyone else who just realized what a giant nerd I am).

The most exciting part of the day, I think, was finding the Cave Canem mosaic.  But yeah, the rest of Pompeii was pretty cool too.  Unfortunately we did not have enough time to head up to Mt. Vesuvius, so that is the only disappointing part.  But it was already pretty smokin’ hot outside, so perhaps hiking a volcano would not have been the smartest of ideas.

We really botched the Naples/Napoli pizza experience.  We went to a café-type place rather than a real brick oven pizzeria.  The pizza wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t impressive.  I would have really loved to have tried real Italian pizza from the birthplace thereof.  (“Thereof?”  Who says that?  Only lawyers.  Not that I’m a lawyer yet.  Or ever will be.  …enter depression.)

Speaking of lawyers, I don’t think I mentioned this but am too lazy to look back at past entries to see if I did or not.  Coming into London, I needed to put down my occupation.  I couldn’t put student anymore.  I didn’t want to put unemployed, I guess?  So I put down lawyer.  It was really weird for me, especially given that I may very well never actually be a lawyer.  Ay.

I was able to keep it down to one entrée and one dessert tonight.  Go me!

Oh man.  I just saw a new freecreditreport.com commercial! I LOVE those commercials!  I also like that they sort of made a swipe at all the stupid hip hop songs nowadays by singing F to the R to the E to the E to the C to the R to the E to the D-I-T.  Re to the Port to the Dot to the Com…

Tomorrow, ROME.

Ungh.  It is 11:15 pm and sure enough, I just finished dinner.  Dinner probably would have gone by a lot faster if I didn’t have three entrees.  Lobster, duck, and lobster again.  YUM.  I’ve had better lobster before, and the service was sub-par.  But I mean, I had three entrees, so how much can I really complain?

Today we went to Malta.  There wasn’t all that much to see there, but it’s a pretty nice town/country.  Apparently it’s a popular place to buy a vacation home because houses run an average of $150K or something like that.  So that’s right.  I could afford a vacation home in Malta before I can buy a studio condo in Manhattan.  Blah.

Today was hot.  Very very hot.  I’m talking, Brian-got-sunburned-in-the-face hot.  As you all know, Brian generally does not do sunburns.  Why Brian is talking in third person, he’ll never know.  Anyway, while in Malta I decided to try a Kinney (Wait, is that what it was called? I don’t remember, I’ll have to look that up.  Someone remind me.), dubbed Malta’s own favorite soft drink.  Generally speaking, it was gross.  It was Pepsi + bitters.  But after a while, it started growing on me.  Would I order it again if it were my only option?  Definitely.  Would I order it if it cost 50 cents compared to a bottle of water that cost $2.00?  Hmm, probably not.

Two things I saw on the television today.  First, Andrew, what’s up with your home state?  Hit-and-runs where a dude gets knocked over and everyone just kind of watches and doesn’t offer physical help?  I saw in Hartford, CT that this guy got ran over and just lay unconscious in the street and no one helped him and he is now pretty much permanently in intensive care.  Way to go, dude.  I blame you.

Second, Ericka, I saw a thing that a lot of monkey populations are dropping dramatically.  Do something to save your primate creature friends!!

Tomorrow we’re Naples/Pompeii-bound.  Hopefully we will have time to visit everything I want to.  This is basically the culmination of four years of Latin, four state-wide Latin conventions, and yes, Latin summer camp!  I hope it doesn’t disappoint.

Cave Canem.

The sun here is awesome.  I only spent about two hours sitting in the sun and can already see the newly-formed tanline.  W00t.  Something about the Mediterranean sun, I suppose.

What new updates do I have?  I saw more bare little children today.  I feel dirty everything one walks by but there isn’t really anything I can do except avert my eyes and feel all squirmish, like the first time one sees an on-screen kiss at the movie theater…with one’s parents.

Each day, I get random thoughts come and go about things I should post online.  But, much like studying for the Bar (OK seriously…no more Bar references), these thoughts come in one ear and go straight out the other.  So I have nothing exciting to talk about right now.

The first day we got onto the ship, we went to the game room looking for a mahjong set – the idea being that we needed to find it before the other Chinese families found it because they were likely to take it and hide in their rooms, those scoundrels.  We found no mahjong set.  However, today we found out that we can get a set by going to the reception table and checking one out.  So, naturally, like scoundrels, we checked one out and are now hiding it our room.  Typical.  We spent like four hours playing mahjong today.  Yeah that’s right.  We paid over a thousand dollars a person to take this cruise so that we could play mahjong.

Tonight was our at-sea night.  This means we were all expecting lobster for dinner, but alas.  No such luck.  Not only was there no lobster served in the dining room (seriously, what kind of effed up cruise doesn’t serve lobster on their at-sea night?!  This is absurd.  I demand my eight entrees of lobster for dinner!!), but we weren’t even allowed in!  It must be because we’re Chinese.  Wait, what’s that?  We’re on an international cruise?  Oh.  Okay then.  Well then in that case, it’s because my idiot brother didn’t pack any long pants and the dining rooms do not allow shorts.  Boo.

OK, it’s now like 1:00 or something.  I don’t know.  I have no concept of time anymore.  And there’s no window in my room, so I wake up and it could be 8am or 8pm.  No one knows.

Tomorrow is Malta.  I here there’s nothing to do at Malta.  Awesome.

Oh beautiful sleep.  How I miss thee.  After a long day yesterday, it was nice to sleep on a bed finally.  Of course, it wasn’t nearly enough and I’ve been falling asleep pretty much all day long.  But whatever.  I’m on vacation.  No more 6am Bar study days.  (I have GOT to stop thinking about the Bar!  It’s really putting a cramp on this relaxation thing, every time I think about how much I dread the day in November when I and the rest of the world find out whether I passed.)

Anyway, it is unfortunate that our day in Barcelona was a Sunday, as apparently the entire city shuts down.  Even when asking some of the locals about some decent restaurants to go to, they all said that nothing is open today (which is a lie – there were plenty of open restaurants by the tourist sites (ha, I just typed “cites.”  I’ll never have to bluebook again!  Well, at least not for a month and a half), obviously).  One lady even invited us over to her house for food, but my parents weren’t nearly as trusting as I was.

It also meant that most of the downtown area, was closed and everyone recommended against going there.  So we spent the day at Temple de Sagrada Familia, which was pretty impressive.  I wish it were complete already, but what’s there now is pretty amazing.  You could stand there staring at one of the facades for a solid hour without getting bored and without running out of new things to notice.

I am having an Ericka complex.  I have already taken 206 pictures and it’s only been two days.  Argh.  It’s going to be awesome when I get back and have to sift through all of them to determine which ones to put online.

And now we are on the cruise.  It’s a brand new boat and everything is sparkly and new.

Finally, here are some of my random thoughts, both throughout my time here and during my short time on this boat.

1. Europeans smoke.  A lot.  Holy moly, do they smoke.
2. There are naked children everywhere.  Why these parents do not think it’s worth their while to clothe their children is beyond my comprehension.
3. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about this, but I can’t wait until I get back to the States and move to New York!  How exciting.
4. In case you were wondering, I am typing all of these entries into my brother’s computer and saving them until I get internet access to upload them all.
5. Speaking of, I miss my email.  Like, a lot.  Sigh, sweet sweet email.