amazing.

the journey has begun. my semester ended, i got really sick the last few days, just made it to the kew gardens and then it was all packing and trying to rest after that! the kew gardens are beautiful though, amazing collections of all kinds of trees and flowers and cacti and other plants.

i dont have time for everything really... but i had an amazing time connecting with my relatives in glenluce scotland! where they live is beautiful and they were all soo kind to me for having not known i existed and all. i stayed on the street where my great, great (yes count em) grandfathers sister lived. she married a man who owned a grocery store, they had a daughter named Mattie. Mattie is my great grandfathers cousin. She is now 92 years old, and she lives on the same street where the grocery store was where my grandfather went to visit maybe 50 or 60 years ago! It was magical driving around scotland, i saw a castle and robert burns' cottage, and most importantly i was in the company of some really really sweet distant relatives who took such good care of me. it was mattie and her son and daughter George and Veda. I even saw my great great grandfathers sisters grave! i know its sort of ridiculously distant... but it was a great trip.

after scotland i stayed in keswick with another distant cousin named Nan and her husband Sam. they live in the lakes district. the view out of my window was of a mountain and a field of sheep below it. i also had a keyboard in my room with headphones so i could play music! we went to see wordsworths cottage in grasmere and i mainly just drank tea a lot and ate good food and read my book and relaxed! i did a hike on the last day and it was beautiful,cant wait to share pictures. i will have to have a picture party at this point when i get back because uploading will take forever.

after that i flew to Florence to stay with Rachael and it was sooo amazing!!! My first night there rach and i went to an open mic at Be Bop and played a bunch of songs together!! The next night we were giving out food to the homeless with ppl rach volunteers with and they took us out for a huge dinner and i practiced what little italian i knew with everyone and ate more than any human should! but it was sooo delicious. wednesday i went to see the david and the boboli gardens and we all went out later that night to go dancing. thursday i met up with Emily and Jamie from LC and got a tour of san lorenzo from rachaels friend carolina. then i climbed the duomo and ate the freshest mozzerella ever! the man was making it at a market and i almost died when i ate it, we got a huge ball of it and went to the park. i love italy.

i am in bologna now staying here for a night before i go fly to barcelona to meet up with spencer and chris (they rock they were on my london program)! today i ate the best pizza ever, they rolled the dough before my eyes and put it in the oven and put it right on my plate fresh out of the oven. it was incredible. then i ate the best gelato ever... and almost died again. instead i came back here to update you all. i miss everyone and i am looking forward to the rest of my travels. wish me luck! lots of love to all of you,

Jodi