When In Venice...

Weekend Trip To Venice... from James Dunn on Vimeo.

This is a quick little movie of our weekend trip to Venice!

Which is absolutely beautiful and I highly recommend to anyone considering taking a trip there. I still can't get over all the colors, the water, and the fact that even though it is ridiculously hard to navigate, you can't get mad because everything is so beautiful.

It also had some of the best food I've had in Italy so far. (Sorry Rome.)

p.s.-The video doesn't start till about 15 seconds in... my editing is a little rusty.

p.p.s.- The song is Masquerade from The Phantom of the Opera, which the orchestra is playing at the end of the video and for Alex, who requested it.

Internet in Italy!

Italia!

So It is official! I made it to Italy!!!

Rome is absolutely beautiful and completely surreal. I still don't feel like I'm actually living here. I keep waiting for the alram to go off and wake up in my room back in Harrisburg. I just got connected to the internet at school (which is where I'm currently blogging from), but still don't have any internet at the residence. I've attached a video from the first two days in Rome. We have a week long orientation, which I am soooo grateful for. So far I've already gone to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Villa Borghese, and Campo de Flori, Piazza de Poppolo, and the Vatican! All of which were pretty breathtaking. Our Residence is super nice too. And way more spacious than they made it out to be. I'll post some more later.

Hope you are all doing well and being safe!

The Villa Borghese is this huge park where people go to eat lunch, walk around, exercise, play with their kids, and walk their dogs. We sat on some benches and ate our pizza in front of this little arcade pavilion.

Pizza is considered the fast food of Italy.

The three kinds I had for lunch yesterday are from front to back:

Zucchini and bacon, mozzarella and spinach, and potato.

On our walking tour we passed by this statue which is said to

bring good luck to anyone that rubs the man's butt.

Ciao Bella...

Oh.My.God.

I leave for Italy in one hour.

I don't even think I can describe how I'm feeling right now...

But I'm going to miss my friends and family soooo soooo much.

See you in Rome!

Trippin: Gettin Hitched

Third Stop: Operation Wedding

Next Stop: Back home to Harrisburg

For the final leg of the Road Trip,

my cousin Steve and his beautiful fiance, Steph,

were getting married.

The wedding was held at Saint Anne's

(which coincidentally is where my cousins

on the other side of the family went to grade school).

The ceremony was beautiful

and the reception afterwards was pretty sweet too.

I hadn't seen this side of the family in soooo long.

It was nice to catch up and hear about what everyone was up to.

I couldn't get over how grown up everyone was...

This also happens to be the cousins to which Ellen and I share.

(Even though we aren't technically related at all.)

There was sooo much dancing, including Ellen (crutches and all)!

Below is a video of my youngest cousin Kevin

giving the best man speech.

I love how family comes together to celebrate one another.

p.s.- Hopefully I'll get some better pictures from the ceremony. The two of them are seriously some of the nicest people you will ever meet. I'm so happy for them.

Trippin: Squirrel Hill and Warhol

Second Stop: Squirrel Hill

Next Stop: Steve's Wedding!

I'm a little late on this...

But I'm getting back into the swing of things since moving home...

Went to Pittsburgh to visit Eric and Tyler...

(This is Eric's beautiful house in Squirrel Hill)

CW took us to a lovely little cupcake shop called Dozen.

Then we ate lunch in the hottest restaraunt everrrrr...

But it was delicious and this sandwich only cost me $3...

We walked around Laur's future school for a bit...

Nice... but I'm still partial to good ol' TU...

Chilled in Schenley Park for a little...

Went back to Tyler and Derek's...

Where Tyler made us Buffalo Chicken Lasagna in the crock pot.

Sooooo good.

Caught up with everyone and what our summer plans were...

Eric's teaching design. Tyler's leading orientations. Derek's working at the Zoo. Kelsey's working/hosting her own radio show. CW's interning at XPN. Chrissy's interning at a magazine.

Met up with Cait's relatives.

Got to see the always hilarious Cwisteeen.

(Love this girl. So silly.)

Went to the Warhol museum...

Which was absolutely ridiculous!

New found respect for that man...

Silver Clouds piece...

Cheesin sooo hard!!!

Passed out as soon as i got in the house after heat exhaustion and the dance party with Juan, CW, Chrissy, and Eric.

Big Juan DJ-ed...

Then made delicious Spaghetti for lunch with CW and Chrissy before saying goodbye and heading off to the 3rd leg in my Pbgh Road Trip.

Trippin: 717 style...

Let the road trip begin!!!

First stop: the 717!!!

Next Stop: Pittsburgh to visit Eric and Tyler!!!

Ciao.

I'm ready.

Last Week...

So last Saturday was National Passport Day. Meaning that post offices around the country were making it easier to apply for your passport. Seeing as how I have never been outside the country, and upon the recent mind boggling news about study abroad, I was in need of said identification. So I headed back to the lovely 717 where I had a really relaxing and fun weekend.

Laur and Ash picked me up from the train station with Trey in tow and we headed over to Wildwood to catch up and get Trey to blow off some of his energy.

I made them pose next to flowers just like my mom used to makes us do when we were younger. Looking back on it, a lot of my childhood was spent walking the trails and boardwalks of this park.

After getting my passport, Laur and I headed into town to see a sculpture that had been accepted into the Susquehanna Art Museum's Central PA H.S. show.

I am beyond proud of my little sister. I couldn't believe how nonchalantly she mentioned it to me at home... I made sure to tell her a thousand times how much of a big deal it was. And how I never got to show anything there when I was in H.S. And then after we headed over to Neato to split a burrito and celebrate. We got the Cowboy Crunch and Laur was way more impressed with the food this time around that she said she could finally see what I've been talking about all this time...

I took Laur into Midtown to explore and see if we could find Chickey's new gallery. We couldn't, but ran into Mr. Smith in the newly renovated and absolutely beautiful bookstore/cafe: Midtown Scholar. Seriously, Laur and I were talking about it, and if we ever decided to open up a store together this would be it.

Mr Smith and Moviate were hosting a concert there later that night and told us to check it out, which we did and it was soooo sweet. The main band had actually opened up for Sigur Rosa few times before. And we ran into Val and Chickey, who showed us the new space forMANTIS, which is actually next door to the bookstore.

Other activities included:

Dinner in Hummelstown.

Jimmy Buffet family Sing-a-longs in the car.

The Dreaded Girl Scout Mass.

Spontaneously sitting next to Terry on the train back to Philly.

Poster design courtesy Moviate and Tara Chickey.

Say Whatttttt?!!!

So I've got some pretty exciting news. And it's going to affect you in the near future dear blog. It turns out that I'll be in Italy come August 30th, studying at Temple's Rome campus next semester. I can hardly contain my excitement. This is unreal.

Spring Break Recap #2...

Recap #2!!!

Trip to Pittsburgh with Sarah and Aaron!

(sorry I slept some of it Sar.)

1st stop: Permanti Brothers!

Pastrami: Soooo delicious.

Sarah and Arron both got "The Pittsburgher"

2nd Stop: Copeland Concert!!!!

so so so so good!

3rd Stop: South Side. To visit with Ty-Jack, Derek, Neil, Sam, and Carrie.

South Side reminds me a lot of South Street in Philly.

Bookstore we said Liz Til will one day own.

4th Stop: I explored the city and drew a little while Tyler was at work.

This city has such a beautiful skyline.

5th Stop: Photo Shoot walk with Marcus and Tyler!

Squid!!!

Marcus!!!

Seriously, the buildings were prettier than Philly's.

Tyler's photo on exhibit.

I'm so proud of him that I made him pose in front of it.

6th Stop: Lunch and people-watching.

Why did I think Einstein Bagels was just in the SAC at Temple?

(p.s.- This one was sooo much nicer than the one in the SAC.)

7th Stop: Back to Harrisburg, where I was on dog-sitting duty.

Mom and Dad saved me some salmon

(my third time having it in the week, I LOVE salmon)

and I learned how to cook it on the grill.