Steve Garguilo

Upon arrival in Rome, I met my dad, and we eventually took a train to Venice (after missing our scheduled train and after trying to find my dad's luggage to no avail). Instead of making it to Venice at 10PM on Saturday, we made it in around 6AM on Sunday (yes, we had to wait a long time for the next train). We caught a few hours of sleep, then went out to see the city a little bit. Unfortunately, it rained HARD the whole time we were in Venice (which was only that morning) but it was still neat to see.

Over the course of our two days in Rome, we got to see most of the tourist attractions: The Spanish Steps, The Vatican, The Sistine Chapel, St. Paul's Basilica, some castles, and a bunch of other places. By far, though, my favorite places were the ruins and the Colosseum. It was just so awesome to stand there and try to comprehend just how old it all is. I mean, in the US, we have about 250 years of history. We're talking about thousands of years of history in Rome, and just so many people who have been through all this, it's amazing to think about.

Beyond seeing these things, my other favorite part of Italy of course was the food. The second night, especially, we went to this great restaurant near our hotel. We had the bread, the wine, some great Carbonara, and the atmosphere was great as well: some Opera singers walking around, a great waiter, and just an overall really good time. We also had some authentic Italian pizza one night which was good, too.

Anyway, after two days in Rome, then it was time to catch our flight to Dublin! Dublin was another fun place to visit and to see. There really isn't quite as much touristy stuff in Dublin, which was also nice and definitely refreshing after Rome. The Blarney Stone and more of the castles and that kind of stuff are on the left coast of Ireland, so that definitely warrants a return to trip to the country at some point, but Dublin was more relaxing. The first day was spent getting used to the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road and then checking out some of the places they do have for tourists.

We went to the Guinness Storehouse to see how Guinness is made, saw the world's second largest obelisk (the largest is the Washington Monument of course), saw the Jameson Distillery to see how Jameson is made (yes, they take their alcohol seriously in Ireland), saw the Spire, and also saw some other neat places in Dublin. The second day, we went out a little bit to the bay and did see a castle, and also got to see a view of the ocean. Definitely a really neat place, and I'd highly recommend going!

Overall, Dublin was just a really neat place. Eventually, though, it was time to leave there as well and head back to the United States. So, after being on a six hour time difference for two weeks, it was time to come back to EST for about four days, then head to Bangalore for the 9.5 hour time difference - whew.

We made it back to JFK late Saturday night, then drove back to CT where we spent Sunday recuperating and trying to recover from the jet lag. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie (decent action, pretty strange plot, and some very far fetched scenes, but worth seeing) and had some nice steaks (boy, I'm going to miss steak) before heading back to PA on Monday. Monday was Memorial Day, one of the best days of the year (THANK YOU ALL WHO HAVE SERVED) and had a nice cookout, which will probably be my only of the summer. Tuesday was spent running all the errands I could think to do and also getting all my immunizations. I already had my Tetanus and Hep B shots, so I needed the Hep A shot, Polio, and Typhoid. Also, I have to take Malaria pills every day. Anyway, once that was done, we had some conference calls with Honeywell to prepare us for our departure Thursday, and I started to think about packing.

Wednesday was spent going back to State College to move out of my apartment and get it all cleaned and ready for the lease to be over. My brother and I went and got everything hauled out. It was kind of sad to move out because I really had an amazing semester there with Alex and Tim, but next year will be fun at Fairmount Hills! Anyway, Wednesday night I got back home and finished packing for India! I had my last dinner with my family, my last night in my own bed, and my last shower in water that would actually be safe to drink.

That brings us to Thursday, which it basically still feels like. Right now, it's 5:30AM Sunday Bangalore time, which means it's 8:00PM Saturday EST, but it's still all a blur.