Bella, bella, bella, como il sole!

Hello friends,

So I write to you now from Italy. The past few days have been packed. Our last day in the Loire Valley we did not go to a wine tasting because my dad had a minor stomach bug. Instead we took a drive up to Chatres to see the famous cathedral there which was well worth seeing. Then we had lunch in the town and I had French onion soup and a crepe...so very French. The next day we began our 4 and a half hour drive to Lyon first thing in the morning and upon arrival my amazing Aunt Donna was waiting there for us. The first night we had dinner at a 2 star Michelen restaurant where I made friends with some Korean girls. The next day we did a tour of Lyon followed by a tour in wine country which culminated in a 3 wine bottle lunch that left me more than a little intoxicated. The chef at the restaurant had worked for Daniel Bouloud in NYC for 2 years and the food was exquisite. So I left France on a good note so far as food was concerned. We also had a chance to see Complexions perform an AMAZING program at the Maison de Dance in Lyon and had a really fun dinner with the entire Company. The next morning wasn't so fun as we had an early flight out to Milan and the French literally raped us for excess baggage charges. But upon arrival at our hotel in Lake Como, Villa d'Este, I felt immediately at home. When I come to Italy it reminds me why I have been here 3 times already because the food, the shopping, and the beauty of this place keeps calling me back. We saw Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper, we saw an opera at the Teatro alla Scala, and had more amazing meals than I can remember...including one in Switzerland (which, by the way, is about 15 minutes away from the town in which we are staying, gotta love Europe). Tomorrow we are taking a boat cruise around Lago di Como and the next day it's off to Spain.

My trip has been amazing and I have had the chance to spend time with some of the people I love the most, but now it's off to Spain to deal with my existential crossroads. Maybe by June 1st I will be closer to discovering the meaning of life, what I want out of it, and why. At this point I certainly hope so. It is a difficult thing to not know why, intellectually, you want or don't want something in particular out of life.