Waldo Wednesday: Valle d’Aosta, Italy-Shake off those Casino Snowbunnies

With a touch of France and Italy, Valle d’Aosta, Italy is the place I want to be. Technically you can drive into the region from drive into the region from Germany, France or Switzerland. It has some of the best alpine skiiing in the world, and boasts hiking, mountain climbing, rock climbing, rappelling, rafting, and kayaking. Normally, I wouldn't head somewhere with snow (believe me, we get more than enough of that in Wisconsin) but I'm also not in the mood for a beach. I want scenery and ways get personally involved with my environment.

This makes me think of The Sound of Music 

Apparently it's also home to killer wine if you're into that sort of thing. Plus it has castles. Lots of them. I took a virtual tour of them because I'm a castle fanatic.

And you can take thermal baths after breathing in all of that fresh, clean mountain/valley air.

I can take baths...outside...in winter? I'm in heaven!

The attractions to see are Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn if you are a self-proclaimed mountain man or mountain woman. Or if you just want to chill (no pun intended) on a mountain-top, these would be some prime mountains to be awed by. Also, a king decided to be generous and donate some land to make the another attraction, the Gran Paradiso National Park, which only makes it that much more appealing.

This specialty dish of the region just looks so tantalizing that I just might have to make it.
And this explains it all, even though I can't understand what it's saying because it's in Italian. This is that much more fantastic.

So even though it's fall and I'm currently freezing, I want to go somewhere even more cold in order to partake in a nice hot thermal bath and enjoy massages. I think this is excellent logic, don't you?

Waldo Wednesday: Let it Snow (Cuz I'm going to Madagascar)

What I'm Listening To: Don't Look Back-She & Him

I feel as though my song should have been this because the weather outside was frightful. Even though I don't have a delightful fire, it was still a pleasant day. Chancellor Biddy Martin gifted the university a snow day, the second one after last year's, which was the first in 20 years. My roommate and I were literally dancing around last night and listening to Christmas music. The weather was horrible and felt like this, a snowstorm which basically eclipsed ten hours or needles being shoved into my face. The whole Midwest has experienced and overflow of snow and many cities were shut down. New York was shut down for four days this past winter because of the fact that they've never gotten this much snow. The weather has decided to get really serious over the past couple of years.

That is the reason why I felt it was time for another Waldo Wednesday. Today my destination choice is Madagascar. Why is this you ask? Because if you didn't know already, I'm a penguin and penguins come from Madagascar. The cool ones anyway. It also happens to be the fourth largest island in the world, but with safaris. So technically, I could get the best of both worlds; a trip to almost Africa but with beaches and lemurs. This is a win-win situation. Maybe I'll see Zoboomafoo. I really hope not, but because of watching him when I was around 11 I still believe that having a pet lemur would be epic.Plus, I really want to go to Antananarivo because with a name like that, it's guaranteed to be fabulous.

 

Goway.com

expatify.com

  

 So who's coming with me to kidnap a lemur?

SNOW DAY and Christmas Party

What I'm Listening To: Walking in a Winter Wonderland- Louis Armstrong

Let it SNOW, let it SNOW, let it SNOW! My wish came true. It was I just want you for my own, more than you will ever know, make my wish come true, snow all I want for tomorrow, is YOU. This is the first time in years that the university has issued a snow day. It's all because the law students sued the university in 1994 or 1996 because there was a snow day and apparently the law students paid for that day. So ever since, the university has been pretty stingy with its snow days. I played in the snow for two hours and had a war with Sellery and eluded the police, our whole wing basically partied for three hours, but then things almost got ugly when someone ripped my Obama poster from my door because my roomate and someone else had ripped their name sign off of the door. That was a little annoying. Plus, yeah it's a snow day, but things are still going on. I still have a paper due for Journalism, Spanish, and I probably have a meeting tomorrow with my AAP adviser that isn't cancelled. But we are supposed to get tons of inches of snow. That's my only concern and worry, and my wishing that teachers would just give us a break already. Plus, I still have a paper that is due Thursday, but the snow day gives me extra time to work on it. Basically, I will still be working during the day.

On another note, I had a Christmas party with my bible study group at Dana's house. Our friend Kelsey brought her volleyball team and they were all really amazing ladies. I hope to hang out with them again soon. We formed teams and had a gingerbread house building contest. It was hilarious and people ended up getting really creative with their buildings. Katelynn and I were at a loss, but we rallied at the end and made our house special. I am really happy that I got to meet these girls and that we all were able to get a snow day.

On another note, I really need to finish that paper because it is five in the morning. In case I missed anything today, I'll be sure and include it in the next time.

Computer crashes without external hardrives SUCK

What I'm Listening To: Good Morning-Chamillionaire

I already wrote this post, and shall have to write it again because the internet logged on and off unexpetedly. My computer crashed yesterday and I had to take it to our Division of Information Technology. They said that it could take seven days. SEVEN DAYS. It's the week before finals and I have no computer. Sad. The good news is that they might be able to save it. The bad news is that the updated versions of both of my stories are on the hardrive. We'll see what happens. I saw two old friends on the way out, so that was nice.

One thing that I did over the weekend was see Whitewater's Miss Black and Gold Pageant. It was really well put on, but the girls definitely needed more practice in walking and posing. Brittany Landry, who used to go to King with me, won. I'm happy for her, and I just hope that our girls will be as prepared because I don't think that I can do this all by myself. There was a lot of God in this production of Miss Black and Gold, which really struck me. One girl gave her testimony in the talent portion because she had made it into a rap song. I thought that was a great idea. Dre took me up there and back. I've missed talking to her and hopefully I can try to stay in better contact with her.

I've gotten myself involved in yet another thing, the Pink and Black Benefit for the Campus Women's Center here. It should be really fun, but I'd better try to find some music and make sure that I'm devoting enough time. I also got involved in the production of the Vagina Monologues. The director just gave out the parts today and I got one. On one hand, I'm excited because it's my first production while I've been in college and on the other hand it's a little nerve-wrecking. But I'm definitely more excited than anything.

For VIP, our food drive ended today and we had free hot chocolate for everyone who participated, so that was fun and interesting. The battle between red and white will be announced soon. My team red was strong the whole way through, but white really wanted it in the end! I'm glad that it was a successful drive, mad props to the marketing team. I gave money because there wasn't really a store near me that sold canned food, and truthfully, money was easier.

Basically, my family better like the Christmas presents I bought because I went broke buying them! Can't wait till I get paid at the end of this week and hopefully all of this work won't have killed me by then.

O yes, and today was the first snow, so I had to pull out my boots with the fur. Apparently it's going to get worse, so we will most likely have a White Christmas, not that I'm dreaming of one though...