McKenzie's Sandginas

Help me get my designs Produced!

2011-05-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

So I decided to post some of my recent designs and some of my school work on this website called velvetbrigade. Its kind of a long shot, but with your help I could get them produced! They are nothing crazy, just clean, classic, cute and things that I would want to wear :)

so help me out and click on the links below each design to vote! only 30 days to vote, thanks!

Frankie Dress

http://www.velvetbrigade.com/design/frankie-dress

Hannah Dress

http://www.velvetbrigade.com/design/hannah

more to come!

haha ... HA

2010-11-30T19:22:00.001-08:00

2010 Letter to Santa

2010-11-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

1. Oregon Trail computer game for MAC

2. Cricut Cake Cutter: can be purchased at costco, michaels?

3. Food Airbrush Machine: nycake.com

4. Commercial or Industrial Sewing Machine: amazon?

Singer CG590 Commercial Grade Sewing Machine

5. Serger

6. I blame Coco CD : amazon.com

7. Peggy Lee CD

8. Trip to LA to see Mike

9. Penny Loafers or Oxfords topshop.com

10. Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

11. Fisheye Lens for: Canon Rebel XT: amazon.com

12. Money

13. Invisibility Cloak

Other sites to look at: urbanoutfitters.com, topshop.com, asos.com, 80spurple.com, shopnastygirl.com

Long time Coming...

2010-09-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Haven't written a new blog in a while, yet so much has changed...

summer has come to an end and even though I am extremely happy to not be drenched in sweat constantly, I am already regretting saying that I was looking forward to winter. Last weekend was probably around 60 degrees, but yesterday was 80 degrees. Thank you Iowa for never failing to be weatherful.

Thanks to my current, and very important job as a nanny for the next year, I was able to get a pass to the zoo and science center. It definitely paid off because I have now been to the zoo 4 times. I am pretty sure that is more than I have been in my entire life, and considering our zoo takes an hour to walk through, I now have it memorized.

Along with nannying, the first 2/3 of my summer was jam packed. I decided to take on one million hobbies which ended up defeating the purpose of me staying in Iowa for another year (to spend time with family).... Anyway, so I am now fullfilling my dream of being a swing dancer and am on a swing troupe which I love. I have the best teachers and hopefully some day I will be as good as Frida. On top of this I also coached a youth cheer team for 2 months and took guitar lessons. Currently I am dancing, nannying, taking guitar lessons, and am the manager of a coed slow pitch softball league.. So I'm pretty important obviously.

Lots of weddings- awesome friends from college got married... spectacular wedding

Yes I still have the most adorable niece, who somehow gets cuter and cuter.. Not biased, look at her. She is 7 months old and could crawl a month ago and is now starting to walk(ish).

In other news- new season equals new boy... haaa... or as my grandma calls him "new mike".... because low and behold, his name is also mike.

Anyway, kidding aside, he is an amazing guy who I am so happy to have finally found. Unfortunately he is moving to california in two weeks, but lets be real.. I like it complicated.

As for the pictures- we took a random roadtrip and ended up in memphis...Stopping at much needed places such as white castle and the mastodon museum.

Memphis was awesome. enough said.

I did two more cakes... for the same day. Luckily Mike helped me and was the best assistant ever. Both completely different, but both couples were very happy with them so that made all of the non stop cake making for a week worth it.

warmth and dryness from the midwest,

mcknoodle

I like Pastels

2010-05-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you awesome blog...

Recent Happenings

2010-05-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

In attempt to keep my blog up to date, here are some much needed updates on what has been happening in my life:

My sister had her first baby, and my first niece on February 16th: Jaidyn McKenzie Shandri

She is only a newborn in this photo, but just add about 5 lbs and you'll have an updated picture..

I quit my job in order to get "serious" about finding a real job... Of course I had to take one last "vacation" and went to visit my grandparents in Florida for 10 days....

2nd update to that: I guess I don't need a "real job" yet... I'm going to nanny for a while and hopefully get some more cake jobs

Unfortunately I turned 23 ... So its almost officially time for me to get nervous about having a real career.... We went to the cubs game.. it was freezing..

At least we had the warm heat of the competition on the field..... cubbiieess

I am still dating Michael.

My mom is dating a biker... Just kidding.. kind of? No she has a new boyfriend (Paul) and he is awesome.. great cook, very generous, and loves my mom... what else do you need?

I had another wedding cake job.... hopefully going to star rocket my cake design success soon

... I think I have a graduation and 50th birthday cake for the next two months..

XOXO

cheers to more purposeful blogs

2010 Birthday Wish list

2010-04-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Money (easiest gift)..or a job...(those are interchangeable probably)

Polaroid Film... can only buy it online, like ebay.com

Dress Form...not one of the adjustable size ones.. probably a size 6 form

Industrial Sewing machine.. too expensive, but thought I would put it on here for the heck of it

this dress but in blue, size small... urbanoutfitters.com

something from my topshop wishlist (see below)....topshop.com click link below

http://us.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SharedWishListView?langId=-1&storeId=13052&catalogId=32051&listId=2761561

cello

http://desmoines.craigslist.org/msg/1672404680.html

acoustic guitar (check craigslist)

There are some ideas for you, hope it helped :)

fondant covered heart... caking over my life...

2009-12-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

Lots more cakes since then... not really lots... but some

The other day I had a craft crazy party ... by myself... because i clearly can't find anything better to do.... yet another thing found to replace studying and applying for grad school

anyway.. my sister is pregnant and here are some pictures from her baby shower... I told her I would make a cake for it, but I procrastinated so badly that I made it 4 hours before... I didn't really have time to get ready, so I wore what I wore the day before... classy

below are my sisters and I and on the right is Stef with the frame I painted her for Jaidyn (the fetus inside of her)... uh my niece :)

I also made her some candies on my craft day... actually pretty easy to do... but almost completely made up of saturated fat ... :) :) wink

the food spread... I only contributed the cake and the chocolates

Bow cake: my first fondant cake... made it in my cake class

applied my skills and made my sisters baby shower cake which is the one on the right

First tiered Cake... hand made flowers, attempting to do a wedding cake trial.. coloring fondant is not fun

Close up of the flowers and dot detail...

Finally, the whole reason I rushed and got these cake classes in.... I finished my first wedding cake :)

Their wedding was in the Dominican republic so I did a tropicalish cake.. 6 cake mixes, 4 things of cream cheese frosting, a lb of frosting, 5 lbs of fondant, and 10 hours later....

Left is a close up of stargazer lily and seashells

Another view... hope you all like it because it took me a grand total of 10 hours!

I have to go peel the fondant out of my arteries now

love

mcakenzie too bad my name doesn't have an a there...

and I will make cakes...

2009-11-04T09:11:00.001-08:00

I have started a new hobby.... As of now I have completed cake course number 1 and have started cake course 3 (wedding cakes (tiered cakes) and fondant)... I skipped course 2 because I have to make a wedding cake for someone in december so I kind of need those skills right away....

not exactly my taste completely, I like the roses and mixing the shades of the different colors is definitely something I do a lot (see petals) but something is missing. My first wedding cake will be done by mid december, so look forward to that... I will also post pictures from my class, but those cakes aren't really unique because everyone does the same one (except the graduation cake)

Seen above is my graduation cake from course one, so its kind of special, but not really... I threw it away....

Most serious post ever... Maybe its a new era of sandginas.

sincerely...mckenzie nicole

Edwin

2009-08-12T21:53:00.001-07:00

The fiction for this blog is way past due, but if I want to start writing new blogs I cannot leave this one unfinished...

First of all meet edwin.. If you have been keeping up with the blog up until now you would know that I worked at Red Robin over the summer. Mostly great people, but terrible terrible job.. Not because it was hard, but because it was just too boring... it may satisfy a 17 year old who still lives at home.. which by the way were half of my co-workers ... anyway long story short, a balloon man came and made balloons for the kids.. I saw someone with one of these and begged him to make me one... He did not look happy about it, but from it came edwin. Who I love and miss deeply.

As it appears, this blog is from my trip to Minnesota. Thanks to Priceline negotiators (in commercial fun tune) I saved a lot of money on a plane ticket and was able to attend Nick and Lindsay's wedding.

This is from the airport.... First of all I rarely have thoughts of mexican jumping beans, but I'm pretty sure the one time they were brought up in any medium of conversation I'm pretty sure I blew them off as if they did not really exist.... Low and behold.. they do... and they do jump. and I do not get it, but I am also not going to pay 5 dollars for them.

This extremely nice car pulled up, waiting to pick someone up. It being LAX I assumed it had to be someone of importance so of course I stood around and waited to see. Luckily for them, I saved their beautiful car from being hit by a luggage cart that they so irresponsibly abandoned after loading the car. .. and it was no one recognizable, but everyone knows how large my vocabulary is when it comes to pop culture.

The wedding was a blast... Minnesota...ahh it was nice to be back in the midwest.. who would have thought I would ever say that.

Someone stole my camera through-out the night, I'm going to guess and say it was DO but that is completely irrelevant because the only possible people who could be reading this blog would have no idea who he is anyway. Anyway. so here is the result... it is clearly a good one.

Moving on... So I went to my first MLB game... $20 later it was very much worth it. And of course I was too cheap to buy a shirt to wear so I made one...Kind of blurry, but everyone was very impressed.. not really

Anaheim Angels Stadium... actually pretty nice

Don't hate me for looking like a grandma....

My roommate, Jeff, has a huge man crush on Orlando Bloom. He just got this new poster, and coincidentally enough it matches his bed sheets quite nicely.

I really don't like typing on old blogs. so sorry that this blog lacked any sort of creativity.... However, it was probably one of the more honest blogs I have written.

outie belly button

is it love?

2009-08-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

I was eating some blueberries today.

realizing that whenever I eat a batch of blueberries, there are probably about 5 that are perfect and the others fall very short of their perfection.

once i find one that tastes exactly the way I want it to and the taste ends, I move onto another one hoping for the same result.

I always go into the search eager, and excited to find another one. But never can you have a container of all perfect blueberries.

once I had a perfect box of blackberries in italy. From then on I was obsessed with blackberries, but I never found another batch quite the same.

most of the time I will get to the bottom of the container with only the teeny tiny ones remaining, which I know will be very sour just by looking at them. so I throw away the pack. sad. somewhat comparable to the feeling you get when you finish your snack pack.

its usually months before I pick up another thing of blueberries.

Everytime it is the same.

is it love?

lesson learned here... if you go looking for something you will only find the sour ones, but if you let them find you then it could be the sweetest one in the batch.

I like your Smile. Thank you.

2009-08-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

Mobile Upload: my roommate is tough. here is proof with his gambling card.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. First off to explain the title. I have been really into thedrifterandthegypsy blog.. she posted about some cards that they sell in europe that have short and sweet messages such as i like your smile. thank you. and you are beautiful. thank you. too bad I could type and print them in 20 seconds for a lot cheaper then they sell them... some how I am still tempted to buy them, now thats good marketing...

she alsohas some really nice poems, they soothe my soul. here is another one.... see under sweet painted trash can found at an art show

Always forgive freely,
Returning injury for injury to no one.
Never let the sun set before you clear your transgressions,
Repent of your sins.
Clothe yourselves with love,
For with it you can conquer the bitterness abundant in our lives.
Adorn yourselves with the beauties of the world:
Kindness, self-control, and goodness of heart,
That by demonstrating these qualities
You can make the Earth a paradise.

All too often our love is tainted by our pride.
Never be guided by the impetuous impulses of the heart,
For it is the most treacherous tool of the body.
Count every beautiful thing you can see
And suddenly all the hatred, corruption, and

Violence of the world will vanish.

i might love yogurt land more than i love chamomile tea. look at those colorful creations

Another whimsical day off, this time spent in Santa Monica. Great city, vivacious vibe.

Walking on the street saw this little duo outside of a hostel. yes they have hostels in the united states.

Maybe rocket power was based off of this pier instead. . . . it had an amusement park and trapeze lessons..

i liked this wall mural. jeff was chatting it up so I didn't get the picture I hoped for of me plainly standing there.

Dang you california and all of your CrA Zee cute garden towns! Next day off Jeffsy and I headed to Sandileggo. First stop, number 5 beach in the united states according to some random internet statistic... Coronado beach

nice door to some nice house.

Iowa State is everywhere. These folks gave me many reasons that I should approach them, first of all they were having a fantastic looking cook out, which is no surprise from a true iowan. Second of all they were representing my alma mater. too bad my shyness (I am shy) overcame me approaching them... Where is mike or hannah when I need them?

here it is. The famous number 5.... it was a cloudy day so I would give it the benefit of the doubt.... the sand was really nice though... for your information the other beaches that beat it out were 2 in maui (duh) 1 in new york (really?) and one in florida......

sorry ya'll peterson pitts, big creek, and raccoon river did not make it on the list this year.

walking through the town of coronado where 10 bucks will get you a BLT and some fancy chips. dang. I am jewish...technically i am though really... not religiously, but historically... word choice could have been better there....don't be jealous.

I told jeff to sit on the canon. Of course he did this. because he is maybe a little sexually frustrated. who knows.

Mission bay... where all of the action happens.. but not at 5pm. I had dreams of me becoming a great water skier here.

In Moderation

2009-07-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

my bangs. I really like this poem...

I have worn so many masks in my life

that quite often i find myself forgetting who I really am

Sometimes I feel life is a game and I play with myself and others.

More than anything, I long to collect all the pieces of my life

and put the puzzle back together again

poem by thedrifterandthegypsy.

darrin and i went to a korean restaurant because it was 2 am and nothing else was open.... we had no idea what to do with the food they gave us.

my new shoes.

my 4th of july... literally. the only colors i saw were traffic and car lights. darrin and i also got a water something or another thrown at us. I also ate at weinerschnitzel.

corona del mar.. kewl beach , but way too crowded. what a shame.

really cute town though.

every house had an amazing garden. probably cost more money than my house.. if i were homeless I would live in their garden. Maybe I will choose to be homeless now.

sew cute that i had to take darrin.

guy from north carolina that had two huge beautiful dogs. He loved to talk. He hates california. but he lives in this cute town, so I am jealous of him.

i love u

Big FelLaZ

2009-07-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

I'm back with more!!

So my internship is going good. nothing like being a someones tamagotchi for 3 months.

but really... I do get to do some stufff...... I help with a lot of photoshoots... which they only have about two models per season, and they are all friends of the employees.

I wspend a lot of time in the warehouse... where danny makes some really dope signs like this.........

Sometimes he lets me help...... I helped paint this one, and painted one other one on my own.... kind of like paint by numbers so don't be too impressed. I'm pretty sure you can see them displayed somewhere in Minnesota.

Moving on. So I finally drove up to pick up Darrin in LA because he has no car. It was a very eventful weekend for both of us. I had Friday off so I took him around the sights of the true OC.

We hung out at Huntington beach for a while...

Thank god we met this guy. True inspiration.

Also a seal came ashore, in this particular picture the lifeguards were yelling at everyone to give him some room and then about drove over him/her.. afterwards this man thought he could just walk up and pet him/her..... As if this is the San Diego Zoo.

This guy knows where its at. Playing the love show on the pier.

Just some pier pictures. sorry I am really not feeling funny right now haha.

On another note.... We went and saw IDA Maria.... She is from Norway and owning her cd does not do her justice. She was hilarious and drew the most lets say "interesting" crowd. My personal favorite was the group of 60 year old women dressed like 20 year olds, bleach blonde hair, boots and all. Also I got a cookie at a mexican bakery... Thank you spanish 101.

A scene picture. because we are scene now.

The show........ .... ... The first band was the Makeout party and we really liked them.. I will post a video possibly at the end.

Next day... I had to work so that put a damper on things.... we did go to this cupcake store.... Sprinkles

That night I forced Darrin and Jeffsy to go to "Japanese Night" with me at the Crosby. Basically all of my internship co-workers talk about the crosby every week so I thought I would check it out... Pretty Chillllll place, but not really anything Japanese Nightish about it.. except that there were some asian people there.. but there are asian people everywhere here so I don't think that was part of the theme

Street Picture. dangerous I know.

Next day was spent in LA because I had to take Darrin home. I really wanted to go to Venice Beach because I always watched the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocket Power.. I was really looking forward to seeing the pier with the amusement park, but there was no amusement park and there was actually nothing on the pier.....

There was this gold man though... Darrin was too cool to take a picture.. because he sawwwww soooo mannnyyy in Florrennnceeeee

Here you can pay to graffiti the walll.... or you can walk down a few blocks and do it for free... at risk of getting killed by a gang member though...

Street Basketball game.. hilarious announcer calling every big guy big fella... Big fella crosses over, big fella shoots, big fella blocks ice man. Followed by a lady yelling that this isn't the NBA and we don't need commentary. another truly genuine experience in california.

This is for my Maui Folk.

I really enjoy my days off because they only happen once or twice a week. Of course I go to the beach, and I try to go to a different one every time.... This is Laguna beach biyatches.... actually not a stupid as I thought it was going to be. Beach not that cool, a lot of kelp and sea weed... town was cutesy pooo... nice little vintage shop where tshirts were only $7. Jeffsy got a windowcleaner tshirt....... white with hot pink and green logo.. he thinks its not hot pink, but it is.

For your enjoyment.... IDA maria... she is way better live, not that she isn't aweeesommeeee here....

love love love you! love! love love! MCKE mouse

Its Comical

2009-06-17T22:43:00.001-07:00

Just Hilarious.

I Dream of Pocky sticks.

2009-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Lookkk at me and my blog and how coool i am!

Let me tell you about my sunday afternoon . . . I have been coming to terms that I may have to spend some quality alone time until I figure out this friend making process. Anyway. So I went to the pool. couldn't figure out how to work the gate, so I said screw it and went to Newport beach. There were some pretty dope dudesz out there, but don't worry I brought my book "7 habits of a effective person" so I was very approachable.

Then I went home, road my bike and checked out the tennis courts. to find that none of my keys worked there either. too bad because because they were the nicest courts I've ever seen. Probably only let Serena and Venus play on them and require a finger print key entry.

I ended my day by going to my first movie alone. I saw Little Ashes, which is about the artist Salvador Dahli. It wwas surprisingly not as good as I thought it would be, but maybe its because I had a different plot in mind. Go see it. Then we can have a book club meeting.

So I have a new roommate. HIS name is Jeff, and he is from Cleveland. It is nice because now that he lives in the same room with me not only is he obligated, but forced to befriend me. So we went to the farmers market, surf city night, in Huntington beach. There were these guys, 90% of their act was getting money from people the other 10% was this guy flipping over 5 people. I caught the shot a little too early as you can see.

I like this flower.

I'm working on finding the designer of the two pieces above. But I guess spring has sprung in my little iowan mind because it is full of spring worthy colors. I don't necessarily want these items, I am just very appreciative of their colorful beauty.

Assorted Chocolates are my weakness,

Weddings and Graduations

2009-06-14T00:13:00.001-07:00

Just posting a few pictures that I forgot to post before....

graduation graduation..... who would remember graduation?

walking to the ceremony. Brent was probably annoyed that I was having him hold my camera, and that I kept asking for it every other second. Oh the woes of being a guy who has pockets.

Of course my graduation post party would not be complete with a out a swing at a Piñata... (I had to insert that from the internet so that it would have correct spanish punctuation.)

Below is my mom

A picture of my whole family, minus all of the cousins of course.

My College family.... including clyde and juno, but thats a given, BUT excluding Vivi. I actually have no idea where she is... so insert here: vivian adams

At Eric's graduation party. It was an hour and a half drive, but by far worth it because there was a surprise kindergarden concert.. I know i know, don't worry there will probably be another one...

my new roommate susie just graduated and she let me take some pictures of her....

Her family is awesome/sick/narly (just a mad lib choice for you).. they took me to sushi the night before

Also my sister got married the weekend before I moved out here and I forgot to post pictures of it. Of course I took a million pictures but here are a few to highlight the evening.. even if they aren't very good

I really do like this one though for some reason

The set up

Keep it real New York

eiznekcm

San Di Leggo my Eggo

2009-06-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Internship adventure blog #2: Sunday, June 7th...

Dear Diary,

Today I made a rash decision to go to San Diego and visit my dear Oklahoman friend Rendon. To start of the visit, I got beat in one hole minature golf twice ... afterwards we headed to the beach area, and wandered around.. here is the result

Entrance to the pier that only hotel guests were allowed to go on because the hotel was on the pier. We'll see whos laughing when the pier is washed away in the middle of the night.

Thanks to Rendons magical finger measuring rule we caught the sun right before it went down.. ha ha ha only he gets that... lets just say I won the bet and the sun took more than the 15 minutes he though it would to set.

More sunset pictures

Probably in deep thought about the shells that were lost at the last beach.

Probably in deep thought about the new california tourist towel he bought. ha ha ha

I'll post pictures of the postcards we bought later. Nice. Also I forgot my driver's license and credit card so Rendon had to overnight them to me.

GOod Trip.

talk to you soon diary, and please send me some friends so that I can live a long sociable heart friendly life

ARR we D.A.R.E yet?

2009-06-13T20:55:00.001-07:00

So as "all of you" know ... I moved to SO CAL this summer for my internship at Obey. . . And Hannah Escorted me on my journey...

Hannah slept the whole time and did not help me with the driving at all. stupid slut.

So we started in Iowa, obviously, and left around 4pmish. And of course our tour wouldn't be complete without a stop in the great state of Nebraska to visit the Gerken family and wispy locks mike.

Best quote of the night: Hannah: did he get a phone call ( talking about the joke about kevin's dog going to jail)

Second Stop: George town, Colorado.... I would also like to mention that I almost killed hannah and I on at least 3 different occasions. The first I dont remember, but thats not surprising... or maybe it was just that traumatizing .. think about it... anyway.. second time I actually wasn't asleep but somehow I hit something that I never saw... I still think it was a deer, hannah thinks it was a small critter. but she slept the whole way so what does she know... third occasion... the pull of the platte river started to sway us its way, but my masterful driving skills saved the day.. like usual of course

Another side story: we wanted to take a "group photo" (love the quotes in this blog I guess)... so we set the camera on top of the car BUT it wasn't high enough, so we took our only pillow and set the camera on top of it and then on top of the car... picture was done, check, so we decided to explore the town.. Mean while we look to our left and notice that some fire men are pointing and chit chatting about us.. lonely folk probably don't see many people in their town.. Nope.. we were driving off with the pillow on top of our car. joke was clearly on us. later we realized it and luckily found it on the side of the road.. filthy, but not dirty dirty rich. (lady ga ga pun for all you turtles)

Detour to "Hole in the Rock" Utah.. I really thought Utah would be a waste of time, but actually it was probably my favorite state to drive through... granted I didn't see Nebraska because it was dark, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now..

Overall, hole in the rock, not that cool. We didn't even see the hole in the rock because we didn't want to pay the $3 tour fee. Instead we bought native american bead headbands. I know you are all proud.

We stopped at every border... and skipped it.. thats right.. check out the videos at the bottom.. or my youtube website if you want to see us skip it around the western part of the U.S.. parts of it anyway

also at this particular site, hannah set her sunglasses on the front of the car... needless to say, we drove off with them there and now they are in the mixup of arizona and utah... dun dun dunnn

I'm not sure where this picture is.. but i like it..

Before I get to the next stop, let me tell you why there aren't any Grand Canyon Pictures... well we attempted to go to the Grand Canyon and it was our final destination for day 2, but my lovely GPS Irene got a little confused. She led us down a ridiculous gravel road (not small iowa gravel, but large arizona rock gravel) by which we traveled on for a hour.. passing several cows via the nature tour....... and once we got to the turning point on the gps it was a road that didn't exist.. of course we didn't want to waste that hour we just spent on the gravel road, so we kept going for probably another 45 minutes before we were so frustrated and on the verge of killing each other that we decided to turn around.

After we finally got off the nature tour that Irene took us on, we decided to make a second attempt and take the other path which was paved. Surprisingly this road did lead to the grand canyon, but unfortunately by the time we got there it was too dark to see anything or take any pictures... awesome awesome smile smile

The kicker is that after we got to the grand canyon and didn't see it, we had to drive 3 hours to our hotel after a 20 hour drive through what seemed to be somewhere out of the Hills have eyes... draw your own mental picture

So after the Grand Canyon flop we woke up after a wonderful stay at the Days Inn, exactly an hour too late for the complementary breakfast. Side note: our hotel was 45 minutes from a different entrance up to the grand canyon.. yipeee

Anyway, on a more positive note, Irene did lead us successfully to Montezuma's castle, which was pretty cool but at this point we were pretty disappointed by not have been able to see the grandest canyon in the world (or U.S at least)

The Hoover Dam was my favorite tourist attraction spot. It was amazing. The end. Wait. We took the Dam tour. It was $11. I was picturing some sort of scene out of Las Vegas Vacation. .. but the dam guide was actually very comical and i might say clever...

Here i am looking serene

After the dam we headed off to Las Vegas. We stayed at the stratosphere hotel for only $30.. yes $30. I am still impressed with that. The picture above is one of my favorites.

Once we got into our hotel room we immediately noticed how cool we looked and of course had to take a myspace worthy shot.

There are many talented photographers in Las Vegas. Most of them are mustache wearing men who just want some girls to go get drunk with them, and their best pick up line is that they can make any picture work (after they see me trying to take a picture with my casio, attempting to hold it perfectly still so that its not blurry and then say that they can work with anything. After I tell them okay but there can't be a flash because then it won't work, but then they ask after they take the picture why there was no flash.. ahhh hilarious) anyway so this picture was taken by one of those fellows, and I actually really like it even though he seemed pretty unhappy about his proof of skills at this point

New York Hotel

After our 3 day road trip we finally made it to Southern California. Once we made a quick stop at my apartment, we immediately headed for Huntington Pier..

So those were the ins and outs of our trips. I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope that you appreciate that I didn't put up as many pictures this time (even if there are still a lot) because I had to cut a lot of winners.

On to the next blog

Dwarfin out: m c k

Cat Lady Visit

2009-04-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

So I finally turned 16. Bad news I will still have to illegally download porn until I am 18 and can buy it in the store, and I'll still have to bum cigarettes from my older sister... oh well though. At least I got my new jeep rubicon 20 door edition elite that I have been wanting. glow in the dark leather.

The day started. I got my hair cut. 1/2 an inch will be missed deeply. The lady also straightened my hair, which made it too flat in my own opinion.. which quite frankly is the only one that matters on my birthday woo ha

In more exciting news... Hannah and I decided to go to the bars to play Big Buck Hunter. A fan favorite. But of course we had to dress the part. We went into one place and they asked us if we had just gotten back from a rodeo. How rude. Especially in Iowa, how dare they judge us.

I also hit hannah in the head with the gun on accident. Also we some how chose the wrong playing mode so it was a pretty unsatisfying killing day for us.

Moving on. It was VEISHA week (very exciting international show horse annual event)

the celebration of our college. you wouldn't understand.

anyway... look at this car. big pimpin

Moving on again.

We decided it was a brilliant idea to throw a sweet 16 party because I had just turned 16 and my other roommates never got a good welcoming to adulthood.... Bitchen idea, but terrible result. It was the most awkward party of my life... We even had a performer.. Willy Muse, maybe you have heard of him. The highlight of the night is when everyone left and the 5 or 6 remaining people just had a dance party.

I played as Lykke Li. Who by the way I have a huge female crush on.

AND! Marie came! which made the weekend awesomemer. look how rich she looks. These three got best dressed.

Marie is finally coming to terms that we are twins, and for some reason the picture below is what made her come to terms. I don't know why, but at least she is making progress.

This is me when I was pretending to be Lykke li. Of course there had to be an outfit change at a sweet 16 party.

Next day: day of the fashion show slash MARIES 12th birthday! Just think, next year she will be a teenager.

We all met up to go eat lunch, somehow we were all wearing the same thing! CRAAAZY!

My family came down for the fashion show... Here i am with my older sis and grandparents.

The birthday girl and I.....my sis, my mom and I

HAN JOB! She is blonde now. look how much 2 hours in the sun can do. Somehow she didn't get tan though.

Pictures from the show..... you may recognize the scarfs on the right from Batik.. woo 3rd place

Bed sheets: screen printing class in Italy

Marie had to go. but her spirit will remain with us. She had a huge crush on Clyde, but the feeling was clearly mutual. Juno ... is ... just beautiful

Here is Marie's tribute to her deepest love in life.....

that is all. need to start new blog. luvvvv u

enzie

Acceptable Birthday Presents

2009-04-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

my b day is coming up

usually i don't care about birthdays, and i dont know if I do. BUT for some reason this year I am actually excited for my birthday even though I might possibly have the most drama going on in my life and the least amount of friends that are willing to be in the same room together.

So here is my bday list. Basically the same as my christmas list because i don't think people understand the seriousness of the gifts hahaha. a few new ones

No particular order

1. Furby

2. cookie candle

3. cookie spray (darrin you know what this is, may be hard to find... limited edition air freshener from bath and body works)

4. cowboy boots

5. salmon colored converse shoes

6. smiley face colored contacts

7. Cello (still hahaha)

8. skip it (really want this)

9. racquet stringing gift certificate

10. a new car worth at least 80,000 dollars (because its my sweet 16)

11. Snuggie: light blue to match my eyes

12. a job

13. lifetime supply of chamomile tea

14. world peace

people around the world. join hands.

please pray for my normalness to come.

schmack daddy

TeX Ahh SSS

2009-03-04T09:21:00.000-08:00

another oldie but clearly a goodie

2009-02-25T10:39:00.000-08:00

how i forgot about our new italian fishtank video will be a surprise to everyone. enjoy. some day i may actually write something worthwhile.

jus jus like a cirrcuss

2009-02-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

LOOK EH LUH

2009-02-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

I planned on going to the Chicago Lykke Li show, but with a minor conflict it ended up being a no go. ANyway. .So of course i had to see my swedish desire and decided 2 hours prior to needing to leave that I HAD to go. Accompanying me was Eric. (see below)

Sooo we left for Minnesota, with just enough time to be right on time, but one problem.. no tickets. Lykke li (har har luckily get it) it wasn't sold out.

Here is the entrance,,,,, pretttyyyy kewlllllll....

Next storyline: awaiting the show we were sat in this what seemed like huuggeee lounge, complete with big red couches and printed tablecloths... While waiting, I decided to prepare the lighting setting on my camera,and accidentally took a picture with a bright flash as this girl was walking by. Now I have this very close up picture of this girl who uncomfortably apologized for getting in the way and then offered to take our picture. Me being the pale individual I am, immediately turned tomato and as a result had to edit the picture... One downfall, tan 1/2 mexican eric is now pale with me. The point of saying mexican was to clarify that he is tan.

The show was amazing. It was on a sunday, and since in the midwest our best dance move is standing with our arms crossed bobbing our heads... or MAYBE if you are real crazy, bending your knees.. she didn't seem that happy about it. She even made a few jesus jokes, like we shouldn't be afraid to get down on our knees and started a song out by singginnggg jeeessuusssss... all in good fun

The group that went before her (sorry for the order) was Wildbirds and Peacedrums. Of course when Eric saw the poster for them he was immediately excited. Since most of you don't know him, one of his favorite jokes includes cafes and liberals and so a group with that sort of name only added to his impression of my taste.... Maybe I made him sound bad? oops

Wildbirds and Peacedrums. Also amazing. I bought their cd. I like to run to it. They are a little insane. I suggest listening to doubt and hope (you can find it on my playlist located on the right). Favorite part of the night: her sparkly drumsticks

Swell Goodbyes

2009-02-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Florence Friends: sorry other bloggers to only address them all the time...........BUT niki and becca i think you will enjoy this the most :) smiles

bye!

mke

Dont cha wanna

2009-01-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, but thats because carrying around my huge tourist camera is not as comfortable feeling in Iowa.

Christmas: Went to my sisters and did a gift exchange. Of course all I wanted was some sort of funding but ended up winning these ridiculous tennis shoe slippers and multi colored socks. Exactly what my wardrobe was missing. Then I became the baby of the party and my sister's fiance ended up giving me his HyVee gift card in exchange for the big shoes. See everyone this is what studying abroad does to you, turns you into... some one who is really poor? But really her fiance is just way too nice and is probably trying to suck up to me so I accept him into our family. Only kidding :)

New Years: Went to clear lake. Wow I'm getting really lazy on this post so that is all I'm going to say for now until I find motivation.

In between: went to the vikings vs. Giants game in Minnesota. Was forced into wearing purple and gold because of course Scheels decided not to sell one piece of Giants clothing. Probably a better choice because there were some super fans sitting all around me and I would have probably been killed if I was wearing anything else. PLUS the Giants were already safe in the playoffs so it didn't really matter if they lost, which of course is why they let the Vikings win :)

Also a new update is that I can't breath because my nose has been stuffed up for about 2 weeks, and my snot has been orangy red for over one. Too much information? too bad, this blog just went personal. Today I decided I should work on my health problem and took 2 fish oil pills. Which are ridiculously hugemungous.

Sorry that blog was so boring, just keeping it updated somewhat just in case my FL friends are still reading. School starts on Monday so wish me luck because I am graduating in May and I will need a lot of it.

The real reason for this post:

Merry Christmas and Goodbye Florence

2008-12-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Florence Friends

I miss you

sorry it is bad quality.. we should have plugged in the computer :(

hope you had a good flight home and that it isn't 0 degrees like it is here

Mrs. Adams

2008-12-19T12:02:00.002-08:00

Dear Patti,

thank you for being the only one who actually reads my blog :)

You all are probably are annoyed with all of my no one reads my blog jokes. but really my mom doesn't even read my blog.

So this is dedicated to my most loyal blog reader.. Vivi's mom :) :) :) three smiles for you :) four

Catalanin Around

2008-12-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

so I'm finally writing things OKAYY... so I went to barcelona accompanied by my texan love dynamite Marie. It was a splurge because at this point in the trip we were both very poor but considering we are both the cheapest people I know, we thought it might work out.

so lets begin the journey.

ryanair, pretty pleasant experience this time. Love the laid back italian Pisa airport because they never check your things to make sure they are under the required weight... usually that doesn't work so well in the other small crappy ryanair airports so packer beware that you might run into some critical thinking on how you will get all your stuff home. anyway so no problems, didn't even look at my passport at security and even though we got there 10 minutes after the check in cut off we still managed to be able to check in.

of course ryanair attempted to take advantage of not messing up by walking down the aisles selling sexy women by planes calendars, scratch tickets, drinks, food, anything else they could randomly think up. Not to mention the great pop single they play during the flight that basically just mumbles a bunch of stuff and all you can make out is ryan air fly ryan air. It's a mover though, I'll give them that. I also enjoy how they also congratulate themselves at the end of the flight for having 90% of flights on time, which is more than any european airline! Of course when we went to Paris, they did not play this ha ha.

Pictures: me on the left, being a tourist... too bad my camera didn't make it into this shot. on the right; this is one of the two awesome phone "charms" that marie has. I have one too but its a squirrel with bloodshot eyes in a carrot. I'll show you in 2 days, so that you can be fully impressed.

on the plane overlooking some other place.. meh i don't remember exactly, and another view of marie's phone charm.. sorry not much to say yet or maybe I'm just too tired to remember everything funny that happened.

So we arrive in Barcelona, on time for once, but this time without a map. Marie had told me prior to leaving that her host family supplied her with this awesome barcelona tour guide book so I didn't think to go buy one at Edison (book store) before we left... HOWEVER first of all she forgot it and second of all supposedly it had one map with only the main roads on it. So of course Marie and I are both fluent in Catalan because for some reason knowing small amounts Spanish doesn't help you in Barcelona because they decided to have their own language and refuse to call themselves Spanish...even though they are from Spain. so anyway... we got a map from some random stand, which was quite possibly the worst map in the world, but we managed and finally found our hostel.

Here is Marie looking triumphant infront of Barcelona's Arc de triumph, not as impressive as the one in Paris and doesn't quite compare with the Campanile (but really what does?), but it still looks really nice I think.

So again, marie and I are cheap right? So we decide we are going to save on food all weekend by buying sandwich supplies at the nearest 3 foot grocery store. First we splurged on the 1 euro bread instead of the 77 euro cents bread, and then again on the 2 euro meat and once again on the 1 euro cheese. Oh and we even bought some mayonnaise, just because it was our last trip and we really wanted to treat ourselves.

So anyway, we open up the turkey..... and it smelled like cat food. not kidding, but don't worry we ate it anyway. not a good choice because even with tons of mayonnaise and 3 pieces of tasteless cheese, you could still smell the cat food aroma. So lesson learned, next time splurge for the 2.50 euro meat!

Ps. can you see the slime glow of the turkey?

So our hostel was actually pretty awesome. Good job Ian. oh by the way, Ian, Willy and Ryan's friend whom I met one other time, joined us on the trip.

So as you can see the walls were green and festive and there are tons of pictures of cartoon men with their shirts off and cartoon women with their shirts off. Still doesn't make sense to me why females are always exposed but men aren't.. especially since I really want to see naked cartoon men, and its just not fair ha ha ha :) Also there were nice used condom decorations hanging from the ceiling. Maybe you can see them kind of. Note to everyone: they are not actually used condoms.

So while waiting for Ian to arrive, Marie and I discovered their great collection of games, including pick up sticks. At first it appeared as if Marie would be easy to beat every time because her coordination is far off in the fine motor skills department, but eventually she got better.

On the right is a picture of our 14 person coed hostel. That black thing is not a garbage bag curtain, it is just a pole that inconveniently makes the picture confusing. So the beds were not bad, except for the fact that they only give you a fitted sheet and a pillow case. This would be fine in any other month than december because covering up with every sweater I brought did not really suffice.

So the second night we forced Ian to sleep with us. Here we are sleeping across the two beds, probably taking up 1/2 of the room all spooning for warmth. I wish I had a picture of this.

The first night we went out with a group of Australians (they are always traveling geeezzz) to some random bar. Supposedly there was supposed to be dancing, but there wasn't except for the D.J Oliver. Sorry latino friends, no merengueing for me on this trip, it will have to wait until I am back in Caracas

So the next morning we ate the free breakfast of toast, mini cakes, cereal, juice (somewhat decent) and then left to walk Barcelona at 10am. We walked around basically all of Barcelona, saw the Gaudi buildings, which were amazing, attempted to go to the zoo (it was closed) walked to the beach, and then ended at the magic fountain. Here is a map of our journey just so you can see exactly how much we walked. Granted we took the metro from the beach to the magic fountain and again from the hostel to the show.

View Larger Map

Ian was a delight to have on the trip because he basically went along with whatever dumb things marie and I thought up. For example posing in front of this honey stand.

Barcelona architecture: building on the right: Gaudi

Marie kicking a bird and a fountain.....

Another one of Marie and my hilarrriousss photo ops...

Another Pruuunneeee face, but this time I did not pull it off so well. I think I was uncomfortable because Ian didn't understand the full meaning behind it.

So out of the many Gaudi museums we decided to go in La Padrera because it was only 5 euro for students. It was definitely worth it because it was one of the most amazing buildings I have ever been in. Especially the roof, which you will see in pictures below...

Left: La Padrera- Casa Mila

Right: the "attic" of the building

Me on top of the roof, see what I was talking about?

Maries pose on top of the roof... typical pelvic thrusting picture.

More pictures from the top of the roof. Really though, have you ever seen something like this? The front of the building, although it is still cool, doesn't do it justice, and if you ever go to Barcelona you must see at least one of these buildings.

Also in the distance you can see one of the famous Gaudi buildings: Sagrada Familia, maybe you remember it from the Nightmare before christmas....... we saw it up close but there was a lot of construction on it so it really didn't look that cool... maybe I will put up a picture later of what it looks like but all of you (ha ha "all of you") know how good I am at getting back to this blog thing.

Aww cute weekend family photo... ps did you notice how marie and i part our hair the opposite way... interesting

So on the way to the beach we found this industrialesque playground. Perfect for some senior pictures.

Picture on the left: sweet and innocent

Picture on the right: sultry

have to have both angels right? These are my senior pictures and I want people to remember me as that girl who came to school with her hair wet and just did a sexy teeth gritting face... does anyone get my joke?

Also good for engagement pictures

Ian jumping. and Ian with a sombrero.

Ian and I selling drugs?

So we decided to get our feet wet. It was really cold, but somewhat worth it despite that now my feet were sandy inside of my shoes; therefore, now my shoes were sandy....

this backview picture would have been more complete if my long luxurious hair was still present..right marie?

Next time I am in barcelona it will definitely be in the Summer. Can you imagine me in my purple one piece jamming to Fabolous can't deny it and Nelly country grammar? sounds like a peaceful sunday afternoon to me.

Next we headed to the "Magic fountain" maybe it is unnecessary to use quotations considering that is what it is actually called.

This fountain was saweeeet. It played epic songs and had dancing water. Of course we danced, and Ian jumped?

These street performers are a lot more impressive in Barcelona. This person is a tree. He/She is clearly spiritual and deserves my 50 euro cents.

I forgot to mention that we bought 3 liters of Sangria...which Ian drank 3/4 of. So he was slightly drunk for about 30 minutes...off of Sangria. ha ha ha ha

So maybe that is why he thought drenching his tapas in this disgusting garlic sauce was a good idea.

Tapas aka slightly disappointing appetizers

The main reason for this trip: the Yelle show. We got there at 1am when it opened. Waited in line until 2:30 to get our tickets that we had already bought. and then spent about 30 to 45 minutes trying to check our coat. This club was huuugeeeeee, it had 3 dance floors and all were filled body to body with people. See picture below.

The Yelle show was amazing. the end. I could dance all night to her french pop tunes. A lot better live so if you listen to her online and are wondering why I liked her so much, then just remember that and let it distract away from that I might just have bad taste... but i dont ok?

The next day we woke up barely in time for our spectacular spectacular free dining and then Ian left. Marie and I attempted to get up and do things but ended up falling asleep in the "chill out" room of the hostel... on the floor and across two uneven chairs.

After our nap we went and got coffee for an hour and a half and then went to the Picasso museum for 45. Yes we spent more time drinking coffee than at a museum.

This museum was very small but supposedly it holds the most Picasso paintings and sketches. Here is one of his sketches. Too bad I didn't include the one of the girl having her period into a fishes mouth.. hummmm.... ps. i heard that i say hmmm to much so now I am saying hum. I think it is less threatening.

Back to where we started. The arc de triumph.

Back on ryanair. This time our seat didn't have a window..... hummm.... (is it working because I actually find it a little creepier).

The End.

See you in 2 days.

Please help Vivi's mom find her Boa.

Spanish Sleepover

2008-12-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

Barcelona blog is on its way, first I want to steal Marie's pictures and since I can't reorder them without messing up being able to click on them and make them larger....We both must wait until then.

UNTIL then. you should know. I have finished my 8 page paper and am officially done with school but not technically completely. I have a art history final that is really a toss up if I will study for considering I don't have the study guide and haven't read the book since the midterm. .............

here is a YELLE video from the actual show. Amazing. frenchalicious.

10 days

2008-12-11T02:30:00.000-08:00

I'm off to Barcelona, and staying with the mood of my recent blog... here is a send off

10 days

c u

soon

put on

mcken

Bringin it back

2008-12-09T16:54:00.000-08:00

Since I am coming home in less than two weeks I thought it was necessary to bring you all some of the classics...classics I say

especially this one because of the American pride theme:

Everyone likes country grammer...seriously how can you not

My current favorite song: thanks Niki!

and lastly the show I am going to this weekend.... awesome blossom ya'll!!

see you all in less than 2 weeks, you have to be missing me right about now! And if I don't get you something, then this is your gift.. The gift of Country grammer. So.. You're welcome

2 besos

mcka mc

Feather in the Wind

2008-12-08T02:41:00.000-08:00

4 Month Changes you should be aware of:

1. I still speak no italian: except for that I have become comfortable with saying euros and may say euros instead of dollars
2. Know how to make a no bake cheesecake
3. Hair is 3-4 inches shorter and I look slightly more like a grandma
4. I really enjoy fresh mozzarella cheese and might refuse to use anything different
5. Pizza is now on my foods I enjoy list

more to come...

Barcelona or Bust

2008-12-07T09:22:00.001-08:00

View Larger Map

Sorry Parents

2008-12-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

Sorry Parents and Family friends of those that told them to read my blog because they didn't want to create their own... but i have to put up this inappropriate picture because I found it on someone's live journal.

creepy

Christmas List

2008-12-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

On My list so far:

1. Cello 2. Furby

3. Skip it 4. Lykke Li C

I'm Blue

2008-11-29T15:23:00.000-08:00

Oh Just another day in Via Romana number 79.

We got these berry face masks from Lush at the beginning of the trip. Here is the photo evidence of what we look like with them. Surprisingly we are still the hottest and coolest kids on the block. We should form a new facebook group and call it: top 20 hottest girls at iowa state who can look hot with face masks on

There were some good videos on here.. maybe you were one of the very few to see them, but Vivi made me take them down

see you in 21 days!

Enzie Mck

Spice up your Life!

2008-11-29T09:54:00.000-08:00

London Blog! I decided to name is Spice up your life because even though I was in London, home of the Spice Girls, my trip was very Spice Girl less. So there is my little sprinkle.

So let me start off by telling you that I am really smart and booked the 6am flight instead of the 6pm flight. Vivi was on the right flight so that meant that I was in London for 12 hours by myself. I tried to change my flight but the infamous Ryan doesn't like to have a email contact and in order to call him and his airline you have to pay .80 euro cents per minute. Now me being cheap, I still did this and 10 euros worth of being on hold later I hung up. From there I attempted to have my school help me, whom attempted to call Ryanair from their landline BUT guess what, ryanair did this thing where it blocks all landlines ONLY from Italy. In order to have your landline unblocked you first have to fax them a request, complete with a picture of your passport. Exactly.. So therefore, it was decided, I would be heading to London at 3:35 am on Terravision alone.

So I got to London at 8am but didn't get to the city until around 11 because Terravision is slow and Ryan decides to pick the airports that are at least an hour away from where you think you are flying into.

First I dropped my bags and then I began my journey.

This day was somewhat picture less, and very pictures of me less because I had no one to take pictures of me. Don't worry though I got a few self-timer shots.

Here are some of the interesting things I saw on my adventure:

I love the word rubbish and just their signs in general... I'm sure its only because it is a very funny version of English to me.

Building?

This next picture is dedicated to Allison because I think it is Chanel, and this was on every light pole so I'd say this is Allison's kind of Country.

Walking Walking....... Passing the Buckingham Palace.. See Harry and William having a thumbwar and Queeny playing strip poker with Charles?

Next I headed towards and through Green Park (what a creative name for a park.. do you think they change it with the seasons? Answer: no because it was brown at this time)

First of two self timer shots: Sorry, cheesy I know but I had to get some proof that I was actually there. Look how artsy I am.

Carnaby street: My favorite street. It is exactly what I am hoping to find everytime I want to go shopping: A street filled with small shops with really interesting clothing items that I haven't seen before. Also this is SOHO.

China Town...

Apollo Theatre

Second picture: I am walking.. Please note my guide book that if I didn't have it there is no way I would've gotten around on my own.

After walking through China town I randomly was walking through what seemed to be the "red light district" of London. I really like this garage. I wish the store would have been open because it looked like a goody. I also like the bright color. Also I researched snogging on Urbandictionary.com and it is just kissing. It also pointed out that a lot of Americans think it is more than that but it is just the British word for making out. Stupid Americans. (ps. have I said that in the last three blogs?)

This shop was really cool: Its the vintage magazine store: Sorry mom I looked but they didn't have any 1974 playboys available (har har just kidding)

I also tried to look for some sort of picture of my grandma but I couldn't remember what magazines she was in. So sorry grandma! I really wanted to purchase something from this store, but I didn't. Sad face.

Vogue house.

I tried to go to a thai food restaurant but when I got there it was closed for the only hour that I was there. So then I decided to walk back to Anne's place to wait to meet up with Vivi.

So that was the end of my day, Vivi got in around 11pm and we tried to get some food but everything was closed. We ended up sitting down at one of the only open restaurants and after opening the menu found out it was an Italian restaurant. Completely sick of italian food, I was disgusted for the first time by the whole entire menu. It ended up being pretty good and didn't really taste anything like Italian food.

Day 2:

First click on this picture and read what are on each of the little mens' shirts.

Which brings me to another point and random comment: I hate the ' after a plural possessive word. Is that the right name for it? Who knows.. I'm a fashion major at Iowa State leave me alone.

First vivi and I attempted to watch the changing of the guards, but there were so many people there that we were convinced the Queen was going to walk by. I didn't include any of the pictures because you can't really tell what is going on. Below you can see the London Eye and if you click on it you will notice that there is a bird caught in flight also. Vivi is really excited for some reason.. I think its because that bird almost hit her head.. What a drama queen.

We also ran into PETER! This was a surprise because we thought it was going to be just the blondes, but now we had this red head running around with us all day.

Now really? Are you kidding me. Now 71?! I remember when Now 1 came out and I don't know how I got so far behind because honestly the last one I remember them coming out with was something in the twenties. Come on Now, don't you know that CDs are so middle school now.

Parliament square: Look at benny boo waving

Look I have pictures of me now that I didn't take!

London Eye:

Huge egg thing?

So we were aiming for some Indian/Thai food but thought that an English pub would also be appropriate: Fish and Chips. Very greasy, but exactly what was needed after 4 months of eating pasta 5 out of 7 days.

After eating we decided to splurge a whole 3.50 pounds on this very scary clink prison museum. The lady told us it would take us 30 minutes to walk through and it probably took us 5 minutes. On top of that we ended up not really even looking at things and just talking about the holocaust the whole time. Probably the only disappointing thing about London, but you know you lose some you win some.

The Bridges: First Bridge: The London Bridge

Second Bridge: The tower Bridge

Don't get them confused okay?

Below is the London Tower: The actual towers were destroyed in a fire so it was actually not that interesting of a thing to see; however, the story of King Henry the 8th and his many wives is really crazy so you should probably research that right now.

Classic. London telephone booth.

St. Paul's cathedral.

Ok so this picture isn't actually from Night 2 but we forgot to take pictures. That night we went and saw Wicked, the witch's side of the Wizard of Oz. It was amazing. The girl's voice who played the wicked witch was unbelievable. She was so good that I would like to get a little jewelry box that everytime I opened it, a little ballerina would dance to her voice. Creepy.. Sorry. Don't worry I did the closest thing to it and bought the soundtrack... for my mom

So Vivi and I planned on going out that night, but once we got home to our huge hotel room, which was really the width of my body's length, we saw that meet the parents was on.. IN ENGLISH.. and had to watch it. Plus we wanted to get an early start on the next day. This is what happens when you haven't seen a movie in 3 months.

Day 3:

The day started off with the Tube/underground being closed so we bought a day bus pass (only 5 pounds) and went to the Madam Tusseaud Wax Museum. Which had practically every celebrity (human and cartoon) EXCEPT the Spice girls. Which to me makes no sense because they are British so they should've been the first mold. Maybe they are touching them up in the back room.

Britney, Christina

Indiana Jones, Jennifer Aniston

Also why is Indiana Jones being chased by a huge sequin ball? I remember it looking slightly different in the movie, but I guess I only saw it once.

Drew barrymore and Cameron Diaz

Vivi and I biking with Armstrong.... I look tired and Vivi looks like she has been doing this her whole life. I guess she's just in better shape than I am.

Hitler: this ones for you grandma: and all my jewish relatives

Oh Audrey

See we did meet the Queen. We attempted to look proper. I think we look like her troublesome great grand-daughters. Which makes us........William's kids?

Shrek.. Check out the little gingerbread man

This one is for my mom. Because not only has she seen Highschool Musical 1 and 2 but went to the theatre alone and saw 3. AND owns all the soundtracks. Yet again cheerleading skills come in handy.

Afterwards we attempted to go to Wimbledon, but it was really far away and with the tube being closed it would have been a very long strenuous journey to possibly just see nothing.

Instead we headed to Notting Hill and Hyde Park. The rich side of London. Complete with the white rows of houses straight out of the movie.

and red houses..now we just need some snow

Night 3: Going out

So tonight Vivi and I made a point to go out and meet some english folks. First vivi took a series of these photos, I thought this was a good example to include.

First we went to McDonalds for dinner because who knows why; however, we did end up making so really good taxi cab driver friends. We ended up taking a black cab to the main bar street, and no we did not get a discount because we didn't get a ride from one of our actual "friends".

So we went in the first "club" that we saw because it was only 5 pounds to get in, but it wasn't really thriving with the young english folk that we were looking for. There were young people but none of them were English EXCEPT for these two boys who were going around taking pictures of people for their job and supposedly you can order them offline. I guess they do this in New York. Do you think this would work in Ames? I think so. Anyway so we chatted up these guys and eventually befriended them. Vivi decided to tell them that we were olympic skiers and that my name was Julia and hers was Lydia. First of all she picked the best names possible and of course we look like olympic skiers. The last time I skied was in 5th grade and I'm pretty Vivi never has haha. har

Here we are playing the saxophone with this kewl dude

Here is the picture you have all been waiting for: our english friends... plus one random.. the guy on the end.. not really sure who he is or why he is in our picture.. we probably asked him to be

Dear James William Murray and Tom,

we are sorry that we lied to you. We are not actually olympic athletes, even though I am sure you believed us. Also sorry we did not invite you up to our hotel room, but we just aren't those types of girls and you should not be those types of boys. Thank you for being our friends. I hope to see you and your Football friends again some day.

sincerely,

McKenzie / Julia Foster

What is Your Favorite Breed of Horse?

2008-11-24T02:39:00.000-08:00

Paris,Paris,Paris... wow two weeks later and I am finally typing on this blog. but back off because I have consumed my life with making this calendar for graphic design and then starting over and making it again.

anyway so the trip started off kind of shaky, but I guess it was a good reading on how the rest of the trip was going to go.

The "brand" below is one of the first things that I would say officially started this trip. Now what do you see, the letter A with two dots, or two people having sex?

Must be one of those illusions.. maybe you can see it in one of those books at borders, you know the grandma or the wine glass.. I think thats how that one goes.

Please see the bottom of this blog to find out what your answer means about you.

So here is my native american journal. Currently it holds the key to my thoughts and soul. It also holds some very valuable illustrations, that you are seeing first hand right now before they end up in a museum somewhere..

On the cover it says SPIKHE, which I decided is the international word/question word that anyone from any country (see international) can say to anyone else to ask them what language they speak. Let me explain. So if you are from Germany and you go up to someone and say sprechen sie Deutsch or attempt to say do you speak German... they will most likely answer by saying no because they just don't understand you, plus its complicated enough to learn how you say do you speak English/language of choice in every single language. So here is my international word that should be known by everyone from every culture. Lazy Americans.

First illustration: Artist: Marie Franki

drawing on the right: that is supposed to be me, it was a contest we had on the train to Pisa. She won because of obvious reasons.

drawing on the left: unicorn contest, this ones name is Sharon

Second illustration: Artist: McKenzie/Me

drawing on the left: swan?

drawing on the right: Marie from the train contest and my unicorn Paul. He is wearing a 24K gold chain. I won that contest. Duh.

Ok so RYANair is cheap for a very good reason. Let me just start off the story. We got to Pisa to catch our flight to Paris and the flight ended up being delayed and then delayed again. Then by the time they finally got a plane for us the airport we were flying into was closed. So then they decided they would fly us into an airport on the border of Belgium and France and then bus us into Paris, which was 4 hours away. So we were supposed to get into Paris at 10pm but actually didn't end up getting there until around 3am.

Ok. Lets dig in.

Day 1:

Started with a nice starbucks. Seems every city in Europe has a starbucks on every corner, but not Florence. Not that that is a bad thing necessarily, but it did make it that much more exciting. I bet when Florentines come to the United States or a big city in Europe they don't spend any money because they are not tempted by things that they have never had before.

Here is Marie.. there is a series of this photo, but I just decided to include this one because as you can tell this is going to be a really long blog.

Next we go to catch the metro to the Louvre. I had the pleasure of sitting next to this fine gentleman who randomly started playing really sweet rap music out loud on his mp3 phone. After his song ended I decided to follow it with some Nelly Country Grammer. He dug it. But really, who wouldn't? We were clearly bfflife afterwards.

We were trying to look... cool?

Outside of the Louvre. If this picture would've worked it would have been a high five, but we missed so this was the result. Good thing I was a cheerleader and as a result have such nice jumping skills.

So the Louvre was full of artwork after artwork followed by little chinese cabinet and norways last toilet paper square. But honestly it was full of a lot of amazing and famous pieces.. Here are some of them.

Look at how huge this painting is. Compare it to the size of Marie. I know it may have been more impressive with a normal sized person, but you get the jist.

On the direct opposite wall from that huge painting is this. The Mona Lisa. The painting that I'm sure everyone and every ant in the farm has heard of, and look how small it is. Funny how no one even knows the name of that gigantic painting and how it probably took a lot of more time and skill to paint than the Mona Lisa.

But either way, here is the Mona Lisa. I saw it. Here it is. Down there. Do you see it? Or are you still looking at the huge painting? P.S you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Oops... Out of order. here is a group shot outside the Louvre.

Picture taken from inside, probably right next to Wish bones first doggy suit.

A Classic. After the Louvre, we wanted to go to the eiffel tower at sunset, but on the way we found this huge pile of leaves. So we tossed them. And took a picture.

Our trip to the eiffel tower was a little delayed because we came upon another famous person leaving a building and a ton of anxious people outside to see who it was (remember the italian pop star we waited forever for? See blog My firenze and me in October). Anyway so we waited and waited and yet again it ended up being someone none of us had ever heard of; however, he was famous. It was the Prime minister of France and he was dining with the Palestine Prime minister. Jealous? He signed my arm.

The eiffel tower is blue at night. I wish it was always blue because it is a lot more beautiful at night and even more amazing looking when they turn on the white lights that make it look like its sparkling.

Vivi and I are roommates in love. I just happen to love her a little bit more.

Here it is sparkling.

Following the eiffel tower experience we headed home to get ready for the big night on the town. And I can't wait to type to you how BIG it was. Well first of all it was Alissa's 21st birthday that night so there was a celebration that needed to be had.

She drank a little bit, but then by the time dinner was over she was already sober. We first headed to this young and thriving dance club called "red light" and it only cost 20 euros to get it! Geez what a deal! Of course we paid, but then 5 minutes after walking in we looked around and realized everyone was wearing all white and that it was a white party. On this note we decided we didn't want to be there because we weren't going to pay 20 euros for a white party that we weren't even wearing white at.

Naturally they wouldn't give us our money back so we headed to the street to sell our tickets, which after long conversations of trying to persuade people to buy our tickets from us.. in english.. to french people may i add... we finally did it and headed on our way

Then while walking, Vivi and a few others found this random guy walking home from probably his very sketchy night shift and decided to ask him where all the hoppin bars were. Enthused he told us he knew of a really good street and that he would show us where it was. Again, of course we followed him.. let me add in here. Stupid Americans. and he led us down several quiet streets and finally landed on this one street that was full of bars, but the kicker was that not one person was under the age of 35. The first bar we went in was again only 35+ and they only sold 11 euro drinks and no shots so we left. The next bar he took us to he told us was very private and hard to get into and you have to wear "smart shoes" to get in. Some how we got in even though we weren't.

Below is a picture of the second club called "Castel" here is a website link for it.. please check this out http://petitebrigitte.com/2007/03/12/chez-castel-hot-boite-or-shmeless-brothel

Anyway so we walk into this very exclusive club and first of all notice the mood lighting, drapery and fancy carpet. Think moulin rouge.. I'm pretty sure that is what they were going for actually. Inside was men anywhere from 50 to 70 years old and women of all ages, but we were definitely the youngest ones. Vivi bought a drink for only 18 euro (vodka and sour) and then we danced the night away with our grandpas.

On the left: the infamous prune face, made popular by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson

On the right: Sigrid gettin down Norway style

Below is the best example of what this club was like. Do you understand now?

Statue we decided to pose with on the way home from the night we will never forget.

Day 2: Hannah Arrives

So let me start with this note: there were 6 of us staying in a 5 person hotel room. In the U.S this is no big deal and sometimes you have 20 person in a hotel room that only has two double beds, but in Europe this is a big deal. The first night we tried to get away with one extra person, but it was just the beginning of us being very far from getting away with anything at all. Walking into the hotel the door man immediately notices we have one extra person, and says that if we have an extra person to come talk to him. So Sigrid and Vivi go and talk to the guy and end up having to pay him personally 20 euro extra for the 2 nights that we would be there. Of course hannah coming the next day would be a new challenge.

So lets start out the day. First we all met for lunch at the eiffel tower because now today was Vivi's 21st Birthday. Below hannah and I are romantically drinking our champagne.

Then following lunch we went to the top of the eiffel tower, which I don't really think was worth it considering it was completely cloudy that day and I couldn't really see a clear view of paris. Group shot!

However at least we got to write our names on it, and maybe the weather won't erase it for a couple years.

Next we headed to the Arch de Triumph. We were really cold so we basically just got off the metro, looked at it, took pictures such as this one, and another one with some asian guys. I don't have that picture because it is on Alissa's camera.... Maybe some other time bloggers.

Last stop of the day was the Notre Dame. We even got to meet the hunchback who was just sneaking home from spying on his lady friend.

Some more artwork:

Contest: Book cover

On the left: Marie's: savage mistress book

On the right: My book cover: Bunny visits Amsterdam

Result: Tie

I suggest you click on these to get a closer look

Night 2: Vivi's 21st Birthday

Now this night was probably a more traditional 21st birthday, not nearly as exciting as Castel, but a close second.

Vivi and Alissa got very drunk and did some very hilarious things. Which brings me to the meaning of the title of this blog. Eventually I was feeding Vivi random questions to ask this big group of people and one of them happened to be , What is your favorite breed of horse? Some other good ones were: Which color is your favorite (said exactly like that) and What is your favorite sex position (to the bartender).....

This man bought all of us roses, and vivi for some reason really liked playing with his long greasy hair.

Prune face.. Hannah didn't get the memo

Rose series... only one of many

Other examples of the night:

Vivi likes to speak to people in random languages when she is drunk, so one group she was speaking "new zealandish" to them, which I believe they speak English. They told her she looked like a Mongolian and that she sounded stupid. She replied: I'm taking offense to that (in a New Zealand/ robotic sort of way. Also this same group of guys told Abbey she was beautiful and offered her 100 euro to "come home with them" and at one time I turned around and next thing I knew they were showing me a picture they had taken of me. Oh Frenchies.

At another bar Vivi put on Marie's red gloves and was pretending to be a mime.... For about 5 minutes....

Happy birthday! haha :)

Day 3:

Ok so these first set of pictures aren't actually mine because I forgot about the Moulin Rouge and instead went to the flea market with Hannah and Marie; however, I decided to include them on my blog so that you could get a taste of what it actually looked like.

You may recognize this church from the top of the hill in the Moulin Rouge movie. If not, then watch it again and you might get excited. It could be the highlight of your day. Then you can send me a facebook message and tell me about it.

So here is how my day actually went:

First Hannah and I walked around a little bit looking for lingerie for my sister, but came home empty handed. Then we sat at this creperie and waited for them to open. In the mean time they decided to give us free champagne. Just our luck because Hannah and I love to drink and on top of that the taste of alcohol! But when we actually got to eat there it was well worth it because the crepes were amazing and definitely stomped stomping grounds crepes (har har).

After lunch Marie, Hannah and I headed to the dirty side of Paris. It was supposedly a place with really good vintage shops that hannah and I had found online. We ended up getting a few good finds: I bought 3 pairs of shoes, marie bought a pair of shoes and a bag, and hannah bought a dress and a wallet.

It was also full of these really creepy "statues"

Yet another drawing contest:

contest: Hannah in her ugliest state in Paris

first drawing: mine.. I won.. look how bad my eiffel tower is.. but check out hannah's thighs!

second drawing: maries: aww close second but not as disgusting as mine

Another set of creepy mannequins ... if only I had a beard. A white one.

One of the streets, not inside the flea market but in the little town next to it.

See what I'm talking about yet?

End of the day, and thank god last picture of the blog:

We got churros.. which were amazing. At the end we decided to try out the life of a beggar and made a sign that said we were hungry in 3 different languages. Right next to my bag with my 3 pairs of shoes I just bought. Hey they are vintage so I could still be poor.

Which brings me to my next point: I hate the word vintage.

the end

And to sum up the hotel situation: we ended up having to pay another 30 euro because we had 2 extra people now.. I hope that guy is putting the 70 euro we gave him into his savings account!

In summary:

Paris was a lot of fun. I'm not that fond of French people and their confusing language, but France on it's own was really nice. Highlight of the trip: Castel and Vivi's drunken ways. Downside of the trip: not understanding any french.. at all.. and Marie not understanding it either.. and having to pay the hotel man off... Maybe we should have offered sewing him a nice new suit jacket.... hmmmm

miss you all and see you in 21 days.. That is if anyone is still reading this blog and if not.. good job mckenzie, pat on the back, good job at finding the motivation to write this really long blog that no one is probably going to read for 2 different reasons 1. its been two weeks and 2. you have a london blog on top of this so no one will probably even see this one

chunk a lunk

McK

Hannah is Here

2008-11-19T15:44:00.000-08:00

Snoring queen.. young and sweet.. only seventeeeeen ooooo yeaaa!

she can snore

she can gargle

taking the sleep from my liiiifeeee

ooooo see her drool

see her drool

watch this scene

dig it, the snoring queen!

Hannah is here. I can't sleep. and this is why! Dig it!

This is a video to make up for me not having time to post my paris blog yet.. BUT don't worry soon there will be a paris AND a london blog! whew! then you can look forward to homework blogs for the next 4 weeks.. also.. im going to london by myself because im stupid and booked the ticket for 6am instead of 6pm and vivi booked hers for the right one!

sleepless in seattle,

McknotSleeping tonight!

Happy Holly Ween! Braveheart style

2008-11-04T12:34:00.001-08:00

So the thing I am most sad about missing this year is halloween in Iowa. Which is actually a complete joke. Although I am disappointed that I wasn't there to witness what innocent animals girls could turn into a troia version (slut in italian... sorry I don't know how to say slutty, but I'm sure marie does so I'll get back to you... which you all know I probably will forget to do).

So anyway.. For Halloween, firstly I went to Becca's birthday party, and the reason I don't have any pictures of this is because my powershot decided quit out on me. Which is really inconvenient because China just sent me my replacement charger. WHICH I had to wait about a month for. Did you know that China has a national one week holiday? Me either (be quite I know you didn't know)

Above is a picture of me and chris with our faces painted. It is really up to you to decide what I was for halloween. Some say braveheart, but I originally going for the candy cane look. Chris is clearly being an acne boy. Super slutty acne boy that is.

I think Kristy was either a representation of geometric shapes, or a clown. Another toss up.

Anyway, so we went to Twice club...for the 3rd time this week...to celebrate halloween (as if there is something to celebrate)

We danced the night away.. obviously

It's really too bad that you can't click back and forth between these pictures, it gives a good idea of the dancing that was going on. Maybe you should download them and give it a try. And what is willy? I think he is an emo dracula person.

More dancing

Ryan was supposed to be an emo kid, but then Kristy made him look like a cat. He was pretty pathetic looking, and how he ended up finding people to be friends with him that night.. no body knows.

Below are some of the other people we went with. I'm not sure what to call Mary exactly (the girl with the mask) but she was hilarious that night. I'm pretty sure she fell asleep while standing up. Janna (auburn hair) was supposed to be Lindsay Lohan after the parent trap. Vivi.. well she was supposed to be.. A slutty.. Fish?. What you don't see it?

The night was good.

that is all.

Also I want to leave you with this: over the week I stepped on glass. for the second time. If you didn't know this about me, I have a fear of sharp objects. It doesn't really make sense and its pretty irrational..or is it? I blame my sister for stabbing me with safety scissors when I was younger. Well the point is, my foot still hurts, and it feels like I'm walking on a bubble. I have also been to the doctor 3 times, which has confirmed my belief that doctors don't really ever do anything except for tell you they don't know exactly. That was not supposed to be a slam on doctors, maybe just a slam on open clinics.

native american journal lover,

Mcksquash

The Pompei and Sorrento Post

2008-10-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

Pompei and Sorrento.. blog style

so another school trip, and the last one for that matter, checked off my list. We had to be at the bus station at 6:30 AM, AM.. a.m.? The point is that it was really early, and my roommates decided it was a good idea to not sleep at all and then sleep at the bus. I am a morning person, so I had to sleep a little bit because I knew I would be bright and shiny in the morning no matter how much I sleep. And in case you are wondering, yes it is a lonely world in morning person land. So 9 hours and 2 ridiculously expensive "rest stops" later we finally made it to Pompei.

AND let me tell you that the only good thing these "rest stops" had to offer were grisbi cookies. Please see below to see full enjoyment of these cookies:

(yes I chose the large format for this picture because it needs that much emphasis)

also.. I dedicate this picture to Allison and also Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez because allison also loves these cookies and thank you to chavez for making sure these cookies are imported from Italy to Venezuela consistently. Maybe I will write Obama about doing the same. Oh if only every president were as good and generous as Chavez..... ha :) smiley face ha

LASTLY, and sorry to carry on about these cookies for so long, but they are made in Italy and I have not seen them anywhere except for this janky rest stop.

Ok so we got to Pompei, waited around for our tour guide whose name I don't remember but Marie told me it was Rosalina so I'm gonna go with that.. Also let me point out this story before we begin our travels through the ancient ruins of a town, Pompei. So when we got there, there were a ton of little stands selling nick nacks and such, and this was our first realization that Pompei must have been a huge sex town. It makes sense why it was destroyed, and kind of reminds me of the Noah story.. Don't ask okay. Below is a perfect example of what kind of place Pompei was when it was up and running. Also! Hannah told me I could not miss going to Pompei, and now I am wondering what kind of person Hannah really is! dun dun dunnnn

See!

I forgot to mention that our tour guide, Rosey, was a true European and didn't shave her armpits. I am not really that grossed out about it actually, she can do whatever she wants... So stop judging her...

This is a bed in the local "red light district"... Now I am asking myself, this town that would take 5 minutes to walk across, comparable to the size of Northwestern College (in Iowa of Course), is it really possible to have room for a red light district? Anyway, the picture above is one of the.. lets call it escorts, beds.... enough said.

Marie and I being good escorts.. I am the small spoon.. which makes marie the man. I am clearly uninterested and just in it for the money... or chickens?

Probably the most worth while thing to see while in Pompei. The people whose bodies were preserved by the ashes. Just to make this clear, for some reason I was too distracted to even see any of this. So don't be mislead by this photo, I did not take it because I didn't even see this man. Thank you digital cameras and my friends who have an attention span.

Marie and I were not impressed by Pompei after a while, so we decided to take very necessary pictures. In retrospect, I think it fits the overall theme of Pompei, so not completely unproductive on our part.

Marie working it (ps. what does that even mean.. working "it" )

Amphitheater... Supposedly women and men were to always be separated. I think a town that has a red light district should just not waste its time with this separation rule. I know they were just passing notes the whole time anyway and booking times to meet in the stone bedroom.

Pretty amazing picture.

Class photo. No one ever wants to take these, but AGAIN I know secretly everyone is thanking me because they wanted one but didn't want to be THAT person who had to ask for one; HOWEVER, I will be that person if necessary because I would rather be that person than not have this picture. Your grandkids can facebook me when you are 80 years old to thank me for this picture of their grandmother/father. Think about it.

This was sad. This dog was cute, but clearly had a lot of diseases. I really wanted to pet it, but when it came down to it I didn't want to come home with more fleas.

Below you can see an actual picture of Pompei. I apologize for maybe not giving a clear idea of what pompei looks like, but at least you can see a great collection of photos of me!

Also. Willy's girlfriend and her step-brother Chris came to visit for two weeks and they hopped on the Pompei/Sorrento trip.
.

I wish I had this for my street photography class. I think simone would really like it.

Below is a picture, which at the time, I think is when everyone else saw the ash bodies. So I think I may have solved my mystery.

Now becoming a standard picture. I think I like the other one better.

Anyway, so the hotel we stayed at was extremely nice. I mean maybe I have low standards or maybe any hotel that had this location would be considered amazing no matter what it looked like. There was also a wedding going when we arrived, which is why below you can see flower and fabric decorations.

Some more pictures of the hotel. The second picture is a view from our hotel room, which by the way had two balconies.

Lobby of the hotel

That night we just hung out in our hotel room and luckily Becca is a professional tarot card reader. I still think she should sit on the corner and read cards for people and charge them 80 euro... everyone else is doing it.

Hotel pool.. The first I didn't bring my swim suit. Geez.

Another story: So we were supposed to leave at 10ish for Sorrento, but we ended up sitting by this pool for a good 2 hours because there was a big ordeal with some of the Rome students (they joined the trip also) and the hotel. Okay, so supposedly some of the rome kids stole some of the flower decorations and got some of the dirt in their hotel room. Then the management was really mad so they started searching the other rooms for traces of dirt. I guess some other girl ate something that had a lot of crumbs so they thought she also stole flowers. The other funny thing to mention is that Marie, Vivi and I were getting ready and looked out our balcony and willy was telling us to hurry up because everyone was waiting on us; HOWEVER, when we got down there this whole situation was going on so we ended up sitting by the pool for 2 hours. Which I didn't mind.

So we finally made it Sorrento, but we only had around 2 hours. It was really sad because I actually liked Sorrento a lot better than Pompei. Plus on top of that it was really nice outside and was pretty much the last nice weekend I have seen since. Which is only one weekend, so I guess that isn't a very good point to make.

We walked around the town and tasted different flavors of cello. The most well known is limon cello. It is disgusting. Everyone thinks so, not just me, but for some reason vivi, marie, becca, and niki still bought some. See.. Alcohol is drug.

If we would've stayed the night I' sure we would have definitely checked out Daniele's dancing and Karaoke. Here you can see me imagining what the night would've been like. For all of you who don't know, this is my signature dance move and if you are lucky, in 42 days and 45 minutes I will show you this in person.

If you didn't catch that, it was the official count on how much time I have left here! AHH

Sweet convertible bus.

Hidden castle. I wonder if this is Sorrento's red light district. Well at least they are more private about it.

So that is finally the end of my post, and I am extremely sorry that it took me so long to put up words to go along with it. I'm sure the post is just that much more entertaining.

And I am also sure that I am the only one reading this right now.

Still got luvs 4 u,

McKed

Tripendicular

2008-10-23T05:17:00.001-07:00

I know you are sick of seeing these photobooth pictures from everyone. But don't be . Love me. Love mac. Love life.

Our Band. Name.. TBD

We made this spectacular Of Montreal, Gronlandic Edit Music Video. Its wonderful. Really

Barbie and Ken Love,

McKenzie

P.s. on that note. Did barbie and Ken ever get divorced? that always confused me

Marie's Cousin, Dinner Parties and Crossdressing

2008-10-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

This is Peter. We found him at the grocery store. aka Centro. and invited him to our dinner party.

So we decided to have a dinner party. To celebrate not only being cooler than the average jane, but to celebrate being poor and not being able to afford going out to eat. Menu: Tortellini, Willy and Ryan's secret red sauce, Maries ridiculously huge bread, and chocolate birthday cake... Which I had 3 1/2 slices of.

Marie going buck wild with the wine, and Abbey and I cleaning the dishes. Adorable. I just realized that I might possibly have been spelling Abbey's name wrong. Therefore; I am officially apologizing.

Peter knows how to play the guitar... So does Willy and Alissa.

This is me harmonizing.

Group shot! The whole dinner party clockwise from me: McKenzie glass breaker, Alissa the guy magnet, abbey the sassy leo, Ryan the kit cat lover, Willy plump face Muse, Peter Peter, Vivi scaffolding scaler, Tessa Weatherly's flavor of the week, and Marie Jumbalia Buns

Second dinner party: meal specialty of Niki. This was a fancy party, girls in dresses, guys in..gloves? except me.. I went as a guy wearing pants. always have to stand out.

On facebook I said we look like twins. She does not agree.. Maybe its because she thinks I am ugly and doesn't want to be compared to me. ANyway, second time around I think I just look more like her 8th grade boyfriend. hmmm...

Group Shot! On the Pointe Vecchio, walking around, and causing trouble. being old teenagers. except for that were in our twenties.

Now there were a lot more to this series, but we were trying to do a "heel click" mid air picture. Not really successful, but still resulted in some cherry old time photos. Behind me you can see the city trash cans. I am obviously having too much fun.

looking musical

No you are not seeing double Willy. This is actually Marie and I...Dressed in willy's clothes and mustache. Looking freakingly similar to him in my opinion.

Willmarie

MckWilly

A wonderful day in the neighborhood

2008-10-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just some random fun. made for you. (not by hallmark) by me.

heart heart. <3>

significance : 44th day in italy.. 66 days left

Pienza in my pants, Montepulciano and Montalcino aka Chianti

2008-10-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my adventures in Chianti. Chianti... like the famous wine region.. Ask me how many vineyards I saw. zero. funny I know, and I know I don't drink wine, but still.. Chianti and no vineyards? Anyway despite that, Chianti was beautiful. This was another one day trip with our school, so it was free so that means it is always worth it. Plus I got another strawberry and creme lollipop.

The towns were called Montalcino, Pienza, and Montepulciano. All three were cute, small and hilly. Supposedly there were secret underground wine and cheese tasting places, but we weren't told of this so we spent the whole day just wondering through the towns.

All three towns had amazing views.

Marie aka. virgin marie (italian translation of Marie) and I shooting our new cd album cover.

This is for the more upbeat songs in the album.

Marie and Becca on a bench. So much excitement in this day haha.

Peter looking at the landscape.

At the second town, Pienza, we had lunch.. guess what.. it was pizza. I know that my pizza loving friends (you know who you are) would enjoy that I have eaten more pizza in the last month in a half than I have in my whole life. Also Pienza is known for its amazing cheese, but did I eat any of this cheese? no. Why not? Because I didn't know haha :)

In the last town: Montepulciano

picture on the right: a really neat market that I wish I would've boughten something from, but I am cheap and a selective buyer so I came home empty handed

Overall the trip to Chianti was really relaxing, not much happened, but it was still a really fun day.

Marie and I spiced it up with some Nelly Country Grammer. And if you know anything about Country Grammer, you know that any day with it is a good day.

Low Street in a range rover.

Mckling

Cinque Terre

2008-10-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

What a perfect picture to start off the perfect trip. So. It italian cinque means 5 and terre means lands. Which is what cinque terre is; 5 lands...or better translated, 5 towns.

Now to explain the picture. So we were all sitting together in a group of four on the train, but there was no one else in the area so we decided to spread out; however! this guy (shown looking suavely at the camera) asked Vivi if anyone was sitting next to her...Of course Vivi let this modern gentleman, wearing this nice, tight, bollywood style spandex shirt and low jeans, only slightly exposing his sexy hairy belly, sit next to her... He over heard us talking about Barcelona, and from that point on opened up and let us into his realm. He told us about his 4 different jobs, spirituality of life, and only things that you could imagine a fellow like this would be saying. The point is that I couldn't really pay attention because Vivi kept mocking him while he was talking to me and I couldn't keep a straight face. And yes this is another NO you don't have to be there.. it was hilarious

Cinque terre was amazing.. Favorite place so far, and possibly the closest thing I will get to Greece until I convince my non-existent fiance to go there on our honeymoon. On the left is our dingleberry of a tourguide, Remmington.. Remey for short. First of all awesome name, second of all really fun. In this picture he asked me if I was from Tokyo because of how many cameras I had, so we decided to take a stereotypical japanese photo. So Hitomi.. if you are looking at this.. This ones for you and I miss you!

So fellow Iowa Staters.. look who we found! There are supposedly 10 other Iowa State Students studying in Florence, and we just so happened to be on the same "Florence for Fun" trip. Also please notice how most of them are wearing Iowa State gear.. gee gally (credit back to Remey) such loyal fans.. smiley face

This town was just full of love. The road that you hike on between the towns is called via dell Amore and this was the symbol/logo that was everywhere.

even the graffiti was cute

more cinque T love.. I told you they love hearts. and future husband, if you are reading this right now... remember this place

Town on a rock... also. it was October 14th.. and 80 degrees.

Postcard number two.

love from me.

I wish this was my grandpa.

Abbey sporting Remey's saweeet glasses.

So folks. Cinque Terre. Check.

love hump,

McKenzie

Here comes the bride....rome sweet rome

2008-10-06T04:18:00.001-07:00

Rome!!! Note to everyone who told me rome sucked: you are all nay sayers! I loved rome, and it was somehow even less touristy then Florence. Now that I've made my peace, lets begin the tour.

First stop... train station. We were allotted 30 minutes to get something to eat and familiarlize ourselves with the location of our hotel. We spent 10 minutes getting some pastries and the rest of the time in a book store. I found the book that I used to love looking at while at the borders in Ames. I took this picture for myself for later inspiration, but decided to include here for you all to enjoy.

Just a few pictures from the metro... everyone should get a metro

Rome may be forever confused with Florida.

Here is the whole group that went on the Rome trip. If you like to notice details you are probably enjoying our hilarious tour guide in the back of the group waving.

There were a lot of these fake old roman/ sparta guys standing around. Many times they asked if I wanted a photo with them, but I think it was because they were charging for photos.. There would really be no other explanation why there were so many of them... This picture is also cut because of the two kids.. if they didn't look so cute holding hands, I may have considered them to be ruining this picture.. instead they complement it i think

Niki is overjoyed because she can see the Pantheon through a side street

Please take note of how cute our tour guide is.. oh and on the left is the pantheon :) haha

here is the first of I think 5 weddings that I saw this weekend. This one was on its own at the pantheon, how her husband pulled that off.. nobody knows. Also the other 4 weddings I saw occurred within 2 minutes of each other... so basically every time I turned around there was another bride and groom passing me.

Inside the pantheon... this side braid is dedicated to James Judge. and no I don't know why.

I really don't remember the name of this church.. I promise I will figure it out.. unless I forget.

Now begins the journey through the Vatican. 3 hours and about 8 million paintings later, I was tired of taking pictures of statues and ceilings, so please forgive me for not including every interesting portion of the Vatican. But really I don't want to ruin it for you just in case you want to visit it yourself some day.

Courtyard of the Vatican. Again a small portion of the group waiting to begin the tour. It was raining.. Rome is kind of like Iowa, at times it was 80 degrees and at others it was around 50 degrees.

Here we are standing with our umbrellas and experimenting with my color pick option on my camera.

again our tour guide.. whose name might have been close to something like... musacelli.. that could be ridiculously wrong though

I tried to take a picture of the hall of each room we passed through, so that you could feel as if you were actually taking the tour with me

now walking towards the sistine chapel

no pictures were allowed in the sistine chapel, but I pulled off getting this illegal and blurry and poor quality picture to give you an idea.

I like this metro.. a lot

at the pizza party for arcadia.. Again I am not a part of Arcadia, but luckily they will let me pay to come to about anything haha

really it was a good deal

14 inch pizza

2 appetizers

wine/water/beer (I drank water just to let you know)

and dessert ( tiramisu was my choice) willy and ryan if you are reading this.. which you probably aren't you would be happy to know that nutella and creme was a choice and I didn't get it.

anyway the point is, that all of that was only 10 euro. Which in my opinion is a really good deal.. for italy anyway.

this was the end of day 1. Afterwards a bunch of people went to the Hookah bar, but since we have such a fancy one in Ames and plus the fact that I don't smoke hookah.... I decided to go back to the hotel and take a bath. You may be thinking and wondering why I am so lame. But when you live with 3 other people in a small apartment, with a small shower and no bathtub.. you would enjoy your alone time too. Not that I don't love living with Vivi :)

Day 2: first stop, another chapel and of course I don't know the name of this one either.

This one had an added feature! If you paid 50 cents then you could turn the light on!

On the road looking down towards the Colosseum...

the colosseum was amazing as expected. But heres an added bonus to the visit. My body decided that I needed to go to the bathroom. Thankfully for tourism, they had installed bathrooms.. And let me say this is the first time I've ever seen a women's bathroom line that looked like it would take 20 minutes actually only take about 10.

Another crew shot: Peter, Marie, Jessica, and myself

Our Advisor's daughter, Tori, who likes wine and strawberry and cream lollipops

this first wedding, we couldn't decide if it was a fashion shoot or an actual wedding. still to be determined and being researched.. this one I definitely won't get back to you on

There were so many weddings! There were two more that I didn't capture, but seriously 5 weddings all at the exact same time! Also notice how all of the brides could care less that they are dragging their dresses on the very dirty ground! crazy italians!

Here is my last tribute to all the weddings that day

In front of the Trevi Fountain. Amazingly huge fountain, and yes we threw a coin in so that we could return to Rome.

My very artistic display of the oil and vinegar aka Marie's life which = complicated

Andrew was obviously exhausted. Some guy mistook him for actually being in trouble and got out of his car to help. Just another way to lighten the reputation of us out of control americans!

Sorry I didn't write many comments on the pictures, but there were so many! Also I have been doing this for quite a long time now and I could use a break!

Next blog look forward to hearing about me getting my palm read!

big hugs!

also just to let you know I have only done the kiss kiss once while I've been here. That is either proof of the lack of italian friends I have made, or the amount of tourists that are here

Mckinley (dedicated to Joe and Melissa)

Mi Darty Blarrrg

2008-09-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

whew long time no scrive.... so I decided I wanted to add some more flare to my blog. I already posted the pictures of the most recent blog so don't be expecting any flare considering there are a million pictures to keep yourself busy with.. not that there weren't enough on this blog.

so to start it off.. a picture from a graphic design book, don't remember the name, no one is surprised.. but it is full of color and again no one is surprised..

second picture... I just really liked the way it looked. maybe some day benji will look like her and then she will have a similar picture taken during her senior pictures.. shut up youre friends with me.

business card. special thanks to my model Hannah. after making it realized that #1 it is too busy for a business card and #2 if it were a business card I would expect it to be for either a prostitute or a strip club. overall, job well done me.

First design for screen printing. If you remember my post about the Space disco, maybe this will give you an idea of exactly how what it wasn't like. This is what I was hoping it was like, and even after attending this nutso club, I still decided to be in denial and pretend it was like this. The drawing was in black and white, but I had to decide on colors so I messed with it in photoshop, thank you TC 321 for teaching me how to save and load selections. The point is that this isn't the actual print, but it will look similar to this after I am done.

one of the screens, the background color.

this is my first batiking project. This picture does not do it justice, not that it is spektacularly awesome at this point anyway, but this picture makes mary look somewhat sun burnt. Maybe she does and I didn't realize it, but I will update you on that.

I like screen printing a lot better because in batik it is much harder to make obnoxious 80s colors.

And just for your information, I am not that big a fan of the 80s, just the colors, some of the music, movies, and of course their tripendicular dance moves.

Vivi and I finally ate sushi at the Wabi Sabi giaoponese restaurant across the street from our apartment. The sushi was decent, good, but only decent because it didn't have the creamy orange sauce that I wish I knew the name of. It was also over priced and after 35 euro we ended up having to eat a real dinner when we got home.. I should've taken pictures of the actual restaurant, but of course I didn't.

Finally I posted the picture of my favorite bike, which taunts me every day as I walk buy it, asking me to steal it. Maybe I will photoshop a new bike picture with me riding it. Wait patiently.

now tell me these aren't the pimp daddiest little kittens you've ever seen.. bend and snap?

These are a few pictures of Vivi and my favorite coffe/ caffe shop. Lattes are 1.20 euro and for future reference I like my italian lattes with 2 packets of sugar/ zuccero.

Now, SURPRISE! my dad had to travel through florence during a business trip, so I spent the weekend with him. This is looking down onto one of the less busy streets of florence. All tourists, maybe 2 actual italians and possibly even waldo.

We went to Accademia to see the museum, made friends with an older couple who very pro Obama. Of course there was a political debate between my dad and the lady, and of course I just stood there awkwardly. Anyway we ended up leaving the huge line at Accademia and went and bought tickets for a reserved time, which not only saved us 4 euro, but gave us an exact time we could go in at.

This picture is in front of the courtyard at the convent. This is where many Fra Angelico paintings can be found, in case any of you art gurus are reading this.. (guru? is that spelling correct)?

Let me emphasize, that I actually liked the couple that we met, and that it wasn't a heated debate, just a debate.

Pictures of the michelangelo David. Supposedly you couldn't take pictures, but since no one ever yelled at me I was confused and just took a million. Here's 3 out of the million. Got a good picture of his back side too.

some may think seeing their dad in this type of ensemble might be weird. but so is kissing your parents on the lips when you are 21. think about it.

so favorite part of the visit, my dad and I decided to rent a motorcycle. Motorcycle was his choice and vespa was mine, but age over rules any decision, so we got the motorcycle. If you are wondering if he regretted this decision the next day.. the answer is yes.

So we rode to the top of the hill which over looks all of florence and is known for another Michelangelo David statue. When we got to the top of the hill I was too overwhelmed with the view that I barely got a shot of the actual statue.

after getting lost a few times in the mountains looking for a random castle, which we never found by the way, we found the chapel where many famous people were buried. I remember hearing exact names during my art history class, but unfortunately my memory surprisingly failed me again. I'll get back to you on that again.. unless I forget. sorry

My dad insisted that I look like I am driving the motorcycle. Good timing because I was just getting into the biker chick persona and out of the coffee house babe phase.

I am writing above the pictures for the last few. So I was watching baby mama the other day, and while sitting in class... my class that is taught in italian.. I decided that I should morph some of my friends and their boyfriend/non boyfriend slash actual girlfriend to give them a preview of their future children.. Here are the results.. hilarious and hopefully not true, for all of our sakes anyway.

Willy and his girlfriend Kristy

Allison and Justin.... in my opinion the creepiest one

Me and Eric... for some reason whenever I did this with us it always had janked up teeth

Crazy rice by mister good. found only at the 1 euro store. actually you might be able to find it somewhere else. but the point is.. I ate it. Myth busted.. not so crazy.. special thanks to eric for always taking creepy skype pictures of me..

I have been trying to put up videos all the time for you all to watch, but they never upload because our internet is not fast enough.. so here is one, but its really not that exciting. I really want to upload the one of these two guys that were ballroom dancing together .. not drunk.. I will keep trying

miss you all

kind of anyway

shout out to all my TC majors: Don't worry I saw Ann and she made it here safetly

Mckshilling (haha thats a good one)