1) How the Homeless Might Spend Money: An article I meant to share with you earlier this week. One reporter gives out 5 gift cards to homeless people and asks for them back. [Freakonomics]
2) News of the Obvious: D.C. drivers are the nation’s worst. Wait, what does that mean about me?
3) Nailin’ Palin: An unflattering piece in Vanity Fair about the ex-governor emerges. Long, but worth the read. Could be worse for her, the author claims.
4) Apple’s Ping Struggles: Along with the launch of several new Apple products, the company unveiled its music social networking tool, Ping. Now the reviews are out. Not good for the company.
5) New Facebook Stalker Button: They aren’t calling it that, but the company has plans for a feature that lets you “subscribe” to a friend’s feed.
6) Epic Sports Fight: No, not the Washington Nationals/ Florida Marlins brawl. This sport is much more vicious. Tennis.
So we finish with the pigeons and prepare to find something for dinner. It’s about 7 now, and people are hungry. We leave out of the corner by the “Bar Americano” and prepare to walk back towards the Rialto. What I actually told the kids was that we would wander until we found a non-touristy restaurant and go there. That was the plan, but as you’ll soon see, it became problematic and terrifying for me.
Last photo before the drama begins
I think this will be an excellent time to chat with Sam’s sister. I haven’t really spoken with her before because I’ve been preoccupied with losing someone. Usually, especially as we walk in cities, I look back obsessively to make sure that the whole group is there. But, we get into deep conversation and I don’t do that. We eventually make it right by the Rialto (the huge bridge in Venice) and I even made some comment like, “how did we possibly end up here?” Right, so I turn around, and….
Where (half) of us ended up
Half the kids are gone. Not there. Vanished. I figure that maybe they’ve simply slowed down and will catch up with us. Five minutes later, nope. They are gone. Lost in Venice. We immediately begin to backtrack toward them. I tell the kids who made it to wait right there by the bridge while I go back to get the others. I’m still not really sure where they are. Then, I remember (thanks to one of the kids). I’ve collected everyone’s contact information that day on the train to give to everyone else once we get back to the USA. Nolan has his American phone on him and always on (some of his friends jokingly called him one night in a hotel and he answered). I call, and he answers.
My mind is immediately more at ease. They are in San Marco, following the separation plan to the letter. They were getting worried, but were relieved that I would be coming back. And I was relieved too. Unfortunately, Venice can still get me lost and it took me a bit longer than I wanted to find everyone. But I did everyone, and that was the important thing. We were reunited and a crisis was averted.
2) Bad News for the Chilean Miners: Some more than others. First, comes the news that the miners may not be paid during their ordeal (let’s hope someone steps in here). Then, no alcohol and cigarettes while they’re stuck. Finally, it may be a rough reunion for one of the men. His wife and his mistress are both waiting for him on the surface. One happy note: a marriage proposal was accepted by one woman.
4) Strange News From London: Apparently, Prime Minister Cameron (check out his new baby) takes the phrase “special friendship” to include Twitter as well. The PM’s official twitter account has been banned from following anyone else on the social networking site after becoming the third highest follower in the world. The government blames a bug that caused the profile to auto-follow people. Also, ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair almost ordered a plane shot down on 9/11. From his book:
A passenger jet had been out of contact for some time and was heading over London. I had the senior RAF commander authorised to get my decision. The fighter jet was airborne. For several anxious minutes we talked, trying desperately to get an instinct as to whether this was threat or mishap. The deadline came. I decided we should hold back.
5) Dangerous Sport: 18 people have died over the past ten days while mushroom hunting in Italy.
6) Epic Fight: With water balloons. Also, the music video for Kyle Andrews’ “You Always Make Me Smile.”
7) New York, New York: Two German producers give us this awesome short about the city.
We arrive in Venice after a 8-hour train ride through most of the country. It was a bittersweet moment for me when we passed through Ferrara, which is where I studied for the second half of my junior year. The stop in the train station was almost long enough for me to walk through the train station, but I decided against it.
Anyways, we arrived in Venice and immediately saw the other group! Woot! We walked to the hotel, dropped our things and set off exploring. It was also at this point that the sister of Sam joined us for the remaining two days of the trip. She was awesome; a great addition to our group. I entrusted Georgia and Kelly with the task of getting us to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s square). They did very well. Not direct, to be sure, but as good as I could do (more on that later).
So we arrive. It’s a beautiful square. I’ve been there so many times, and I find it stunning every single time. A slideshow of my many trips to Venice is below.
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Ironically, I think my first trip was the worst weather. Anyways, we walked into the piazza and the kids flocked to the pigeons right away. Lowell was deathly afraid of them and took up a water bottle to defend himself from them. Check out everyone else’s adventures with the little birds (I’ll upload pics in a subsequent post). We were having a tough time with getting the pigeons to come until I realized that I had some cookies in my bag. By the way, this is bad and against the rules.
The kids had an awesome time for about 15 minutes until one decided to poop on Amanda. That’s when everyone decided they had enough. She bought a sweatshirt and then the whole group formed a body shield so she could change shirts in the middle of the piazza. It worked. And we moved on.
The next part of this adventure comes tomorrow (and one of the most scary for me).
2) Whale…err…shark of a tale: This big fish was caught in the Potomac River yesterday. I’m not going swimming there. Well, I wouldn’t have anyways.
3) What if politicians actually asked citizens?: In this case, a reporter actually asks local citizens and real people about recent plans to change Social Security. No spin here. Politicians could learn something.
4) Back to School: If you’re a 5 to 15 year-old student in one Scottish school, you should bring your lunch money and iPad!
5) New Advertising Technique: Perhaps, you’ve heard about the recent plight of bees. Well, one company has an innovative solution to raise attention to the problem.
Not Intent on Arriving 