Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  2013 really flew by (I only just started remembering to write the date correctly!).  I'm ringing in 2014 in my hometown this year, which is freezing right now, so we stayed in with friends, and watched the little fireworks show at midnight from the window.  I was thinking about how, in 2013, I saw the most amazing fireworks show of my life during the trip to Venice last summer, and I looked through some of the photos this morning.  The one weekend we happened to go there was the one weekend of the year they have this HUGE night of fireworks, where thousands and thousands of people crowd on to one side of the island, and they have an elaborate show timed out, with 3 different boats shooting off fireworks from the water for a full hour.  At the end people cheer or boo, and the success of the show is discussed for the next week.  The whole show was like a constant finale, it was so elaborate.  There were shapes and colors that I had never even seen before!  My favorite kind are the large, arching golden ones, which are so majestic, and they shot off a ton of them at once, seemingly filling the sky.

Wishing everyone a joyous beginning to the New Year! Any resolutions? Goodbye 2013 - You were a great year!  :)

~xomo

Venice

Narrow streets, boats galore, tons of pizza and little sandwiches...starting to look through photos from our Venice weekend! Here are a few to start :)

Lately on Instagram

AIMS is really flying by, and I haven't posted that many photos partly because it has been busy, and mostly because I'm using photos from Will's camera on this trip, and my computer has trouble processing them without overheating because the files are so large.  (My computer has a problem with overheating anyway, but it's been really bad lately.  I bought it refurbished and it's fine except apparently this particular model had trouble with that issue.  Ahhhh.)  Anyway, my own camera is currently out of commission, so I signed up for Instagram before coming over to Austria.  Here are some recent photos!  The schedule for the orchestra at AIMS allows us to travel on weekends if we want, and I've taken trips to Venice, Croatia, and hiking in the Alps.  Everything has been stunning and wonderful - I'm really looking forward to getting this picture situation sorted out.  Also, we're currently having a heat wave here, and gelato consumption is going way up.  The ice cream here is outrageously good, which is not surprising, just delicious.  So far I've tried melon, blueberry, apricot, peach, plum, orange yogurt, cherry yogurt, ricotta blueberry, mango, mango cream, grape, lime, prosecco raspberry, pistachio, chocolate, hazelnut, and coffee.  Ahem!  I often share it with other people... :)