hey everybody, still alive!
i don't have much time, but i'll do a quick summary of my weekend.

went to venice on saturday for the first day of carnevale, which was amaaaazing. there were tons of people, half of which were in really elaborate costumes and masks. little kids were in all sorts of costumes, including princesses and tiggers and lots of dalmatians, and the kids are all given confetti to throw everywhere. the cafes and pastry shops had the most amazing selection of foods i've ever seen. there were clowns and people on stilts in piazza san marco and lots of awesome street performers. i had dinner at a ridiculously small restaurant with three tables and the tiny kitchen right there behind a low wall, but the food was unbelievable. i had lasagne with pesto, which is a combination i never dreamed of but highly approve of. i went to an open-air bar that was playing really awesome techno, and although my ears rang for about an hour afterwards it was really fun. i wandered around the shops looking at murano glass and got a little lost, so i ended up sprinting across most of venice to catch my train. i literally caught it by seconds, which was lucky because the next one wouldn't have got me home until 3 in the morning. running through venice in the dark during carnevale is exhilarating. i didn't really appreciate it at the time, but that was awesome.

internet's about to expire, so that's all for now!