I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!!

Why the funny title you ask? As Jess said our Fortnight (Central) Eurotrip is too massive to tell or write down in one sitting, so you'll have to hear anecdotes as they come up. Our last night in Istria and Croatia, we went to eat at Hotel Valsabbion, what our Fodor's Croatia/Slovenia travel guide called: "the best restaurant in Istria, if not all of Croatia." First finding it: I drove madly up and down the coastal road in our Renault Twingo, vainly looking for our beloved Valsabbion. We even found their competitor that was "right up the road" but no Valsabbion. Finally I noticed on the directions the town was split into roman numeraled districts and then we worked our way to Valsabbion and found it had been that extremely glitzy 5-star place that had a VIP carpet to the curb for their diners' fancy luxury and sports cars!...as we drive up in our budget rental Renault Twingo... As we park and walk up, we see there is a microscopic placard on the wall announcing that this indeed is Valsabbion. We enter and we are stunned by its grace and elegance: by God, this is the best restaurant in all of Croatia! We were confused/humbled by the menu and by the fact our unsophisticated minds could not decipher how the menu was supposed to be read and which items were appetizers and which were entrees. Also we felt woefully under dressed in our blue jeans, but then a man came and sat at the table next to us, wearing a black t-shirt with "Stoned to the Bone" written across it and the picture of an x-rayed skeleton smoking a joint. We felt much better after seeing this.

Ah yes I ramble: so what does this have to do with the title of the post?!? Well, they had a mix CD which was fine; the only problem was it lasted 20 minutes and was playing on repeat. It had the Bee Gees, Celine Delon, some unknown Italian Tenor, and, of course my favorite, Disco Inferno by The Trammps!!! I was so enthused that the song was playing, (and playing every 20 minutes at that!) that I started to sing along to my favorite line every time: I COULDN'T GET ENOUGH!!! (lyrics) I think Jess had it about up to here and was ready to kill me/had to grab at me in order to stop singing. I was sad when they changed the mix CD towards the end of our dinner. Yes that is why the 20 minute song rotation was so killer: Valsabbion is one of the leaders in the restaurant industry's return to "slow food" so that meant our dinner went on for over 3 hours (you calculate that and the mix CD in your head...) My liking of some disco songs I think is one of my dirty little pleasures, but I know why I have a soft spot for such a secret enjoyment: killer bass parts. Wondering what I mean? Type in "insert song bassline" into youtube of a disco song and you'll see what I mean. So back to Valsabbion. How was it? Exquisite. Great wine, great food, samplers, everything. Check out Jess's album for photos.

Yes my day has sort of been productive: I got back upstairs from doing laundry and thought: hey blog time! I was inspired because of a realization about laundry while I was doing it--wait, did I tell this story already?. I repeat stuff...a lot, in case you haven't noticed this from all the time you've known me. Here's a great example. We went to a sushi place by Jess's hall near Burrough Market for her 21st birthday (even though it wasn't, just so we could find an excuse to celebrate it over here). So I order miso soup to start, as usual(I'm also very predictable). When it comes there is no spoon, I go "urrrrrhhh?" look for a spoon, turn and ask Jess what to do, and then think aloud should I use my chopsticks. Jess laughs because last time a few months ago when we were at the sushi place, I had the EXACT same reaction and response, even down to the motions and phraseology. Creepy.

Anyway, so back to laundry. The machines suck: they cost too much, you always need change, and there is no GOCard. I stick it to the administration by using their staff dryers for free: that way my clothes get dried in 35 minutes for free instead of me wasting pounds and taking hours to dry the stuff in the regular crappy dryers. Also for a dorm with 13 stories (they named the first floor M so they wouldn't have to number an unlucky 13th floor) they only have 6 washers and 6 dryers. Lame. But there is an upside. There seems to be a zen-like relaxing quality to doing laundry and folding clothes while listening to music on headphones, like Jan Garbarek. Really relaxing time indeed, so much so I can write this post despite life going by me.

My ML summer job is not looking good; I need to play hardball as last ditch effort to get them to accept me even though I don't want to pay $1000 per credit earned and take courses I have no time for. I might work for old latin teacher in his new language teaching company. That could be a cool job; plus I get to work with him again. I remember the first time I saw him, I thought it was a complete jackass, but he ended up being one of my favorite teachers ever. And he grew a beard too haha!

Yes revision is...not coming along, but at least I am going to the 'metrics lectures. Also it's really starting to get warm here...uncomfortably warm. I hope we get some cooler weather before I leave in June or else I am going to lose it. Also we still need to shrug off inertia and do stuff before we leave. For example, JP and I came up with the great idea to see Iron Man. The not so great part of that idea: we forgot to invite Jess and Stefan. So I bring it up with Jess and as soon as I open my mouth, I realize the debacle that has transpired. So Jess says something to the effect of "Oh I wouldn't like to have seen it, I only am just a huge fan of Marvel comic characters, you fucking asshole!" We're still trying to rectify this one. Also there was the suggestion for a trip to Normandy to make it up to someone who got screwed over by someone else (names withheld to protect us) However, I have a few reservations because this will be in my week between two different final days. Plus I had been thinking of going to Istanbul...