sentimentality? from me?

i'm not going to lie to you, cuppycakes... i don't really miss charleston. i DEFINITELY miss my family and friends. but charleston? not so much. however... today i find myself wishing i was back there. and now you may be asking 'well, if you don't like it there, why would you want to be there?' the answer can be found in today's date. IT'S THE FOURTH OF JULY! i don't care who you are... independence day is awesome. almost as near and dear to my heart as halloween. and considering my almost unnatural affinity for dressing up (and candy), that says a lot. and what's not to love? explosions, spending the day in your bathing suit, parties, hot dogs and hamburgers, watermelon, parties, laying by the pool or in the sand all day and then watching EXPLOSIONS all night. and to make matters worse i haven't even had a hamburger in nearly two months.
obviously american independence day isn't celebrated here... that wouldn't really make sense. so it's pretty much just any other sunday. plus i'm sick. and not feeling well always has a way of making you want to be at home, snuggled up in your own bed. but i digress... there were a lot of things i knew i would miss out on my being in italy for an entire summer, but for some reason it completely escaped me that this would be the first time in my life that i will not celebrate independence day. though that's not to say my day will be completely lacking in all forms of celebration-- my post is up on the OneTravel blog today! they spelled my name wrong,  but i don't really care because i've spent almost two months now being called everything BUT the way i've always said my own name. so go check it out! it's the first post on the main page, onetravel.wordpress.com
much love and a happy fourth to you all!

well, isn't this exciting?!

as many of you know, you can head over to onetravel.com in your search of Cheap Tickets to anywhere. but, what you may NOT know is that the company maintains a blog at onetravel.wordpress.com. this blog publishes company updates and also posts from guest bloggers about their travel experiences at destinations all over the world. right now on the main page there are posts about florida, singapore, london, spain, and a few other places as well. and this sunday, july 4th, my post, this is stromboli, will be there as well!

i've gotta say... that pretty much kicks ass. i've gotten some feedback from some of you saying that you liked my blog... but i expected my friends like it. it's for you guys. what i wasn't really sure of was if other people would like it too. and, since i was contacted by onetravel and asked to submit something, i'll take that as a sign that people outside of my friends are enjoying what i'm writing here. and that was just the sign i needed to go ahead with my new blog, the cuppycake lifestyle. i'm getting all of the technical stuff done with it now, so within a couple weeks it should be up and running with quite a few posts for you guys to check out.

so, my little cuppycakes, i really just want to thank you for coming over and reading, and i hope you guys like my new blog too!

lovelovelove,
linds

oh! and don't forgot to head over to the onetravel blog either on or after the 4th to check out my post!

papino

i know, i know… i got some splainin' to do. it's been a while since i've posted… but we all know my capacity to procrastinate is immense. and just thinking about everything i wanted to tell you about stromboli and all the writing and photo uploading that would entail was enough to TOTALLY put me off. but then i talked to my dad. it was the first time we've really talked since i've been here, so i was so excited. and he told me that he started checking my blog so immediately i started thinking "well i've got to post everything now so he can hear all about it!" (he's seen the pics on facebook already, so at least he knows a little bit). so, you can all leave nice thank you comments for my dad on this post :) also, in honor of my dad, here's what i got him for father's day! i was so proud of myself, i think it's all pretty perfect.

just so you know

this weekend i will be in stromboli... which means no internet. which means my day off will not be spent cranking out copious blog posts like i usually plan on... so you may be lacking in quality updates for a while.
and, in case you didn't know, stromboli is a beautiful volcanic island with black sand beaches... so you at least know you can count on some nice pics when i get back.
ciao cuppycakes!

the beginning.

my initial plan for this blog was to keep it as something to show my friends and family what i'm up to while i'm here in italy. as i got the project started i became more and more interested in blogging. recently i decided to use this blog to not only document my time here for friends and family, but as a way to connect with others in the au pair community too. in my curiosity as to what exactly was already out there in terms of blogs concerning the au pair world i came across kacy's blog. she later asked through my formspring widget about how i got started with this job, etc. i have been making a little mental list over the past few days of the posts that i would like to write to help integrate my position as an au pair into the blog, but for some reason the answers to kacy's questions were nowhere in that list. and what better place to start than the beginning? so, here it is:
i first became seriously interested in working as an au pair over a year ago when a good friend of mine went to spain for the summer as an au pair. with the drama of the proceeding year all thoughts of travelling abroad completely escaped me... until one day i saw a facebook update from my other friend, ayana, announcing that she would be spending a year in germany. she told me about the website that she used and i immediately signed up.
the site is called great au pair and it really is wonderful. it's easy to use and you can register for free. (however either you or the family must be a paid member in order to view each other's contact info). i created my profile about march 21st and i left home for italy on may 14th! everything has happened so fast that's it really is hard to believe that i've been here for more than two weeks already! it's also a little sad, because that means that i am already 1/6 through my stay here.  for those not interested in doing the math that means i will be here for three months. without a visa my stay here is limited to 90 days, and getting a visa seemed like a nearly impossible task. i had enough worry over getting a new copy of my passport!
though the time is going by quickly, i'm certainly grateful for what i've got while i've got it. i was very fortunate to find a great family. they have two girls who are ten and eight. they are really great people who are interested in showing me everything that i can see here and are always eager to include me in what they are doing.
over the next few days i'll be posting more about my daily life here, my recommendations for selecting a host family, being an au pair, and more. in the mean time feel free to submit any questions and comments! you can leave them here, in my formspring widget, or my e-mail. also, if you are an au pair it'd be great to here how you got started, where you are, etc!

bare with me.

just a quick update:
i recently discovered that flickr will only display my most recent 200 pictures... and since i took over 100 just in taormina the other day, i was definitely frustrated. i originally planned on just uploading all of my pictures to flickr and then giving everyone the link to my photo stream so all of my photos were available in one spot. however, as that isn't exactly going to work out, i'm in the process of trying to figure what will be the best way to share ALL of my pictures with everyone. i think i've got it, i just need a little more time. on top of the photo thing i'm also working on changing the blog a bit AND writing some new posts featuring tips and general insights for anyone who is or is thinking of becoming an au pair. so one i begin posting again i should be coming back with quite a few new posts.
i'm also trying to dedicate more of my time to studying italian- which means about two hours a day that i won't be spending working on this... AND i'm trying to work some exercise into my daily routine. and also just generally spend less time on the internet...
anyway, here's a picture from my quick trip into taormina while you wait. let me tell you, i was there for three hours and the entire time i had to keep reminding myself i was in a real place, not on some movie set.

update: my current solution to the flickr foto fiasco is my new photo links page. we'll see how this goes. feedback would be greatly appreciated!

cuppycake polish.

just a quick update: you may notice that i have removed my twitter feed from the sidebar. if you follow my tweets or are my facebook friend you may have seen me posting about my low twibido...
back home i generally only used twitter from my phone. here in italy i have disabled data roaming on my phone because it is something like $19.95 per megabyte received (CRAZY!)... which means i cannot access twitter on my dear, sweet iphone. so i will probably not be tweeting at all over the summer... rending that particular widget totally useless for my page.
and, if you are perceptive enough to have notice the disappearance of my twitter widget, you have probably noticed its replacement, mr. formspring widget. formspring widget, meet cuppycake followers. followers, meet formspring widget. feel free to use mr. formspring widget to ask me anything, blog-related or not (though i would prefer them to be related to the blog/my experience here in messina). but, in the end, the choice is yours. i will check my formspring.me inbox daily and i hope to get some great questions from you all.
ciao!