hi all, greetings from padova italy!for those of you that remember, this is where i did my study abroad program 10 years ago. but ana, you look so young, i know i know! anyways, i entertain myself and we move on. first i want to say that i am safe and sound, but a little freaked out due to the attempted terrorist attack on the planes in london. i'm flying out of that very airport on those exact planes. they say that after these attempts, it's the safest time to fly, so please pray for allthe people flying and all the people that have been innocently killed because of politicians, power, and money. it all boils down to power right, however they try to masquerade it. so far a fun entry, right?

anyways, have been having a great time. last time i wrote i was in sardegna with rums, and then we spent a night in pisa and had to say goodbye. she's now home safe and sound. i impulsively took the train to cinque terre in liguria before coming here. these cinque terre and 5 mtn beach towns that are connected through a hiking path and train. needless to say i hiked and was huffing and puffing. this hike is no joke, but beautiful. luckily i got the stop and swim and eat good food along the way. i was by myself, but i've met lots of cool people along the way, including a woman who worked at vogue in milano and had all these stories about armani,etc, a countess, a gay brazilian guy who was so cool, 2 american girls from long beach traveling for the first time (ah, me, 10 years ago), etc. no problems at all. we even had an all street brazilian party that traveled to different piazzas. that was such a blast. of course everyone thinks i'm brazilian!

so, got to padova, my 3rd home. the place where i could say really became myself. you know, the one that evryone who is reading this loves, as it should be!:) modesty has never been one of my best qualities, but joking around has, so go with it. :) anyways, nice to see luca and his mom again. haven't even gone into padova, bc came to his work first to email and blog and read on internet.

anyways, more to come, but always with lots of love and some joles in the mix for fun!
ar.

hi all, greetings from padova italy!for those of you that remember, this is where i did my study abroad program 10 years ago. but ana, you look so young, i know i know! anyways, i entertain myself and we move on. first i want to say that i am safe and sound, but a little freaked out due to the attempted terrorist attack on the planes in london. i'm flying out of that very airport on those exact planes. they say that after these attempts, it's the safest time to fly, so please pray for allthe people flying and all the people that have been innocently killed because of politicians, power, and money. it all boils down to power right, however they try to masquerade it. so far a fun entry, right?

anyways, have been having a great time. last time i wrote i was in sardegna with rums, and then we spent a night in pisa and had to say goodbye. she's now home safe and sound. i impulsively took the train to cinque terre in liguria before coming here. these cinque terre and 5 mtn beach towns that are connected through a hiking path and train. needless to say i hiked and was huffing and puffing. this hike is no joke, but beautiful. luckily i got the stop and swim and eat good food along the way. i was by myself, but i've met lots of cool people along the way, including a woman who worked at vogue in milano and had all these stories about armani,etc, a countess, a gay brazilian guy who was so cool, 2 american girls from long beach traveling for the first time (ah, me, 10 years ago), etc. no problems at all. we even had an all street brazilian party that traveled to different piazzas. that was such a blast. of course everyone thinks i'm brazilian!

so, got to padova, my 3rd home. the place where i could say really became myself. you know, the one that evryone who is reading this loves, as it should be!:) modesty has never been one of my best qualities, but joking around has, so go with it. :) anyways, nice to see luca and his mom again. haven't even gone into padova, bc came to his work first to email and blog and read on internet.

anyways, more to come, but always with lots of love and some joles in the mix for fun!
ar.

saluti dell'italia! yes, greetings from italy in italian. i love italy!!! it feels so good to be in my 3rd home. like i mentioned earlier i'm with rums and now we are in sardinia (one of the big islands off southwest of mainland italy, no not sicily though). anyways, once again in paradise. have to say this may be one of the most beautiful beaches i have ever seen in my life! big statement, but i mean it. not just clear turquoise water, but cobalt blue and grottoes, and you just think it can be real, like a pool, but can't be real. amazing! however, the salt is so much, my eyes are burning. your body is full of salt you can see and even my hair looks like i spilled salt in it. never seen anything like it.

of course another adventure to get here with us being stranded in the airport for awhile and blah blah blah. well, life is good and sometimes there's irritating moments that later maek good stories. staying in this little apartment, just us. perfect. gotta go, but sending much much love.

un bacione(big kiss),
ana rosa

hi all, greetings from amsterdam! even better, with my wife rumin! hanging out in a cofee shop now trying not to fall asleep after the yummy indonesian food. so good! all about choices and variety, love it!

things ended nicely in paris thanks to my generous host, jenny (old roomie from boston) and her finance fabien. last couple of days went to my favorite museum in the world, musee d'orsay. we kept taking breaks and have gotten into the habit of 2nd lunch, as well as cocktail hour. oh, life is oh so hard! why me?:) hate me yet?:)

we went to giverny to monet's house and saw his beautiful gardens with lilly pond. amazing to be in the same place that inspired so many of my favorite works of art. i can stare at it forever, it just makes me happy.

not so happy things include feet are crazy swollen, walking around like crazy looking for chocolate bar that is closed for summer holidays, and waking up early for train trip. c'est la vie. got lots of pix that i'll try to post soon.

love to all,
ar.

hey all, greetings from boiling hot paris! wow, what a crazy heat wave! back to 2 showers a day like in dar. just like the first winter in europe, what no showers a day! ha ha all those who knew me when and still make fun of me will get a kick out of that one. didn't wash the hair though, let's not get crazy!:)

had a crazy last day in copenhagen. after days of grilling with friends of pernille, tour of copenhagen on boat, meeting back up with line, having a picnic in the park with annette, shopping at h & m (god bless it, when are they going to open one up in l.a.?), and waking up every day crazy late, breakfasts on the balcony, my last day ended with literally running to make it to the train, bc we just had to have these traditional danish cakes! they were damn good though! but once again, barely missing getting left by a mode of tranportation. yeah for me!

took a 15 hr train ride to paris and jenny (aka old roomate from grad school in boston) met me. we've been having a good time reminscing (did i spell that correctly?) and went off to do some of her wedding prep in the town where her in laws live. so now we have a city outside of paris called amiens with traditonal french meals of courses and courses and long live the cheese! we hung out there and did the sit out by the outdoor cafe and have a beer by the river and frankly i never get tired of how cute things are here. it's all about enjoying life. i'm all about that, thus i like it here!:)

we also did this floating garden thing in amiens, where we sat in a canoe and saw all these beautiful gardens. very sweet.

got back to paris and first stop was watching tour de france. pretty cool and got some video of that.

today we just chilled, did some yoga, and shopped and may have even bought something spicy...ooh la la!:)

that's the scoop, until next time....

greetings from denmark! yes, apparently greetings from....is gonna be my trademark on this blog. it makes me feel like a postcard! ha ha ha anyways, at aarhus, denmark. itøs the 2nd largest city in denmark, but what iøve seen so far looks like hansel and gretel. will this look at all like solvang, only time will tell...arrived yesterday and had to sleep in the airport for an hour bc my friend was late. no worries, i´m used to the homeless loook. good thing i had my kitenge (sort of sarong) i was using for pj/towel/now blanket. you know i love things that have multi uses!:)

day in london was cool. walked along the thames river to the national gallery and was a little disappoined bc 2 rooms of impressionism were closed, my favorite! still saw some good ones and will get a lot more in on this trip. plan on going to the van gough museum in amsterdam and the musee d´órsay in gay paris!

just looked out the window and itøs all trees like a forest! so nice and clean and technologically advanced! definetly not in dar anymore....still need to process that one....

so, we were going to the beach, but it was raining earlier, so maybe we,ll go the movies or something. haven,t been the movies in ages....love the movies!

take care,
me

greetings from london! what? london? yes, london:) i know the blog is called ar goes to africa, but ar went to africa and now ar is traveling around europe. just in london for the nite and off to denamark tomorrow. what does a girl do in london for a nite and 1/2 a day? for starters meet an old ukranian ex soccer player and some spanish girls. staying a youth hostel and yes i realize i'm also 32! ha! that being said, should i start going into how i almost didn't leave the country. literally was one of the last people on the plane. ok, i let my visa expire. my fault, take full responsibility for that one, but then blah blah blah tried to get it fixed on the holiday (saba saba-july 7th-saba means 7 in swahili-one of the few words i know-how many tangents was that?)anyhow, someone in my ngo knows someone in the airport and supposedly everything was all good, and what a surprise, it wasn't! oh god, it was all about the bribe, but bc i don't speak swahili i really had no idea what was going on. total nightmare, stomache completely in knots, but here and can't believe it's over. don't want to get to into it, bc i'm not ready, but needless to say it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to the kids and then telling me no auntie, no america! ay! be looking out for how to continue helping, bc this is just the beginning of me being a part of these kids future. lucky you, you get to be a part of it too! more of that once i get back home and settled. i'll still try to keep up with this, so be looking out for more adventures.

love,
me

hey all...still sandy from kipepeo beach, but thought i'd send a quick hello. i'll be taking the kids there on saturday, so i thought i'd check it out first. you know, take one for the team!:) it was beautiful, almost zanzibar, but not quite. i rode a camel! yes, you read that correctly, rode a camel! i was so cool and really scary actually. jerky movements and i screamed getting down. some people have said i've been known to be dramatic. who are these people?:)

i took the kids to the water park last week and they loved it and are still asking about it. yeah, it's not happening again, but they are excited about the beach. it takes 3-4 buses and a ferry, but they should get a chance to ride a camel too. i know they'll love it. i'm excited.

other news is that my friend got her phone stolen at a club on friday. good times. also, we went for traditional african dance, and got there to only see 2 songs. losers! oh well, another time, another place.

other than that, it stopped raining and things are good. my girlfriends are leaving tomorrow, so i'll be solo once more...luckily i have a lot of things to do this week. gotta print pix for kids, get money to program, thanks to all my gracious and generous friends and family:). it wil be put to very good use. the first thing will be for school fees for the older kids.

gotta run.

much love,
ar.