Erin McElvaney

So my sister and Nam got married today in Annapolis. 

 Pretty nice place for a courthouse.. Don't worry, the reception isn't until October.  I put some pictures up ;)

So now I have a brother in law.  Congratulations SistAr and Nam :)

Thanks to my sister, who somehow came across a respository of embarassing poems, articles and plays written by me for recreation or school assignments, I have the ability to share with you today, my 1995 foresight into the world of computers.

Behold:
Computers--FRIEND or FOE?!?!

hey im in nice and i cant type on this keyboard but its so beautiful here

we spent tthe day on the beach and yesterday we shopped and went to a couple bars

i miss the hostel life but it is nice to have a good hotel: its really pretty and clean

tommorrow we take another night train; to pau to stay w nates relatives

we had a great time in paris and met up with genevieve and her friend elana:  we did so much in four days it was amazing:  here we rest though:

its so good

i am definately coming back again

au revoir

I'm here in Paris!  It's beautiful.  I'm having a wonderful time.  Nate and I had some bad fortune with our place in new york, we thought we had free parking but apparently were misinformed and also somehow in a real bad neighborhood and we got lost getting there and the room was dirty but we argued w/ a manager to get free parking and finally won.  yay.  Anyway we flew out wed from jfk at 6 pm (delayed, an hr but whatever) we had been switched to a better flight so we were direct on american airlines instead of indirect through madrid on iberia.  We got in 6 hrs earlier than we were originally! yay for overbooked planes

our meal wasnt bad and we got a croissant for breakfast, too, because we arrived at 9 am paris time.  It was adventure at the airport with baggage trying to find a phone card, and buy it, and figure out how to use the pay phones, and call hostels looking for an open room.  Eventually we ended up at 'le village hostel' in montmartre area a little north of downtown  paris, but right next to the beautiful sacre-coeur.  We went to that our first day.  Some how we stayed up for like 20 hours, since we hardly slept on the plane at all, and then it was morning.  We spent the whole day walking and such.  I tried a lemon sugar crepe and we tried the coffee.  Great tasting but soo expensive here.  I got a coke today, and was handed a glass bottle coke--pimp but cost $3.50 euro--more like 4.25 us dollars!!  The bread is cheap and the hostel gives us free breakfast--bread w/ jam, oj and coffee.  Still, it's free!  We're staying in a 6 person dorm type room and its fine.  Earplugs + eye mask = :).  I slept a good 7 hs last night.  Last night we sat on the steps of the sacre-coeur with many other people, and some new friends at the hostel, drank wine ($2 for a bottle of red
!!!) and beers and watched the sun set over the city of paris--you can see it all from there bc it is the highest point of the city. 

Today nate and I took a metro downtown and walked all around the seine.  We saw the cathedrale Notre Dame, many gardens, then went to the Louvre for a few hours to see some sculptures and paintings.  THEY ARE HUGE!! We got sandwiches at a stand--I tried a 'tomate et chevre panini'  If you dont know what that is, its a tomato and goat cheese panini.  It was good, but goat cheese def. has a different taste than mozzerella.  :)  We also got some ice cream (really good kind, more like a sorbet).  There is so much gold in the city, around this one plaza.  I can't remember the names of anything right now bc im so worn from walking for 7 hrs today.  it was beautiful weather.  We dont have ac and last night was cool enough in the room, thankfully!  yesterday was very hot though. 

Our hostel is clean and very nice location, so we're happy.  Tomorrow we'll try to get a reservation for an overnight train to Nice on sunday night.  We'll be in nice for two nights (mon and tues) before heading to pau to stay with some family of Nate's.  I can't wait.  I packed perfectly, so far.  Anyway, I gotta go.  internet is 1 euro per 10 min here, and I've already spent 3 euro.  Somehow it's hard to get emails typed and such in a short type period!  internet = time flies.  Long distance internationally is very expensive too.  I'm glad I know some french because it's really come in handy in a few places (smaller places, usu) and food places so far.  It's been so much fun!  Until next time (whenever that might be...)!

au revoir:)

Hey all!  We graduated!!  The end of school was really easy.  Imagine that...

I've been partying my ass off, too, and it's been so much fun!  I put up some pictures of Graduation.  Graduation was long and boring as expected.  The speakers weren't too impressive in my opinion, but then again I guess a Xerox corp president just can't compare to John Stewart from the Daily Show when it comes to commencement speeches!

After the ceremony I went to the Melting pot for dinner w/ my parents.  MMM.  SOO Good.

Last Saturday I had a graduation party and it was a blast!  We had a DJ and some catered food and lots of goofy dancing for sure!  Billy Zee never lets the party die.

Matt was in town, and we got to go to the beach for a few days too.  We had some good beach weather and some more delicious crabs (the usual!).   I introduced him to Maryland-style snowballs at 'the snowball stand' on old frederick road.  They have snowball flavors like 'snickers' which has caramel, chocolate, and peanut butter chips in it!

I went back to the beach with jessie and michelle soon thereafter for a couple of days and had another good beach day and some nights out, which was a lot of fuN :)

Yesterday was the much-awaited Cicada Party!!  Chop did an excellent job on this. There were chocolate covered cicadas (my favorite), old bay cicadas (crunchy and nicely flavored but squishy on the inside), and "el chirpo" cicada tacos.  

Some sickos actually ate LIVE cicadas, and there was a live cicada eating contest!  Mom wants to know if we think we're all on fear factor.  Yeah, I guess we do.

As you ate the cicadas, you could sign your name on the cicada board with the kinds you ate.  At this point I'd completed the cicada quadruple crown.  Kim was about to eat a live one herself.  Looks like Uncle Jim at 2 old bays. And steve had "ONE LIVE JUICY ONE"...

Anyway, I best be off.  I have a lot of errands to run and things to do, like trying to pack 2 weeks of clothes and stuff for my europe trip into a small suitcase!  I'm leaving Wed early morning for my france and spain 2 week adventure!! We're starting in Paris for 4 nights, then heading to Nice, which is on the mediterranean beach, for 2 nights, Pau in southern France near the Pyrannees for 2 nights, Barcelona for 2 nights, and Madrid for another 3 before we fly back home.  Wish us luck getting to the JFK airport on time!

Peace out everyone ;)

See a live cicada eating contest on video!

See Pat eat "el chirpo" cicada taco meat!