Miss Adventures

Dear friends,

I must apologize for the long delay in writing. But, I have been up to big things. First of all, I have been concentrating on my writing and my other blog Italofile.com. I am using Italofile as a way to explore the Italy travel landscape beyond the pages of my books The Unofficial Guide to Central Italy and Michelin’s Green Guide Tuscany. Indeed, Italofile covers all of Italy. So, please have a look.

We are still in Turkey and loving it. While Ankara may not be the most scintillating of cities, we have enjoyed traveling around to many exciting sites in Turkey: Istanbul, Kaş, Safranbolu, and numerous daytrips in Anatolia. Next up is a trip to Ephesus and Selçuk, which I hope to report back on when we return.

I’ve left MissAdventures.com fallow for such a long time that it will be hard to get up and running again. Bear with me. But hopefully having taken a break from this site for a while will have provided more ideas to grow.

One thing that I’d like to do is to take this blog into a slightly new direction: less about me and more about travel ideas to Turkey, India, or wherever I may be next! In other words, less about the “Miss” (or, now, “Mrs.”) and more about the Adventures. I’ve had fun and good feedback on Italofile, so I’d like to extend the creativity and expand the postings on MissAdventures as well.

Thanks a lot for your understanding and patience.

Cheers, Melanie

Hi there! Are you looking for Ms. Adventure, the website of the Animal Planet television show that launched in January 2007? Or are you looking for Miss Adventures, the on again-off again blog of freelance travel and food writer Melanie Mize Renzulli?

If it’s the latter…welcome! If not, check out Ms. Adventure here.

It’s unfortunate I didn’t know about the auditions for the Animal Planet show (heck…I was in India getting blessed by elephants, adopting stray cats, and running from cobrawallahs). But, I have no hard feelings. Hopefully, as more and more people watch the show they’ll stumble upon my site. It’s also kind of weird how I once worked for the Travel Channel (like Animal Planet, under the Discovery, Inc., umbrella). But again…no hard feelings!

I am going to start posting more frequently in the coming months, so, as they say on t.v., stay tuned.

Good news, everyone! As you may or may not know, in between voiceovers, observing India, and blogging, I’ve also maintained a pretty full freelance writing/editing schedule. The results of those long days and nights last fall have been two guidebooks on Italy that I am quite proud of.
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Fellow misplaced expat Karilyn hit the nail on the head with her recent comment. Indeed, I have come down with jaundice and I’m finally somewhat well enough to sit up straight and write about it.

Basically, I have succumbed to the second - yes, second - outbreak of jaundice in Bombay over the past three months. Hurrah! I can count myself among many of Bombay’s movers and shakers who also have the disease! My doctor believes it probably came from drinking ice. Apparently, none of the poorer people, or “servants,” as she called them, have contracted the disease - only the people who are able to go to nice clubs and let their guards down when ordering gin and tonics. Let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be ordering any of those again soon.
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Well, it looks like India has gotten the best of me and I’m going to be sick for the next few weeks. I hope to be back to the blog sooner than later. But time will tell.

So, take care and I’ll write soon.

…until I get out of this office and get on with my summer adventures.

I think they’re trying to make my last days miserable though. It doesn’t help that I’m in a half-cube sans file cabinet or real desk space. Now they’ve set aside a space beside me for a new contractor who is extremely creepy. Kind of a Norman Bates-type who talks to much.

I’ve been feeling bad lately, about the denoument of leaving this god forsaken job. I just feel bad about leaving the decent people with my work load. But I need to stop acting like a chump.
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Thanks (or no thanks) to my sister, I’ve wasted the better part of the morning figuring out what kind of dog I am. I’ve also started a chain reaction in my office, so I’m getting the occasional email that says, “I’m a Lhasa Apso!” How come there are so many of these games on the Internet? Are we all that distracted? I think it’s just a defense against the big pile of work crap that just got dumped in our laps on this lovely summer Thursday.

Neverthless, I have learned a few things about myself this morning. Apparently I’m a loyal companion and eager to please.

My Results, in case you care to know…
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LA LA LA!

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get online wirelessly for MONTHS now, and no one has been able to help. But today I gave it another shot. Not sure what I did. Well, for one thing, I removed my wireless connection from the “bridge” that it was on. Otherwise…I’m not quite sure.

So, after doing a quick writing assignment, I’ve been zooming around on the net for a couple of hours now. I am starting to feel like Chandler and Joey on Friends when they suddenly get porn for free and are afraid they’ll lose it if they turn the channel or turn off the t.v.

I don’t know what’s more embarrassing - admitting that I (once a certified Webmaster) have not been able to figure out WiFi or referencing a Friends episode.

Well, I can’t stay at Starschmucks forever. Time to take my bounty home from this morning’s Farmer’s Market. I’ll tell you later about the delilcious zucchini fritters I made this morning.

Oh, Saint Isadore of Seville, please bless me with WiFi access tomorrow and the rest of my days. Amen.

Kind of like Melvin in Office Space, I’ve been moved several times to different desks in my company. Today, I moved to my 5th desk within one year. No wonder I’ve had it with my day job…
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A quick run-down of who am I, what I like, where I’ve been, and where I’m going or would like to go…
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