The best-laid plans

I officially have a departure date: June 25th, 2010.

I will be flying out of the Vancouver, BC, airport to London Gatwick. Then I'll be on my own (for the most part) in Great Britain for about two and a half weeks, until I fly back to Frankfurt and meet my mother and her friend Janna. We'll travel together for about three weeks, then I'm on my own again until I meet the other Fulbrighters in Frankfurt (again) for orientation.

Whew. It's both a shock and a relief to have a real, solid date. It also feels strange to have a plane ticket to Europe when it's (1) not even to the country I'm going to be living in and (2) I don't even know where exactly I'm going to be. It also leads, occasionally, to some pretty hefty reality overload.

A reality overload is a charming consequence of the fact that my mind tends to ignore unpleasant things. I rather suspect it is just human nature to want to avoid thinking about things that make us upset, nervous, guilty, sad, or angry, so we just push them under the surface and go whistling on our way about our lives. This is how I generally deal with anything that I don't want to handle, like, say, my as-yet-incomplete senior project writeup. (Oh dear.) Anyway, I was in a shop with a friend last Friday, and as we were perusing the merchandise, my brain happily engaged elsewhere and unawares, reality decided to smack me in the face. All in an instant, the sudden and unavoidable realization that I am flying, at this point blindly, to the other side of the world where I know almost no one and don't speak the language fluently, with no plan, all on my own, deluged my mind. It's a pure shot of perspective--heady stuff. I had to step outside and remember how to breathe while the waters receded, and as I write this I'm back to blissfully ignoring the future.

In any case, I can't help but be excited for the next month of my life. First of all, three friends and I are taking a week-long road trip down the West Coast states, first to Portland, then to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (we're seeing Twelfth Night), then on to San Francisco, where I may get to meet a friend from my days in Marburg. Then we retrace our steps: back to Ashland for more Shakespeare, Hamlet this time, back through Portland and home to Washington. Immediately after, we'll move out of our house in Bellingham, leaving Serenity House forever.

I'll be home for only five days before I'm scheduled to depart for London. Of course, this is making me a little bit nervous: that unpronounceable volcano is apparently still at it. I really hope it cuts it out before I'm flying over, because having that flight canceled would really suck.

The main issue I have to resolve now in terms of planning is where to go after Mom and Janna return to America. I'll have about a month complete between their departure and my required arrival in Frankfurt for the orientation; four whole weeks of freedom to go anywhere. The problem is: where? Where do I want to go in August? It's the height of the summer and of the tourist season, so I've got to consider that. I'm considering either the northern European countries (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, etc) or the eastern part of Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, etc). I'd really like to do the Mediterranean countries that I haven't seen, which is most of them, especially Croatia, Albania, Greece, Spain, and Portugal, but I'm not sure that that won't be suicidal in the heat.

Anyway, I've still got a while to figure that one out. In the meantime, there're other things to be happy about: God and volcano willing, I should be in Britain for the series finale of Doctor Who, and I've entered my name on the reserve list for tickets to see Top Gear filming. A bit obsessive, perhaps? Well, yes. But just a bit. I'm quite proud of my geekiness. :)