Getting geared up

So much planning going on, so many reservations to make, so many tickets to buy… I’m so excited!!!!

Paul arrives exactly one week from today - in fact, if all goes well, at this time next week we’ll be on the train back to Laon from Paris.  I find it hard to say exactly how excited I am to see one of my best friends without resorting to teenagerish masses of exclamation points, italics, astericks, etc.  Even though I don’t really have a lot to offer in the area of Laon - walks around the ramparts, a day trip to Reims, lots and lots of movies - it will just be so wonderful to see someone with whom I am completely comfortable and with whom I can act utterly weird and he won’t judge me.  I can speak English at full speed, I can show off my French (after all, he won’t know if I’m messing up, unless the person with whom I’m speaking bursts out laughing.  And that’s happening less and less frequently - I think that I’m down to about two hilarious outbursts per day.  ::grin::)

Then, when Paul leaves two weeks hence, I’ll barely have any time to be sad before I dash off to Venice, Prague and Oxford.  I have my hostel rooms for all but my first night in Venice - the last night of Carnivale, of course - and I finally have my transportation between Venice and Prague.  I’ve just reserved a room in Prague (8€ a night!) for the time that I’m there, and am starting to get together maps and things.  I’m also excited because, in addition to seeing my friend Amber in Oxford, I will probably get to see an old friend, Tim Cascone, who is now living in England and who said that he’d probably be able to pop down to Oxford to hang out for a bit. 

So, chances are, what with everything that’s going on in the next few weeks, you’re probably not going to hear that much on this page.  I’ll try to update now and again, to let y’all know that I’m alive, but there probably won’t be anything lengthy.  (Was that a collective sigh of relief that I just heard?) Take care, all!