Setting Off

The last year without a doubt has been brutal. It's worn me down further than anything before, but now the end really is in sight.

On Valentines Day Eve we did something fairly insane.
We booked tickets, leaving for Frankfurt on Apr 20, and returning from London on May 26. Not bad for transversing half the world I suppose.

Despite the fact that departure is 2 months away, I'm almost ready to scream with excitement. I'm finally going to get to backpack Europe. I'll finally make that tour through country I've only seen in movies, the stuff that serves as the backdrop to fairy tales and Fantasy. I'll be hiking in the Alps, skiing in the spring and drinking until I can't hold anymore.

I remember the rushing vacuum that filled my space after I graduated math. Of course I had jobs lined up within the depths of the government and I could have done well enough, but disappointment hung in the air from having done something that lacked my passion. Yet, that paled in comparison to the disappointment I distinctly recall of no grad trip.

Yaaaa! I'm finished! Thank you Mr. Chancellor for my Degree! Poof!!
That was it. Everyone went off to grad schools elsewhere immediately and none of my other good friends were yet finished school. I didn't have an exit sequence.

Now, I've finished something I love... or perhaps the ERTW brainwashing has finally taken hold. Either way, everything I've ever wanted (in modern times) is finally falling into place.

So with tickets bought, I've splurged on the lonely Planet guide of Western Europe. At the top of the list as Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Greece.

Now where else, what else, and how much :)

Ah well.
This will all really have to take a back seat for a week.
I'm going to San Francisco next weekend, and the finally plan for indulgence still needs to be hammered out.

hmmm: beach, aquarium, run the golden gate bridge, get hammed at fisherman's wharf, dance with my girlfriend in as many places as I can, and perhaps, If I get the balls.... surfing.

just got a fleeting thought.... where was I last term at week 5? :)