It's complicated.
The travel plans are finally coming together...maybe? It was a complicated and annoying road to get this far, and there are still some rather unpredictable elements, but for now, I think...I think we've finally settled on dates.
Like I said, it's a complicated and annoying story. Yesterday morning, we had an email from the travel consultant with a new proposal for an itinerary. To recap, we're going with our friend Cecille, and Cecille wants to split off from us for a weekend to visit her friend in Germany. When we got the first proposal from the travel consultant, it had us arriving in Paris on the last Sunday in April. Problem is, Cecille's friend in Germany is going out of town early in May, which means if Cecille is going to see her friend, whom she never sees because she lives on the other side of the world, we need to have a full weekend in April. That, plus wanting to make Sundays rest days, is why we asked the travel consultant to change the itinerary.
The travel consultant is very accommodating and listened to our request completely. The new itinerary had us leaving on the first weekend in April. I know we told her the dates were super flexible, but that was quite a jump. Maybe we shouldn't have said "super" flexible. On further consideration, we realized that there's no concrete reason we couldn't do that anyway, except that technically we were supposed to meet up with Gaston and Alice in Japan in May, while the new itinerary has us leaving Japan on April 20.
Meanwhile, we're talking with Cecille about our options, because the drastic change in date had us freaking out, first because it was so sudden and second because of people expecting us in Japan and third because now we have to think about when we really want to make this trip and we don't know because so many people have so many different needs and what if some amazing life-changing thing (or like a really cool Miraculous event) is waiting for us in Paris but only on a specific date and we choose the wrong one aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
So we were stressing the heck out. As we talked to Cecille, we got the impression that she's really not interested in Paris so much as she wants to go to Germany. She has asked us more than once in all of this if we're interested in going to Germany with her, and every time we had to remind her that yes of course we'd like to see Germany but we kind of have obligations to go to Japan and time and money won't allow both. So that's when we started thinking maybe we should forget about Japan and go to Germany instead.
Of course there was the first concern that we were supposed to meet Gaston and Alice in Japan, but we didn't know if they were actually going to Japan. There was always a tentative element to that plan. In fact, we still don't know if they're actually going to Japan. They've been waiting on a thing, and they were supposed to know about it a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't hear anything, so we assumed it didn't happen and therefore they would not be joining us in Japan. That was never a problem, though, because Mom and Steve are still in Japan, and we'd be happy to just go and hang out with them. Go to Mom's apartment and watch Miraculous. That is some time well spent.
That being the case, Mom and Steve are expecting to see us in Japan May-ish, as we told Mom. And that's why we couldn't just cancel the Japan thing and go to Germany. But the whole thing was giving me a headache, so we called Mom to get her opinion on the whole thing, and, being the amazing mom that she is, she told us to do whatever makes us happy, adding that, if it were her, she'd go to Germany. Her point was that we've seen Japan. My rebuttal was that, "Yeah, that's how we know we like it there." And that's where the Beauty and the Beast ride is. ...Oh, my lovely Beauty and the Beast ride...
Anyway. Now we were faced with a Decision. Do we want to go to Germany, or do we want to go to Japan? And most important, when? That's when our brains broke and we decided to watch Miraculous and forget all about everything for a while. But it was The Final Day, so it didn't improve our mood.
And that brings us to today. As we were going out of our minds with stress, we got a text message from some church friends, inviting us to go to the temple with them. That sounded like just what we needed, so off we went. While we were there, I missed a phone call. From Gaston.
The good news is that, thanks to Gaston, we've probably got our dates and countries worked out. We're still waiting on Cecille, to see if she's okay with everything. There's not really any bad news; just news that makes us sigh or roll our eyes or laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
Gaston's father is going to some professional conference thing in Ireland in...ding ding ding! April! The second half of April, to be more specific. See, the thing is, and I may have mentioned this before, as soon as Gaston realized we were actually serious about going to Paris, he decided that sounded really cool, along with the fact that we would be circumnavigating the globe by going from California to Paris to Tokyo to California. And so he invited himself and his wife to join us. They're good friends and we really like them, so we're actually happy to have them along, but he seems to have a very specific (in its non-specificity) idea of how the France trip is going to go, and it doesn't really match with our idea of how it's going to go...
But anyway. Since his dad is going to be in Ireland, he's all, "That's great! Alice and I will go to Ireland, and then meet the Twins in Paris, drive all around the French countryside, and then fly off to Japan!" And since they want to go to Ireland for a week or so in April, starting in the second half, and for whatever reason Gaston needs to be back in the USA in the middle of May, that gives us a very specific timeframe of when this vacation needs to happen. The timeframe works well for us, because it means we will be in Paris (or France, anyway) on our birthday, which is the main thing we wanted.
It does not work well for Cecille, because it gives her pretty much no time in Germany, unless she flies into Germany some days earlier and meets us in Paris. She's still deciding if she wants to do that or not. Thankfully, she's being a very good sport about it all, and she won't hold it against us if she doesn't get to go to Germany, but oh my goodness, is it difficult to please people. And we don't like letting people down, even if they are good sports about it (but that does help; thanks, Cecille!).
So on the one hand, I'm relieved that important decisions have been made, but on the other hand, I am very, very tired. And we now have to write a thesis to the travel consultant, explaining why we have yet another drastic change in plans.
The short version is, it's looking like we'll be leaving for Paris just before the last weekend in April. Or maybe that Friday.
Today I'm thankful for a calming trip to the temple, having a pretty solid timeframe for our trip around the world, friends with strong opinions who help us make decisions, flexible friends who are willing to go with the flow, and the very soothing effects of the Miraculous Paris special.
Like I said, it's a complicated and annoying story. Yesterday morning, we had an email from the travel consultant with a new proposal for an itinerary. To recap, we're going with our friend Cecille, and Cecille wants to split off from us for a weekend to visit her friend in Germany. When we got the first proposal from the travel consultant, it had us arriving in Paris on the last Sunday in April. Problem is, Cecille's friend in Germany is going out of town early in May, which means if Cecille is going to see her friend, whom she never sees because she lives on the other side of the world, we need to have a full weekend in April. That, plus wanting to make Sundays rest days, is why we asked the travel consultant to change the itinerary.
The travel consultant is very accommodating and listened to our request completely. The new itinerary had us leaving on the first weekend in April. I know we told her the dates were super flexible, but that was quite a jump. Maybe we shouldn't have said "super" flexible. On further consideration, we realized that there's no concrete reason we couldn't do that anyway, except that technically we were supposed to meet up with Gaston and Alice in Japan in May, while the new itinerary has us leaving Japan on April 20.
Meanwhile, we're talking with Cecille about our options, because the drastic change in date had us freaking out, first because it was so sudden and second because of people expecting us in Japan and third because now we have to think about when we really want to make this trip and we don't know because so many people have so many different needs and what if some amazing life-changing thing (or like a really cool Miraculous event) is waiting for us in Paris but only on a specific date and we choose the wrong one aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
So we were stressing the heck out. As we talked to Cecille, we got the impression that she's really not interested in Paris so much as she wants to go to Germany. She has asked us more than once in all of this if we're interested in going to Germany with her, and every time we had to remind her that yes of course we'd like to see Germany but we kind of have obligations to go to Japan and time and money won't allow both. So that's when we started thinking maybe we should forget about Japan and go to Germany instead.
Of course there was the first concern that we were supposed to meet Gaston and Alice in Japan, but we didn't know if they were actually going to Japan. There was always a tentative element to that plan. In fact, we still don't know if they're actually going to Japan. They've been waiting on a thing, and they were supposed to know about it a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't hear anything, so we assumed it didn't happen and therefore they would not be joining us in Japan. That was never a problem, though, because Mom and Steve are still in Japan, and we'd be happy to just go and hang out with them. Go to Mom's apartment and watch Miraculous. That is some time well spent.
That being the case, Mom and Steve are expecting to see us in Japan May-ish, as we told Mom. And that's why we couldn't just cancel the Japan thing and go to Germany. But the whole thing was giving me a headache, so we called Mom to get her opinion on the whole thing, and, being the amazing mom that she is, she told us to do whatever makes us happy, adding that, if it were her, she'd go to Germany. Her point was that we've seen Japan. My rebuttal was that, "Yeah, that's how we know we like it there." And that's where the Beauty and the Beast ride is. ...Oh, my lovely Beauty and the Beast ride...
Anyway. Now we were faced with a Decision. Do we want to go to Germany, or do we want to go to Japan? And most important, when? That's when our brains broke and we decided to watch Miraculous and forget all about everything for a while. But it was The Final Day, so it didn't improve our mood.
And that brings us to today. As we were going out of our minds with stress, we got a text message from some church friends, inviting us to go to the temple with them. That sounded like just what we needed, so off we went. While we were there, I missed a phone call. From Gaston.
The good news is that, thanks to Gaston, we've probably got our dates and countries worked out. We're still waiting on Cecille, to see if she's okay with everything. There's not really any bad news; just news that makes us sigh or roll our eyes or laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
Gaston's father is going to some professional conference thing in Ireland in...ding ding ding! April! The second half of April, to be more specific. See, the thing is, and I may have mentioned this before, as soon as Gaston realized we were actually serious about going to Paris, he decided that sounded really cool, along with the fact that we would be circumnavigating the globe by going from California to Paris to Tokyo to California. And so he invited himself and his wife to join us. They're good friends and we really like them, so we're actually happy to have them along, but he seems to have a very specific (in its non-specificity) idea of how the France trip is going to go, and it doesn't really match with our idea of how it's going to go...
But anyway. Since his dad is going to be in Ireland, he's all, "That's great! Alice and I will go to Ireland, and then meet the Twins in Paris, drive all around the French countryside, and then fly off to Japan!" And since they want to go to Ireland for a week or so in April, starting in the second half, and for whatever reason Gaston needs to be back in the USA in the middle of May, that gives us a very specific timeframe of when this vacation needs to happen. The timeframe works well for us, because it means we will be in Paris (or France, anyway) on our birthday, which is the main thing we wanted.
It does not work well for Cecille, because it gives her pretty much no time in Germany, unless she flies into Germany some days earlier and meets us in Paris. She's still deciding if she wants to do that or not. Thankfully, she's being a very good sport about it all, and she won't hold it against us if she doesn't get to go to Germany, but oh my goodness, is it difficult to please people. And we don't like letting people down, even if they are good sports about it (but that does help; thanks, Cecille!).
So on the one hand, I'm relieved that important decisions have been made, but on the other hand, I am very, very tired. And we now have to write a thesis to the travel consultant, explaining why we have yet another drastic change in plans.
The short version is, it's looking like we'll be leaving for Paris just before the last weekend in April. Or maybe that Friday.
Today I'm thankful for a calming trip to the temple, having a pretty solid timeframe for our trip around the world, friends with strong opinions who help us make decisions, flexible friends who are willing to go with the flow, and the very soothing effects of the Miraculous Paris special.