Ch-ch-ch-changes
Next week, my parents are packing up and moving back to Wisconsin. They are leaving their coach RV there with a dealer who will be selling it for them (we hope). They have bought a house in Janesville and they ought to be getting back there next Friday or Saturday. I know they have mixed feelings about this. They've loved traveling and being RVers, and of course they love being near my brother and his kids. But they hate where they live and the employment situation is dire, and they miss Wisconsin and want to be close to the family again (and me). My mom has a great job lined up in Janesville and my dad is going to get involved at their church, which is only a few blocks from their new house.
I'm excited to have them closer, where I can go up for the weekend if I feel like it and they can come to me much more easily. I'm sure they'll still want to travel, but it'll just be in a car this time! And my grandparents are very excited to have them back in town.
As for me, I'm getting more and more excited about my London trip. Six weeks to go! My passport should come in the mail in a week or two. I'm looking into some day trips. I looked up London Walks, the biggest outfit that does walking tours (they do the Ripper tour that I want to go on) and turns out they also do day trips. Convenient...I won't have to wonder how to get there or what to do once I'm there, there'll be guides. On the down side I kind of wanted to avoid being such an obvious tourist, but I guess that's sort of impossible. Right now I tentatively have planned to go on their day trip to Bath and the one to Oxford & the Cotswolds. Looks like my Paris overnight isn't happening so I've got a bit more time than I thought I would. Looking through my Lonely Planet London guidebook I'm sort of amused at how many column inches are dedicated to shopping. Wait...what? People travel so they can...shop? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS.
Although some bookstore-browsing and thrifting is definitely in the cards for me.
So in other news, there's not much other news. The zoo is fine. Soon we're going to start doing birth watch on the pregnant okapi (a really beautiful African sort of forest-horse looking thing related to the giraffe). The zoo staff watch her from 7 am to 7 pm but they need docents to help overnight. Basically you sit in the docent office and read a book and keep an eye on her on the CCTV in four-hour shifts. I figure if I take a few 3 a.m. - 7 a.m shifts I can just go right from there to work.
Last weekend Hank the Elephant put on quite a show, swimming in the pool, spraying water. One time he picked up a big branch from the yard with his trunk and started scratching his belly with it. SO PRESH. And baby elephant Beco is practicing his big-boy voice, trumpeting and bellowing, and watching him chase geese in his yard is still the cutest ever. This coming weekend I'm getting mentored in the African Forest region which means one thing: GORILLAS. There are other awesome animals in that region of course (bonobos, okapi, leopard, colobus monkeys) but the gorillas are the big draw.
So a walk with the club Saturday morning, zoo in the afternoon then zoo all day Sunday. Just another ordinary weekend Chez Lori.
I'm excited to have them closer, where I can go up for the weekend if I feel like it and they can come to me much more easily. I'm sure they'll still want to travel, but it'll just be in a car this time! And my grandparents are very excited to have them back in town.
As for me, I'm getting more and more excited about my London trip. Six weeks to go! My passport should come in the mail in a week or two. I'm looking into some day trips. I looked up London Walks, the biggest outfit that does walking tours (they do the Ripper tour that I want to go on) and turns out they also do day trips. Convenient...I won't have to wonder how to get there or what to do once I'm there, there'll be guides. On the down side I kind of wanted to avoid being such an obvious tourist, but I guess that's sort of impossible. Right now I tentatively have planned to go on their day trip to Bath and the one to Oxford & the Cotswolds. Looks like my Paris overnight isn't happening so I've got a bit more time than I thought I would. Looking through my Lonely Planet London guidebook I'm sort of amused at how many column inches are dedicated to shopping. Wait...what? People travel so they can...shop? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS.
Although some bookstore-browsing and thrifting is definitely in the cards for me.
So in other news, there's not much other news. The zoo is fine. Soon we're going to start doing birth watch on the pregnant okapi (a really beautiful African sort of forest-horse looking thing related to the giraffe). The zoo staff watch her from 7 am to 7 pm but they need docents to help overnight. Basically you sit in the docent office and read a book and keep an eye on her on the CCTV in four-hour shifts. I figure if I take a few 3 a.m. - 7 a.m shifts I can just go right from there to work.
Last weekend Hank the Elephant put on quite a show, swimming in the pool, spraying water. One time he picked up a big branch from the yard with his trunk and started scratching his belly with it. SO PRESH. And baby elephant Beco is practicing his big-boy voice, trumpeting and bellowing, and watching him chase geese in his yard is still the cutest ever. This coming weekend I'm getting mentored in the African Forest region which means one thing: GORILLAS. There are other awesome animals in that region of course (bonobos, okapi, leopard, colobus monkeys) but the gorillas are the big draw.
So a walk with the club Saturday morning, zoo in the afternoon then zoo all day Sunday. Just another ordinary weekend Chez Lori.