this spring
In mid-May, I'll be going to Europe. Sadly not to Italy or Rome or England, but still to very interesting places, certainly ones more interesting than sticking around here. I'll be taking in Vienna, going to Slovakia, then driving across Austria and Germany to the Netherlands.
The trip is primarily about visiting family in Slovakia and the Netherlands, more in the former country, seeing that a good portion of a Sloavkian village is somehow related to me. It'll be a treat to have my last name pronounced properly, not to mention finding other people with that same last name. And the food is definitely a treat - home cooked, fresh, and probably dripping with lard, but as long as I don't see the lard, I won't know, will I? :P In the Netherlands, there isn't much family - a few of my mother's cousins - but Mum was born there, and there's lots of cultural-esque things to take in. Museums, castles, cafes, markets, Roman ruins... It'll be an adventure.
Though I am going with my parents, but I've gotten to choose most of the non-family related places we're going to, and the parents are handy because they speak their respective first-languages, while I can only manage an idiotically bad French. I haven't been for eight years, and when you're fifteen, things look different, and you don't take things in the same way. The volcano in Iceland is a little worrying at the moment, but as there's still a month before we go, hopefully the flight issue will be improved? gone? by then.
Internet access for that month will be... uncertain. Either I'll be too busy, or as will be the case in this distant Slovakian village, non-existent. But I plan to post photos and random stuff on here. Also to keep up with my stories, when possible.
As to my mood, I'm not anxious about the trip, but about my grad school applications. I've gotten three rejections for PhD so far and still have three outstanding (I must be on waiting lists for these). It's driving me mad with worry.
The trip is primarily about visiting family in Slovakia and the Netherlands, more in the former country, seeing that a good portion of a Sloavkian village is somehow related to me. It'll be a treat to have my last name pronounced properly, not to mention finding other people with that same last name. And the food is definitely a treat - home cooked, fresh, and probably dripping with lard, but as long as I don't see the lard, I won't know, will I? :P In the Netherlands, there isn't much family - a few of my mother's cousins - but Mum was born there, and there's lots of cultural-esque things to take in. Museums, castles, cafes, markets, Roman ruins... It'll be an adventure.
Though I am going with my parents, but I've gotten to choose most of the non-family related places we're going to, and the parents are handy because they speak their respective first-languages, while I can only manage an idiotically bad French. I haven't been for eight years, and when you're fifteen, things look different, and you don't take things in the same way. The volcano in Iceland is a little worrying at the moment, but as there's still a month before we go, hopefully the flight issue will be improved? gone? by then.
Internet access for that month will be... uncertain. Either I'll be too busy, or as will be the case in this distant Slovakian village, non-existent. But I plan to post photos and random stuff on here. Also to keep up with my stories, when possible.
As to my mood, I'm not anxious about the trip, but about my grad school applications. I've gotten three rejections for PhD so far and still have three outstanding (I must be on waiting lists for these). It's driving me mad with worry.