For Yay!

by Ruth
(The picture is me as a child. When we finished our dinner, an apparently monumental event, we would put our hands in the air and yell “for yay!”)

I can't believe we finished with finals close to two weeks ago. Initially, I was a little afraid of getting bored during the three weeks before we left for Thailand, so I made a long list of things I wanted to accomplish. So far I have marked off, let's see, one thing? How is that possible? I believe there are two problems involved. 1) A couple of the items I have been working on are multiple day endeavors. I am a to-do list kind of person. I should know better than to put them all under one item, with nothing to check off. 2) I keep remembering things not on the list. And yes, I would write them down to check off, but I'm running out of room on my paper. Looking back, I realize I should always laugh at myself whenever I think I will actually get bored.

One of the items on my to-do list is planning our trip, because after Thailand, we're going to Europe!! After two weeks in sunny Thailand, wearing sandals, eating yummy food from around the world, browsing through bookstores and (oh yeah) going to our conference, we are heading off to Europe.

First, we will spend a couple of days in Rome, then head up to Prague to visit my friend Jessie, who is teaching there. If you have a friend in Europe, it's really a travesty NOT to take the opportunity to go visit them, don't you think? That's what started us thinking about this whole trip. Added to that is the fact that we have an extra long holiday this year (because the last lunar year had an extra month, so the Spring Festival is later than normal. Therefore, we don't start back to school until March 6th!).

After spending a few days in Prague, we are going on a Mediterranean cruise! How many people want to have our lives right now, huh? Kevin found some surprisingly good deals on cruises (he's good at finding that kind of stuff online). We will leave from Barcelona, go back to Rome for one day, then on to Athens, Ephesus, Alexandria, and Malta. I think it's absolutely great that we'll get to see all those places without consciously traveling. I don't even have to figure out where we are going to stay and what we are going to eat and how to get around. It will be my first time on a cruise, as well as the first time for both of us to go to Europe. I think we're going to love it. For yay for us!