Category Archives: planning

Planning A Trip

I have been talking about going to Paris and London for a few weeks over the summer, but now I am planning it. It is actually happening, and I am days away from booking things. I figure once I am done teaching summer school I will have a few weeks before Fall semester, and the insanity of holding down two jobs, going to grad school, and my own life, so this may be my last chance for a while to go back. If I had a little over two weeks I would throw Amsterdam in there as well, but really two weeks is just enough to have a hectic yet relaxing trip in two countries. And since the last time I have gone the TGV has improved significantly, which should facilitate travel a bit.

I am currently a little too excited, so I am simply looking at flights and hotels because I know myself well enough to know I will totally overbook everything if I start. I figured I can fly into Charles de Gaulle, spend the week, take the TGV to London, spend another five days, and fly out of Heathrow.

I haven’t done international flying in so many years I am a little confused about the ticket buying process. Last time I did it I went through a travel agent, and she basically did everything for me. Also, I didn’t have an itinerary, so I kind of just landed and found the hotel and everything while there, wandering around. Maybe it has to do with my age, but now that just seems so haphazard. The idea of landing in a foreign country with no planning is all of a sudden terrifying, despite that I have done it a dozen times. A few months ago when I went to San Francisco and then later to Portland I had everything pedantically planned out weeks in advance. So you can imagine I am not about to fly to Paris on a whim. When did this happen to me? I used to drive cross state, or even half way across the country due to vague inclination, and now I am all of a sudden neurotic about everything. I need to plan the flight, hotel, distance. When did I become this person?

Well, I may have gotten more responsible (if that is how you want to look at it), but that won’t stop me from having an amazing trip. In the meantime I will be off finding an online algorithmic calculator that can project the exchange rate eight months from now.

 

Planning Ahead

I will be going to a conference in a few weeks. I don’t have time right now to do anything about it since there are so many other things going on in the next week/weekend, but I do need to start planning.

I have my paper written, but it could probably use some editing. Then there is the actual itinerary. I will be in Portland for four days, but only going to the conference for two of those days. I need to see about the car rental, and find out when my plane lands, and figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. I scheduled it all several months ago, and have now forgotten everything.

However, I was looking at the conference schedule, and on one of the days I was excited to find that there is an entire panel dedicated to Romanian literature. I am not very familiar with the authors being discussed, but I have heard of them, and am quite curious to see how they will be presented and have been studied in academia.

There are actually numerous panels I would like to see so I need to sort all of that out as well.

Then I have to figure out where the giant bookstore is, because that is pretty much what I have planned for all of Saturday with maybe a quick lunch break.

As you can tell, I am very excited. But I do wish this could have been in November instead.

New Place

I have an apartment! Granted I initially (naively) thought I would have moved by now, not realizing how much more complicated a move would be than in the past. A lot of different things had to happen, that I have been feverishly working on. When I first started my search I had found several places I would have gladly moved into, but unfortunately I was not in the position to do that yet. Today I signed the contract.

I took pictures, but for my own reference. I have seen so many apartments I was afraid I would forget what this one looked like before I made it to the end of the block. There are still people living there until the end of the month, so I feel weird posting pictures of someone else’s apartment with all of their stuff.

I also inadvertently saved them a lot of money. The woman painted some of the walls in accent colors, and now they were going to lose their deposit for it. I said it was sad to hear that, and asked if the management could perhaps not repaint the place since it is in good condition, and I really like the colors. Turns out since I requested that, they get their deposit back, the management doesn’t have to paint, and I get pretty walls. Everyone wins!

I will be moving shortly before midterms, and then the following week I will be going to Portland for five days for my conference, giving me very little time to get settled in. Between taking care of my kids, going to work, grading, putting things away, going out of town, more grading, and exploring my new neighborhood, October is going to be a very busy month.

Speaking of which, there are like 5000 coffee and pastry shops not far from my new place. I am currently planning on spending the week of October 14th in a self inflicted caffeine and sugar coma. I am penciling it in right now.

As much as I wish I could move tomorrow, I think it is for the best it took a little longer. Far too many things have happened in too short a time and I have been running around insanely putting it all together. And I am tired.

Besides, I can’t move tomorrow, I will be in Solvang.