Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Change of Plans: Edited March 28, 11:45 a.m.

I don't think I had told you, but my pastor planned a trip to Italy for members of the parish this October. It was going to Rome, Siena, Assisi, Florence, and a couple of other places where I've never been, but always figured would be worth seeing. It would also go to Venice and Milan, where I have been. So I signed up.

But I learned a couple of days ago that with the troubles in the economy a lot of people withdrew and the trip was cancelled. So now I'm "all dressed up with no place to go." Actually, I'm thinking of a couple of possibilities. One would be to go to Prince Edward Island to visit the cousins. Another would be to go to Ireland to see where the maternal ancestors came from. A third possibility would be to go to Germany to visit my friend "Stefan" and his family and see him perform the leading role in the local festival play. This year is the 25th anniversary of our original meeting (which I still need to blog about sometime). Of course, PEI is cheap enough to get to from here (and I'd be staying with the rellies), that I could probably do that even if I also hop across the pond.

Edited to add: And I remembered this morning that my kid brother has been after me to visit him and my sister-in-law in Japan. I haven't been there since New Year's 1986.

Well, whatever I do, there should be some language study in my future. Kid brother also wants me to learn some Japanese, sent me a CD a couple of years ago for Christmas. And if I decide to go to Ireland, I'll want to know at least some basic Irish. I tried studying it some years ago and found it really wild, although at least the spelling's pretty regular, once you get the hang of it. And if I go to Germany, I'd want to brush up my German so it was back to at least the level of a stupid three-year old.