Itinerary

OK, sorry for the blogging hiatus. Along with celebrating the holidays with family and friends I squeezed in a quick road trip and then was lucky enough to land a surprise visit from a Supy who was rerouted to Dallas due to snow in NYC. I shouldn't say I have been busy, but my days have definitely been full--full of board games and food and late night conversations and travel channel episodes. But full nonetheless. And as of late they have been full of one thing specifically.

Airport codes.

After my break for the holidays I got serious about trip planning. I am happy to say that I have tickets with my name on them and a basic itinerary! Now to get to this point, I have filled a whopping 13 pages in my little spiral with airport codes and possible routes. But I will admit it. I have a soft spot in my heart for airport codes. I remember Matt and Supy having Airport Code Bees in Santander to see who knew the most. I'm no expert like those guys, but I do love the airports.

It's been nice learning some new ones (SJO, MGA, GUA, BKK, JKT, KUL, AMM, BUY) and then there are the ones that feel like old friends (MAD, LHR, ATH, MXP, STN, BCN, ORY, STN) or old enemies (CDG, ERW). I've just been plugging them into Kayak.com and remixing them until it spit out something good. It's tedious, but not a bad way to pass the day.

Anyway, I said I came up with an itinerary, so here goes. It is still a little nebulous in areas, but part of that is by design. I wanted to stay away from having to get complicated or expensive visas, to go to places I haven't been, have nice weather, relax and see some incredible things. I divided it up into three legs that would let me do most of the traveling over land. That is, for one thing, cheaper, but it also gives me the flexibility to spend more time in places that I end up liking and to move on quickly from places that I don't. I think it's also more ideal for people who try to plan 6+ month trips in 2 weeks.

So starting January 18th (!) I'll be in:

Leg 1 Central America: Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua
Leg 2 Eastern Europe: Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia + Jordan
Leg 3 Southeast Asia: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand

The return ticket still hasn't been finalized--I have two on hold. Because I am buying it with airline miles I couldn't exactly get out on the days I wanted. So the debate is between ZRH (Zurich) on August 2nd or CDG (Paris) on August 18th. Both are a little later than I planned on returning, but if I am careful, the money should hold out.

So there we have it. That's the final outcome of all the brainstorming. Some of the only things I had planned got bumped out, and some things I thought I would never see got thrown in. Overall, though, I am happy. And excited.

Also! If you are going to be in any of those areas, let me know! OK, 11 days till take off!

The Art of Saying No

As I mentioned the other day, I am horrible at telling people no. It's probably yet another thing I inherited from my dad. I just can't help it. The problem is, it gets me into all kinds of situations. For example, my inability to say no is exactly what got me tangled into spending the evening with Mr. Collins last night.

I have been joking for a while about how the Arab culture here surrounding marriage, dating and matchmaking seems like something straight out of a Jane Austin novel. Turns out, the joke was on me!

But don't you worry. I channeled Elizabeth and when marriage came up it was not difficult for me to dig up the word no.

Week In Review

Welp, I have finished my second week in Brussels! A few random bits from the week:

• Today (Saturday) we fed the homeless--we made at least 400 butter and ham/cheese sandwiches and a giant tub of soup then fed almost 200 or so people at the main train station. I had a blast.
• It was nice to do something where language wasn't an issue.
• Afterwards we ate Domino's Pizza, which tasted almost exactly the same as Domino's stateside.
• Ta Sharafna--That's Arabic for Nice to meet you, but it's so fun to say it that I like to use it as an exclamation and/or insult.
• Friday I helped with the youth. For fun I gave them a random assortment of items and told them to build something that could transport an egg safely to the sidewalk from the third floor balcony.
• They were 2 for 4. I was surprised no one used the pillow case or trash-bag I gave them to make parachutes.
• By Tuesday I was really fed up with French.
• By today I had reconsidered. I also realized I have already picked up a surprising amount of French (at least when it comes to understanding).
• Probably the most used French word I have learned so far is méchant which translates more or less as mean, or mischievous.
• Hary told me I seemed older than 24. Why? He said it was because of my big head. Janee tried to persuade me that he was trying to say it's because I had such big (mature) thoughts.
• Méchant
• After dinner conversations have ended almost every night since I got here with Hary trying to persuade me to marry some random Arab guy or another.
• We registered 29 students for English classes. We are offering 2 grammar courses and a conversation class. Students range from Moroccan, Belgian and Brazilian to Congolese, Syrian and Sri Lankan.
• I adore our Moroccan neighbor's tiny 14 year old son Houssin. He even offered to bring over tea for us when we were doing inscriptions (registration).
• Actually, I pretty much love the entire family.
• The African church that meets downstairs in our building is LOUD. I mean, crazy Hell-fire-and-brimstone loud.
• I have started thinking through travel plans for after the beginning of the year. Very exciting.
• Greetings I have received so far: wave, handshake, head nod, one cheek kiss, 2 cheek kisses, 3 cheek kisses. It is incredibly hard for me to judge what I am supposed to do. Needless to say I have already created some awkward moments.
• The songs/instruments/rhythms of the Arabic music last Sunday made me feel like I was going to church where they were singing flamenco

OK, that's probably enough to give you a taste! I should probably also mention that I have been tasting Moroccan/Turkish/Syrian/Iranian/Iraqi sweet after sweet. Life's not too terrible these days! : )