Up, up and away!

Before I start my service in the Peace Corps, I still have some unattended business to take care of: seeing all the family and friends I didn't get a chance to really visit with while there doing my internship and studying. Man, I really didn't realize what a time-consuming semester it would be! But as trying as it was, I got through it and it made it that much more worth it. One is able to learn their potential as soon as they challenge themselves beyond their capabilities. Would I do it (working and studying full time at the same time) again? Probably not. But hey, you never know.

My parents and I leave the same day, though I'm not going on with them. They will be going to Germany to visit an old friend of their's, Jakob, and also visit a relative in Geneva, Switzerland and another friend in France. I skip Western Europe and head dead on to the Central Beauty, the Motherland. This summer will surely be jam-packed. I managed to piece up my schedule, book (CHEAP) flights, and best of all, I get to spend time with friends in their homes in each place I will be visiting. You really can't ask for more when traveling: spending time with friends in their homes, cities and countries.

The schedule for this summer:

24 June - leave JFK (NYC) for Budapest in the evening
25 June - arrive in Budapest in the mid afternoon
25/26 - 29/30 June - Munkács (Munkachevo), Ukraine
29/30 June - July 7 - Budapest(/Pécs?)
7 - 10 July - Dublin, Ireland (this was unplanned but turned out saving me $ on the way to Manchester, crazy enough as it sounds, and I'll be staying with my dad's old roommate and buddy from South Africa, Mike
10 - 14 July - Manchester, England, England! (with Helen and Shaun, friends I met in Argentina)
14 - 17 July - Aachen, Germany (Dad's former colleague and good family friend
17 - 18 July - Vienna, Austria (with Lili, my former roommate from my year in Hungary. Eszter and Béla will be there as well)
18 - 24 July - Budapest
24 - 27 July - Transylvania (yes, the place does indeed exist, and infact I am part Transylvanian - my fangs come out occassionally. My friend is from there, but now lives in Budapest, and will be having her wedding there)
28 - 31 July - Budapest
31 July - leave back and arrive in the US

That pretty much sums up my time. I still don't know where I'll be headed off to, but that should be figured out in the next week or two, as I was promised. Cross your fingers I won't have to leave 3 days after I arrive back, which I am afraid will be the case.

Updates throughout the summer will come sparingy, so savour them whenever they come!

More updates to come, but until take care and hope to hear from you (yes YOU)!