T-minus 2 days!!

Okay. The last several weeks I have been going around telling everyone about my plans to set up a blog to help document my upcoming summer sojourn in Europe. Ta-dah! Here it is!

In telling you all about this blog, I've intentionally placed pressure on myself to update fairly regularly, so hopefully that will work. But, to be honest, I don't know how much I'll write here, or what, but at the very least I'll post photos and links to albums and let the pictures do the talking.

At any rate, if you're here reading this, then you probably already know at least the broad outlines of my plans for the next four months. I'm leaving in two (!!) days for Berlin, where I'll be spending May and June learning German at the Goethe Institut. (Incidentally, the Goethe Institut's Berlin office is located in the lovely Mitte neighbourhood, only a few blocks away from Sophienstrasse 22a, where I spent six lovely weeks during the summer of 2008 studying post-Holocaust German-Jewish history with the Leo Baeck Summer University...if you're curious, see my previous, photo-less, fairly self-reflective and academic blog here, which I kept during that time.) After two months spent imbibing generous quantities of beer and gorging on pretzels, I will fly off to the UK in early July to spend the summer months simply being a tourist and visiting with family. With a BritRail pass in hand, I intend to scour the British countryside for all things Jane Austen, soak in the healing waters at Bath, trace the footsteps of the ancient Romans along Hadrian's Wall, revel in the academic glamour of medieval colleges, take part in Royal baby mania come July, poke into London bookstores and museums...and eat lots and lots of scones and drink LOTS and LOTS of tea. Etc. Etc.

So please check in when you can and feel free to leave comments!

For now, I'm off to continue packing...