Can't Turn off the Rain

This summer I am traversing across the Atlantic Ocean back to Europe once again.  I'm going to France on an "archaeological tour" of France with Dr. Hill and 3 other Hendrix students on an Odyssey trip from June 9 (hopefully) through June 29.  Don't ask me where we are all going in France, all I know is that we are (supposed to be) arriving in Paris on June 10.  All the debbie downer () are because there is a thunderstorm right on top of Chicago right now, so (hopefully) my flight should get in now at around 1230 and I SHOULD get to Chicago in time to board my 6:05 flight to Paris.  If everything goes according to plan (and the weather cooperates) I should be arriving in Paris at 9:25 tomorrow! So fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!!!  There are a bunch of people who are all delayed, but right now I'm hard core creepin' on a group of older ladies who seem to be best friends (there are 5 of them) who (I think) are all going to Paris together.  

I say I have no idea where all we are traveling in France and that is partly true.  I'm sure there will be a meeting of some sorts once we all convene together at the hotel so I'll post where all we are going specifically after we meet.  It's kinda more exciting not knowing exactly where we will all be going.

After the Odyssey trip…well this took a long time to figure out what I was going to do.  I finish with Odyssey June 29, but I am doing research in London with Dr. Pfau, Dr. Resinski, and 5 other Hendrix students from July 20-July 27.  So from June 29-July 20 I had free.  Free to do whatever the heck I wanted to do in Europe. Exciting right? Wrong. As a girl who has been raised by parents (mainly mom and dad for mom's sake) that ask right after summer is over what we will be doing next summer, not having a plan is terrifying.  Although this lack of plan was entirely due to my procrastination skills and the indecisiveness that runs in the Garrett family, I finally have a plan.  After looking at all of the archaeological digs I could find, wwoofing programs (which I was going to do but the place I was going to stay can't accommodate my gluten free diet), and thinking about just traveling alone for three weeks, I have finally made a plan, got a place to stay and everything (hopefully). 

From July 3-(hopefully) July 17 I will be in Taize!!! I will be there for at least a week, and will hopefully be able to stay another week either volunteering or a week of silence (idk if I can do it, but I think I should try it…I feel like I'm in Eat, Pray, Love). I'm really excited about staying at Taize.  If you want to find out about what it is…here's a link:

http://www.taize.fr/  

I have about 3 days in between getting to Taize and leaving Paris and in between leaving Taize and getting to London.  I'm trying to think of places to visit. Any suggestions?

Once in London, I'll be conducting research at the British Museum, British Library (hopefully), and another museum possibly.  My project: looking at depictions of Christ in Anglo-Saxon literature.  I was originally going to be looking at the image of the Anglo-Saxon warrior, but to narrow my project I decided to focus on Christ.  I'm still not quite sure though what all I should look at.  I know I'm going to look at the Dream of the Rood and artifacts associated with Christ and the warrior culture.  If you have any ideas for me or any Anglo-Saxon poems that you know of that depict Christ…holla at cha gurl den. 

Well since I've been writing this the OTHER flight to Chicago has boarded and (I think) left.  Our flight still says delayed till 12:30, so hopefully we will be leaving then.  Hopefully this storm is moving to the east and not down south.  I just pray our flight gets here by then…bottom line I just HAVE to get to Chicago before 5.  Fingers crossed!!! 

Till then I'll be researching and reading as always, and constantly looking at the status of the flight and weather.com.

Cheers!