At least, I have decided that spring is here, though I doubt few people would disagree with me today seeing as it's sunny and 18. It felt pretty darned good to get out in the sun, get out of the cold, and get out of my winter coat! Flowers are blooming, leaves are sprouting, birds are singing, bugs are buzzing, and after a long, long haul I am officially declaring winter over!
There may be a few naysayers out there going on about how it's still really cold at night and there's only like one new leaf on one tree (three and counting from my observations!), but they are clearly wrong and I am clearly right. There has been a shift, I can feel it in my bones. Spring is here and that is final.
And with the new season comes a new heap of travel plans for me. The next year and a half is potentially going to be jam packed with globe trotting. So far, I there are my potential plans:
September '08: Brisbane to visit Mary
October '08: silent meditation weekend retreat in the country
January '09: Hobart/Tasmania (I intend to actually learn how to drive over here in time for this vacation so that I can hire a car and drive around Tassie)
April '09: Vietnam for the next IASSCS conference (I've been back and forth about this one, but I'm realizing that I only have to have the abstract in by October, and by the time the conference starts I'll have some initial data to report on)
June '09: Canada, and since it's such a long flight, there may be a stop over somewhere in Asia along the way. Maybe Japan, maybe Singapore...
December '09/January '10: somewhere in Asia with friends (possibilities include India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malyasia, Indonesia, Singapore...I may have added a few possibilities on there in hopes of persuading said friends)
These trips may not all actually happen, but most of them probably will. It's really just a matter of if I get accepted to the IASSCS conference, and if I save up enough money for the second Asia trip, which I have over a year to do.
Now for something completely unrelated. As many of you know, I'm a dog person (not at the exclusion of being a cat person, these things are not mutually exclusive!) and I tend to favour big dogs, since that's what I've always had.
But I'm living with a mini fox terrier named Bella, who is 16, deaf, and has cancer, and is just so adorable that I'm suddenly finding myself thinking that small dogs can be valid pet choices too, and not just for people who live in small houses!
She's a very cat like dog, in personality and in size, which I think is great because it's like having two pets for the price of one.
When I first came and saw the place where I'm living now, I was sitting on the couch and Bella jumped up on it and stood on my lap, looked up at me, and pretended to bite my nose. All of a sudden there was this itty bitty mouth of canines coming at my nose, and then *lick*, I got a kiss instead.
Of course, when she does it now, she mostly just tries to bites my nose...
October '08: silent meditation weekend retreat in the country
January '09: Hobart/Tasmania (I intend to actually learn how to drive over here in time for this vacation so that I can hire a car and drive around Tassie)
April '09: Vietnam for the next IASSCS conference (I've been back and forth about this one, but I'm realizing that I only have to have the abstract in by October, and by the time the conference starts I'll have some initial data to report on)
June '09: Canada, and since it's such a long flight, there may be a stop over somewhere in Asia along the way. Maybe Japan, maybe Singapore...
December '09/January '10: somewhere in Asia with friends (possibilities include India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malyasia, Indonesia, Singapore...I may have added a few possibilities on there in hopes of persuading said friends)
These trips may not all actually happen, but most of them probably will. It's really just a matter of if I get accepted to the IASSCS conference, and if I save up enough money for the second Asia trip, which I have over a year to do.
Now for something completely unrelated. As many of you know, I'm a dog person (not at the exclusion of being a cat person, these things are not mutually exclusive!) and I tend to favour big dogs, since that's what I've always had.
But I'm living with a mini fox terrier named Bella, who is 16, deaf, and has cancer, and is just so adorable that I'm suddenly finding myself thinking that small dogs can be valid pet choices too, and not just for people who live in small houses!She's a very cat like dog, in personality and in size, which I think is great because it's like having two pets for the price of one.
When I first came and saw the place where I'm living now, I was sitting on the couch and Bella jumped up on it and stood on my lap, looked up at me, and pretended to bite my nose. All of a sudden there was this itty bitty mouth of canines coming at my nose, and then *lick*, I got a kiss instead.
Of course, when she does it now, she mostly just tries to bites my nose...
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