The Final Countdown

T minus 3 days until I put England in the rearview mirror, and head out to the French Alps for the first leg of an epic journey across Alpine Europe, Edinburgh, Dublin, and London. For the public's interest, here is my itinerary

Dec 13th- depart for London

Dec 14th-18- Chamonix, France

Dec 18-20- Reutty, Austria/Fussen, Germany

Dec 20-22- Prague, Czech Republic

Dec 22-24- Munich, Germany

Dec 24-26- Geneva, Switzerland

Dec 26- Fly to London, meet mom, go to Edinburgh

Dec 26-29- Edinburgh, Scotland

Dec 29-30- Nottingham, England (meet Scott)

Dec 30-Jan 2- London (mom leaves on 31, Scott and I stay until the 2nd)

Dec 2-4- Dublin, Ireland

Dec 4-7- London

Dec 7- Return to Nottingham

And for good measure, I'll throw this in

Dec 10-14- Vienna, Austria

Looking at it on paper, it's a pretty intense 3 weeks. As we speak, I'm surrounded by a seemingly insurmountable pile of travel books, train schedules, hotel reservations, and maps. In my hurried rush to get all my trains, planes, and hostels booked, I haven't had much time to actually figure out what I want to do in each place yet. I mean, some ideas, but other than that, Rick Steves, you're my man. This whole planning thing has been one of the most intimidating things I've ever done. I'm armed with my Eurail pass, a timetable book, a sheaf of set rail journeys to and from my various destinations, but I still have the sneaking suspicion I'm going to end up stranded in some tiny village in Germany. Everything is planned out well, but navigating stations, finding seats on trains, etc, is a frightening prospect. As Kevin said, you just have to sort of get on and pray to God you end up where you want to go. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Anyways, it was a typically rainy, depressing, and freakishly cold English Sunday, complete with 20 MPH wind gusts. Sounds like a great day for a baseball game. Yes, today saw my re-entry to the world of competitive amateur baseball, as we defeated the university softball team in 3 innings on a windswept plain outside of town. I started in left field. I only touched the ball once in the field, and although I fielded it successfully, I made an idiot play throwing it back in, and sort of threw it somewhere between second base and the center fielder. Whatever. The real stupidity came when I batted. I ended up walking, and made it to second as a result of another walk. Anyways, the guy on first like, forgot I was on second, and decided to steal. So he starts running, I figure out what's going on, and I try to steal third. I get called out, he makes it. It was one of the lamest things I've ever had happen to me.

Saturday night, a large group of us decided to go see this year's formulaic Christmas film, aptly named "The Holiday." I must be honest, it is making a very strong case for the worst movie I've ever seen in a theatre. I found out that Cameron Diaz is not only the worst actress I've ever seen, but also a genuinely irritating human being. She ruined the movie. In any case, the film was terrible, and I would discourage anyone from seeing it, unless you want to subject yourself to way too much crappy acting, predictable plot, and horrifyingly bad dialogue.

Jumping back to today, it was a relatively quiet day, save for the baseball game. I've spent most of today trying to get my affairs in order for the break. Some of us (Kevin, Ryan, Hilary, Emily, myself) decided to go eat at Wagamama, which is quickly becoming my favorite British culinary invention. It's a Japanese style noodle bar, and it is amazing. Brings me right back to Concert Band Tour 2005, complete with Kirin. Tomorrow features yet more planning, some sort of presentation to Mark and Carol for the Paideia final, a shopping trip downtown for travel essentials, baseball practice, and some sort of celebration for Mary's birthday. I don't know, it should be good. Hopefully I'll get more stuff solidified for break, and not have as much a potential for a meltdown. In any case, it's sure to be intense.