Zombies and Transylvania

Well, I had such a great story about zombies last time, but in the interest of all that is truthful and honourable, I erased the story. I don't want to lead people astray.... :)

But here's another story. This Wednesday I leave for Hungary. For those of you who don't know, I'm accompanying a cross-cultural class offered here at Dordt College on a service-learning trip to Hungary and Ukraine. The trip lasts about 2 weeks, during which time we will teach English, interact with Christians (of the Hungarian Reformed variety!), get to know some gypsies, and travel to different places. The professor for the course thinks that my limited knowledge of Russian is going to be helpful--I've tried persuading him that this is not the case. I have visions of our bus being held up at the military checkpoint on the way into Ukraine as I sputter and fumble around in Russian; I don't think that will impress anyone, least of all the Ukrainian guards.

Following the course, I will travel around Europe a bit with a few of the students (coming home June 15th). I will be visiting 10 countries I've never been to before during the 5 weeks that I'm gone:
Hungary
Ukraine
Romania
Austria
Poland
Czech Republic
Germany
France
Netherlands
Belgium.

While we are in Ukraine, we will have no e-mail or phone access. However, I think the rest of the trip looks promising, in terms of being able to communicate. I will update on here when I can.

So it was a busy weekend of Margaret and Mom graduating (BA and MA, respectively), with many relatives visiting. Today I've been working on grading, and I just turned in the final grades for students a few minutes ago. Tired, tired...

That leaves me tomorrow to pack and get ready to go!

p.s. I hope people will comment on here while I'm gone. Please do! It might be easier for me to check than my e-mail.