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Sorry, Liz, I thought I'd already posted this elsewhere.

Anyway -- I'm leaving for Austria on the 27th, at 9:00 pm pacific time. (That's in twenty days, I just realized. Holy cow.) Ich werde bestimmt in Österreich das ganz jahr bleiben, und zurück kommen im Januar 2010. I will indeed remain in Austria for the whole year, and come back in January of 2010. I am not planning to visit home at all until I return, since it's quite a bit of money to fly across the sea. Instead, I hope to use my vacations in doing a bit of traveling on my own -- yikes -- and visiting some friends and relations who will be in the area at different times during my stay.

As for what next year will bring, I only know what vacations Eric and Anita have planned. In February, we will be going on a ski-trip -- during which I suppose I will have to learn how to ski -- and in April we will visit Italy, particularly Mannopello (to see the Holy Face of the aforesaid city), and Rome (for the Easter vigil etc.). In August, they plan to travel to the town of Ars, in France, to visit the tomb of St. John Vianney. Also, there's a youth festival in Medjugorje, which I believe is in Bosnia, and apparently I will have an opportunity to attend that as well. So I'll have plenty to keep me busy. :-)

Right now I'm kind of stressing out, despite everyone's best efforts, including my own. I finally just ordered a coat and some boots from Lands' End today, because I was so sick of indecision. They will probably be fine. Now I've just got to get my brain together and figure out what I still need to buy. There's so much banging around in my head right now -- it's hard to separate out what I really NEED, and what I just want for the comfort of feeling "pulled together". Part of the reason I'm hyper about being prepared is that deep down I'm scared to shop in Austrian stores. But I'll have to get used to it, so I might as well leave a few things out on purpose, heh.

Oh, one thing about communication -- if you have a webcam, and download Skype, we can video chat beautifully (so I hear). Granted, it will have to be at odd hours, but it would be fun! Otherwise, this blog and my email (and maybe facebook) will be the best places to get a hold of me. I'm hoping to post fairly regularly and not leave you all in the dark, but I will probably be awfully busy, so don't expect too much.

Now, I've got to get to bed.

(Music recommendation for today: The Waybacks are pretty cool. I guess they count as "newgrass", and they have their weirder moments, but I LOVE their rendition of The Witch of the Westmoreland. It's an awesome ballad anyway, even if it is a bit dodgy at the end. Haha.)