Jennica & Matthew Geddert's Ramblings

Sep 8 Itinerary 3 by Matthew

The next “leg” of our trip was to buy around-the-world plane tickets and head off to Israel and its neighbours. That now looks like at least nine thousand more dollars, a war zone and continued significant difficulty in preparing for the GREs and applying to doctoral programs. We love this European trip but, as we have indicated previously, some of the thrill is disappearing. As confirmed by this and other trips, 2-3 months of unorganized touristy travel at a time really is enough.

We have decided to buy tickets for September 25th on the last flight to Calgary for the year with Condor. At 199 Euro a piece this is by far the cheapest way to fly one-way from Frankfurt to North America. Conveniently, Mom (Willems) is already planning on being in Calgary at that time and we will catch a ride with her to Elm Creek, where we will stay for a while. Jennica will prepare for and take the GRE and apply to a number of doctoral programs (which we decided was the most imporant thing for us to do this fall). I will work on various projects. We will both enjoy visiting with family and friends we haven’t seen in a while (in retrospect the trip probably should have started there) and decide what to do next. We both intend for this year to be a break from the regular grind and need a purpose to our travels to provide structure beyond “experiencing it all.” We are currently considering a succession of shorter journeys or some half-year assignments overseas, and welcome suggestions.