... I’m going on an Elderhostel trip from Vladivostok to Moscow via Ulan Bator on the Trans-Siberian Railroad! I wrote at length about the trip over under “Learn To Speak Russian”, which was my introduction to 43 Things via a Google for “learn Russian Portland OR”. Wow! What a great thing 43 Things is, particularly as I look forward to my retirement in a year.
I’ve already reserved my place on an Elderhostel trip in August, 2007. I’ll be sharing a compartment with someone, which will be an adventure in itself, since I’ve lived by myself and cherished my solitude for—jiminy, can it be that long?—over 15 years since my youngest child finished college and moved out. (And the quotation to the right from Rilke is “For one human being to love another—that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” I stand reproved.
But the Trans-Siberian Railroad! It feels like “ride an ATV around on Mars”. The last time I was anywhere outside the US and Canada was in 1962 when I spent a summer in a German-language program in Salzburg, Austria. So, to mark my retirement, I’m going around the world with a stop in Ulan Bator and another on the shores of Lake Baikal! Wow!
One of my daughters has given me a Freitag & Berndt road map of Russia. I spend happy hours tracing the route. To quote the President (such as he is), “Russia is a big country, isn’t it?”
I see that the custom here is brief entries. Well, I’m verbose and, living alone, don’t get the chance to beeble like this very often, and you’re stuck, I’m going to beeble.
