Passport pictures

I still haven't sent in my passport renewal form (pretty typical of me) but there is still plenty of time as long as I use the "expedite" service, which is an extra $60. It would still get here in time if I used the regular service, but just barely, so I'll spend the extra money to make sure I get it in time.

Went to Kinko's last week to get the pictures and they actually came out okay:


Now if I could just attach the pictures to the renewal form and somehow put it all into the padded envelope I bought and SOMEHOW put the envelope in a mailbox, then I'd be much better off. We'll see how long it takes me.

Also had my 3rd french lesson on Saturday which went really well. My tutor is letting me borrow a french textbook that happens to be the exact same book I had in high school. The strange coincidences about this trip keep adding up. I'm back to reading the language pretty well, and I think I'm making progress with the lessons. I even downloaded a french song that she suggested: 'Ne Me Quitte Pas', by Jacques Brel. And it's pretty good. I might check out some more, since it will probably help with the learning. I've also been grabbing some movies out of my sparse DVD library and watching them in the French language mode (if they have it). So far I've watched A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the classic Bruce Campbell movie Evil Dead in french. Tough going. Don't get much but the basic words because the speech is so fast, but I'm going to keep trying. I still have Wyatt Earp (that movie rules), Donnie Darko, Army of Darkness (the third Campbell classic), and Young Frankenstein (that's Frahn-ken-steen) to go through in french.

2nd French Lesson

Had my second french lesson tonight. I used to speak french pretty well after taking classes for four years in high school, but I haven't really spoken it in 12 years. I figured it would be a good idea to re-acquaint myself with the language to make my immersion into France a little more real. I looked up "french tutor" on craigslist.com and found an ad, so I replied to it and one week later I was sitting at a cafe in Providence struggling through french sentences I thought I had forgotten with a beautiful french-italian girl. She's great and I think I'm going to learn pretty quickly with her. We sit and drink tea or jus d'orange and simply talk in french, with the occaisional grammar lesson here and there. It's really cool. Hopefully three months will be enough to get back to a conversational level. We met at Pastiche on Federal Hill in Providence tonight. I ordered a camomille tea and she ordered something called a Virtual Buddha. I've been to Pastiche once before, a while ago, with my good friend Sean R. Apparently, they have great desserts.

So, tomorrow I have to send out my passport renewal form. I've gone to Europe only once before, 15 years ago, with my younger brother, to visit my grandfather. I had to get a passport for that, obviously, but it's interesting to note that I'm renewing the very same one after 15 years (which is the deadline for renewals on passports) to go back to the exact same place. Heck, I'm landing at the exact same airport in Frankfurt, Germany I think. And get this, I'm flying over there with my grandfather too! He offered to pay for half my air fare as a birthday present if I accompanied him to Germany to visit my uncle Joel, and thus this trip was born. God bless my grandfather. He is a great guy, and it will be such a wonderful thing to spend some time with him back in Germany. I owe this trip to him.

Once I figure out how to add pictures to this "blog", I'll start posting pictures of some of the routes I've considered taking through France. So far, I plan on walking from town to town in eastern or southeastern France where there isn't much but hills and fields. The general schedule right now is: Germany with gramps and uncle Joel for about a week, France alone for a week or longer, and then possibly London and/or Ireland. Will be interesting to see how the plans develop. It's going to be a little cold over there in January, darn it.

I think a blog is stupid, but...

...it could be a really great way to have a fairly real-time account of my upcoming trip to Europe. I'm in Newport, RI right now (where I live and work), starting this blog. I'll be here for about three more months, preparing for the trip, until I leave from Providence on January 6th.

It's a little interesting to note that I'll be leaving the US at the age of 30, and landing in Germany on January 7th at the age of 31.

There is a storm with lots of lightning approaching, so I'm going to post more tomorrow.