Whaaaaa!

Here are my plans!
Saturday, December 16: leave CMU at about noon. Drive home to Cleveland, then get on a plane to Denver.
Sunday, Dec. 17-Wednesday, Dec. 20: Ski in Colorado with one of my best friends from high school. Also, his brother (another one of my friends from high school) and his parents, who are very cool too.
Thursday, Dec. 21: Return home for a few days of good ol' Christmas family time.
Sunday, Dec. 24: Go to The Villages, Florida, for a few days of good ol' Christmas other-side-of-the-family time.
Thursday, Dec. 28: Return home, hang out with other friends from high school, get ready to go to Europe. Hopefully interview with Microsoft at some point.
Monday, Jan. 15: Fly to Zurich, Switzerland. !
Tuesday, Jan. 16-Sunday, Jan. 21: Ski in the Alps. I have no idea where or how. I'm thinking St. Anton, Austria, because I hear you can get there pretty easily from Zurich by train. (other ski recommendations are welcome! please! if you have Alps skiing experience, tell me where I should go! even if you're a random dude who just happened across this page on a "next blog" click!)
Sunday, Jan. 21- Monday, Jan. 22: Find my way to Maastricht, Netherlands. Maybe through Brussels airport. Maybe by train. We'll see.
Monday, Jan. 22- Friday, June 15: Study in the Netherlands.

All plane tickets have been bought. Again, I can't say this enough: Thank you to whatever forces of nature/luck/planning/fortune/love have given me all of these opportunities. I guess I could say it enough, but only if I said it enough that it started sounding insincere.

(there's a little nagging doubt that these trips are like toys under the Christmas tree; I'll enjoy them for a few days, but then they'll be over, and it's all just the materialistic enjoyment of it all anyway. the sort of nagging doubt that warns: "the best things in life can't be bought." HOWEVER, I have two reasons to quash the worry: Colorado is about seeing one of my best friends, not about skiing; Florida is about seeing my grandparents, including maybe the last opportunity I get to see my grandfather; and Europe is about experiencing the world from another angle. They're not just fun diversionary trips. Although two of them are that too. The other reason that I shouldn't worry is that I worry too much about everything.)

(and if it sounds like I'm glossing over the somewhat more solemn Florida trip in the midst of two brighter, shinier trips that also involve skiing... maybe I am a bit, but if I am, it's not conscious. I think I'm still in denial that anything could happen to my grandpa, even though now they're into experimental cancer treatments. this is probably a topic for another post.)

Again, thank you for everything; I have no complaints whatsoever.

...although all these trips do make it hard to concentrate on schoolwork!