Free to Get Ready

Date	Nov 20, 2022
Total 2022 Caminos:	340 miles
Total All Caminos:	1620 miles
Planes:	$810 Rochester -> Munich -> Rochester
Total Planes:	$ 810

Meaningful Moment 

Free to get ready for the trip.

Last Friday I had my final German grammar class of the fall term. Several days prior to that, I had my final Spanish grammar and final German conversation class of the fall term.

So over the weekend, I have been rediscovering what it means to have nothing to prepare for the next school day.

I spent Saturday doing some bird watching, participating in a club hike and then had the grandchildren for a sleepover. 

Sunday, I took them out for bubble tea, had a YMCA weight session, another club hike and then watched my son play some ice hockey.

In all of this, not once did I have to suffer through a nagging session in the deepest corners of my mind that I should have been doing homework.

It was glorious.

Random Thought of the Day

It's now a weekend and some days without the constant pressure to study and get homework done. Although I was auditing one Spanish and two German classes, they were highly interesting to me, so I put a lot of effort into them.

I had forgotten what it meant to be a full-time college student. The consistent thrust by the professors to introduce new material on top of only half-absorbed material. 

The internal drive to not just acquire knowledge (in this case two foreign languages), but to master all aspects of the material: reading, listening, writing and speaking. 

But my desires go beyond those four basic categories of language comprehension. I strove & strive for real-time processing of those babylonic syllables, that mish-mash of air pressure waves to the ear, that transliteration of ink symbols into electro-magnetic waves into neural synapse firings into "a thought", and last but not least - coordination of the tongue, lips, jaw and throat to speak - say - utter - stumble through a new syntax and new semantics to tell the waiter that I would like a cup of coffee with milk.

It's so simple and yet so impossible.

I'm re-watching Babylon 5, and every time they show all kinds of races walking past one another, intermingling, interacting and communicating, I  realize over and over how lucky I would be to work there as an interpreter, to live there as an inhabitant and to share ideas with "peoples" from all over the galaxy.

Sometimes I think I was born a couple of centuries too soon.

"Who am I?"

"What do I want?"

Checklist:

• Vaccine and boosters. No entry requirements for Germany at this time.
• Check passport for expiration date.
• Verify any visa requirements. (Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland)
• Currently, US citizens can travel to Europe for up to 90 days without any sort of travel authorization. Starting with 2023, US citizens visiting parts of Europe will need authorization from the European Union. 
• The European Travel Information and Authorization System, or ETIAS, will require "pre-travel screening for security and migration risks of travelers benefiting from visa-free access to the Schengen area.
• TSA Global Entry Card
• Health Care: Medicare does not provide coverage outside of the U.S. Purchase travel insurance the provides for, at least, major medical, transportation while injured/sick and return of remains to U.S.
• Check expiration date on credit/debit cards.
• Notify bank of travel outside of USA so that they don't lock card due to suspected fraud.
• Auto-pay any bills or pay early.
• Plane ticket: downloaded 
• Test out all your electronics, e.g. chargers, tablets, cables/cords, phones. Bring equipment designed for your electronics. 
• Have power adapters available. Adapters differ among the U.S., Great Britain/Ireland and Spain/Portugal. 
• Turns out that Germany uses the same kind of power outlet plug as Spain. Was expecting the UK, Ireland, Switzerland type of outlet.
• Delete outdated maps on phone (to free up space.)  Download maps for Bavaria.