My Super-Massive and Super-Scary Trip

Hello my little cherubs,

So tomorrow, January the 24th, I am leaving on a jet plane...and I really don't know when I'll be back again! I'm flying into London, then going on to Dublin, Paris and Berlin. I've already been to London, which I adore, and Paris, which I hate, but someone who I adore is there (my sister Ilana) so I'm going to give it another shot.

After Berlin, I'm flying to Tallinn, Estonia, and then taking the bus to Moscow. I'll eventually be getting on the Trans-Siberian train that will take me across Russia (yay Siberia!), through Mongolia, and eventually ending up in Beijing. I'm super, super, super excited. I was reading online journals about it, and there seems to be a lot of drinking involved--things like starting on the first bottle of vodka at 8 am. But with a week long train trip, I don't blame them! I, of course, will not indulge. I'm bringing my GRE (Graduate Record Exam book for graduate school in the U.S.) with me to study. My coolness knows no bounds.

After I get into Beijing, I'll slowly make my way down the east coast of China, and finally reach Hong Kong, thanks to my brother's suggestion. He studied for a semester there, and loved it, so I have to check it out, just because I don't want him to be cooler than me. After Hong Kong, it's Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. And then I eventually come back. I still haven't booked a ticket back to Canada, but I know that I have to be gone by May. Because that's when monsoon season starts, and I don't have enough vaccinations, so my nurse told me to get out of there as soon as possible. She also told me that since I don't have the vaccine for Hepatitis A, an STD, that I should "be a good girl". Great medical advice.

So in general, I'm super excited about my trip. And slightly scared also. Even though I have travelled before, this is for such a long time, and I'll be by myself. Plus my mom is psyching me out. She's convinced that I'm going to be kidnapped. And she no longer trusts my sense of danger, after what I've been doing here in Israel. But despite all that, I know I'm going to have a blast!

There's so much that I'm excited about:

~ London, England, home of the free museums and men with sexy accents.
~ Going on the Guinness factory tour in Dublin, which ends with a free pint of beer.
~ Seeing my sister Ilana in Paris! And having her take my crawling over human bones in the Catacombs.
~ Going to Einstein's home in Berlin, and taking pictures of myself in Einstein's study, Einstein's bathtub, etc., and thereby solidifying my reputation as a nerd.
~ Being on the Trans-Siberian train for a week with drunk Russians, looking at the beautiful snow. Even though Sophie's father Boris says that I'll get sick of it ("It's just trees...snow...trees...snow...BLACK (must be going through a tunnel)...trees...snow) I think it'll be a blast.
~ Chinese food.
~ The jungles of Laos.
~ Being able to say: "When I was back in 'Nam..."
~ Scuba diving and swimming in Thailand. Although someone just told me that she'd be afraid to do it because dead bodies might wash up...and now I'm scared. Just another thing to worry about. Oh yeah, apparently the Plague is going around there also. Fun.

Overall, I'm super excited. I know it'll be a lot of fun. And although I'm emptying out my bank account, and I am at risk for contracting at least a dozen deadly diseases, and even though I will miss my family and friends....I'm so happy I'm going! So keep on checking out the blog for sporadic updates, with pictures of course.

Shalom, y'all!!
Leora