And we're off.

Well, friends, here we go again.

 On Tuesday this week, I wrapped up my last on-site responsibilities at the college, drove back to Chicago, and spent a solid 36 hours or so packing, prepping, and wrapping up the last loose ends before departing for O'Hare, where this time I plan to actually catch the flight that will wing me to Europe until late summer.

Genuinely a bit overpacked, mostly due to the work I plan to do while on the road, but hoping the overhead-friendly backpack and books-and-a-camera messenger bag get me where they need to get me...

I think I laid all this out in my "I made a decision" post about this, but the basic shape of things is: a couple of weeks to thoroughly unplug and brain-wipe in Greece with nothing but books and walking on my mind, and then off to Italy to try to live well as I get my prep for next year underway. I'll be moving around a decent bit, adopting my favored model of "get up at dawn, walk everywhere, come back and write/read/work in the post-lunch heat of the day, get out for the passeggiata and evening exploration" as I make my way from Sicily up to Bologna, which will be my long-stay base at the center of the summer. I'll keep nudging northward (yes, I plan these trips specifically around running away from heat, leave me alone) with a quick gosh-everything-is-so-spendy week in Switzerland en route to the UK, where I will collapse in gratitude on the doorsteps of a few much beloved and long-missed friends.

I'm pretty excited (among other things, to have all but the Athens-Catania leg of the trip be on surface transportation, including sleeping on both trains AND boats! my actual dreams) and eager to see how it all feels after these strange intervening years to be back in a mode I last experienced during the chaos and uncertainty of grad school, before I got better at accepting that chaos and uncertainty are kinda baked-in. My travels were a big part of that journey, so it'll be interesting to see how it all feels now that I'm where I am, and who I am.

Anyway, if you're reading this, thanks for tagging along. And hey, if you come into a sudden inheritance or realize you've got points just sitting there waiting to be redeemed on flights, uh, hit me up, let's get an aperitivo or something.