Departure

Whew! It's been a very busy week. First, getting my exam finalized was much more time-consuming that I'd anticipated. I spent as much time writing it as my students likely spend studying for it; that surprised me. But I think it'll be good. It's very thorough and does a good job covering the broad topics we hit this semester. Of course, grading it when I return will be another very long chore. I just hope I can get it finished in a week.

Of course it's also taken time to get ready for the trip. As I type, I'm sitting at the Memphis airport, waiting on the flight for the first leg. It's just after 12:30 p.m., and it'll be 2:00 p.m. tomorrow (my time here) before I arrive--then another hour into Kampala. It'll be a long day!

From here, I'm off to Detroit, with a couple-hour layover before catching the almost eight-hour flight to Amsterdam. There, I'm meet up with my colleague from Seattle, and we fly the eight hours to Nairobi. Shortly after we land, we fly the short trip from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda. We have arranged a car to pick us up at the airport (after I buy a visa there) and take us into the capital city of Kampala---where we'll spend the next week!

I'm also really looking forward to a true vacation. Although I've traveled a lot lately, almost all of it has been work-related or to visit people. But finally, after the week in Uganda, it'll be pure vacation. Ahhh.......

I decided to go ahead and buy a book to read while away. I used to be an avid reader of fiction, but after law school, I essentially stopped. I still listen to a lot of books on CD when I have long drives, but I hadn't really bought many books. So my trip to the bookstore was a little interesting.

I really didn't want a romance sort of book. Puh-lease. The last thing I need to read about someone else falling in love with a falsely amazing man. ;-) And I wasn't in the mood for a mystery or murder type book. I like James Patterson and Stuart Woods, but that just wasn't my mood. And I likewise was not at all interested in a book about a twenty-something starting her career in New York. Good grief---how many such books are out there? The whole "devil wears prada" craze seems to have gotten out of hand.

I was going to get Alice Sebold's new book. But it's not in paperback yet, and I could not bring myself to taking a hard-cover to the beach.

But finally, I found the book: "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. This looked like a book I could really enjoy--and appreciate. Funny, though, I don't think it's fiction. It's about the author's year spent traveling and soul-searching.

I also picked up the a book by the guy who wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy--Nick Hornby. The on I got is A Long Way Down.

Alrighty. My flight's about to start boarding, and I'm going to head off. I'll post more over the next two weeks as I have internet. It's nice---leaving my cell phone at home and knowing some places will have nothing pulling at me.

:-)