Communication, Tickets, and Mapping

My poor neglected blog.....I promise that I haven't forgotten you! I worked on three assignments today which gives me some down time to work on my neglected baby.

First of all....grad school is for the birds....I don't like it. Haven't learned anything profound. Can't wait until I'm done. Only a couple more weeks before it's "Goodbye UAB"!

Now down to business.......

I have been itching to get outside and start hiking again. My poor body isn't going to know what to do with itself walking/hiking so many miles soon. Candy texted me a picture today of her outing

....what a turd (don't worry, I did text her back telling her)....rubbing it in that she's getting ready. You just wait until I get out there again Missy! LOL. Now school (work) is coming up soon, so I will have to split my time working to get my room ready and training. I think that hiking will have to be a weekend adventure until I get my goods together with work.

Communication...This is giving me some trouble, because I just can't find a simple solution to not wanting to carry a camera, video camera, and a phone with me. Who needs all those devices anyways??? There has been some perusing on the message boards trying to figure out the best solution. People talk about getting an unlocked phone then putting a Spanish SIM card in the phone. Others have mentioned just using an iPod for Skyping using Wi-Fi. While a few people said that they just got a simple Spanish pre-paid for a few Euros. Still not sure what I want to do. If Candy does get to go the whole way with me, I'm not going to worry about carrying a phone since I can Skype and send emails with Wi-Fi. But if she doesn't I will have to figure out something else. Thinking about talking with my cell phone company to see what they say. Any suggestions??

Tickets....It's almost that time--purchase those plane tickets (trip is LESS than a year away). Wow! I never thought that it would get about that time. There are several routes that I could go, but they are pretty pricy. The ticket service that I was going to use turns out isn't very reputable, so now it's to plan B--whatever that is. It could be me flying to JFK with one airline then having a separate ticket with a different airline to Paris. I am not too sure if I am comfortable with that though (I don't think Candy is either). Anyone out there know of an easy and cheap way to get to Paris?? Ha ha ha.

Mapping...Once school is over, I am going to sit down and map out the rendezvous points for each day. This will help me be able to make some hotel reservations (it's going to be for one of those swanky hotels too) for the end of the trip and tickets home. Also, it will keep those at home an idea of where I am at everyday. 

I might use stops "Cutie of The Camino" uses (it's linked if you want to take a look)

Spanish...Again, once school is over it's Spanish learning time. Okay, my brain totally broke out into MC Hammer's "Hammer Time", ha ha ha! Back on track. Last year, I downloaded a podcast created by Scottish people for learning Spanish (I know....Scottish talking Spanish?? It's okay to laugh, because I did). I just haven't gotten around to really listening to it. When I did for a couple of weeks, the only phrase I learned was "I'm from the United States". It might be important to know more for my gluten free self especially if I am going to be by myself for part of the time.

The next few months can't pass by fast enough!!!