Starting new travels tomorrow......2 months into my self declared "gap year". I quit my job as Executive Director of Portland's Business for Culture & the Arts in March, after 3 years of enjoying a romp through the dynamic arts and culture scene putting together businesses and employees with nonprofit arts and culture boards, projects and pathways. It was time to get my energy back after a very full 15 months navigating Lynn's journey through lung cancer (which is chronicled in the Up and Down the Hill blog). My mother, indefatigable traveller par excellence, invited me to tour Iceland, and my friend Christy invited me to join her during her teaching gig in Barcelona, so I added a trip to Paris and to Prague and organized two months of European adventures.
In preparation for the trip I did a few key things:
-- Took a sketchbook journalling class at Oregon College of Art and Craft with Suki Allen
-- Signed up to attend the Theatre Scene Design Quadrennial
-- Read one Icelandic saga (can't pronounce anything in that language yet!)
-- Invited son Jess to apartment sit with his wife Nicole and their new son Asa (my first grandchild)
-- Enrolled in a Spanish language class for two weeks in Barcelona
Today is my last day in Portland until July 13th. Do I have aspirations for this trip? Hmm. It started as a chance to see a few new sights and revisit old haunts....My guess is that it would be valuable to be somewhat more intentional about the adventure. More on this as it takes shape. In the meantime, off to last minute errands - notifying the bank, getting a french phrase book, returning library materials, repacking...and finishing my first knitting project since college - Asa's car seat blanket!
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