June 18, 2009

London Preflight

At the Groome Station, Macon.

I leave for London tomorrow. As part of the European Council Study Abroad Program, I’ll be teaching in London for five weeks, starting Monday! I’m privileged to have been chosen for this experience, and I haven’t been to the UK since 1999-2000. I’m very excited and a bit anxious.

I’m teaching two classes: London as Text and World Literature II. The latter is totally prepped; the former, not so much. I still have to (re)read the texts myself, but I’m trying not to sweat it.

I’m taking the 5D and my two lenses to get some awesome pictures of the trip. We’ve got a weekend in Paris planned and this Saturday (or Sunday) we’re going to Hampton Court. Between just those two excursions and living in central London, I’m going to have too many photo opportunities. Also, between my two classes, we have eight field trips. I hope I have enough hard drive space to accommodate everything I’ll want to shoot. I’ll have to be judicious—difficult for me.

I’ve enjoyed the couple of days I’ve been home since reading AP exams. I’m gonna miss Autumn, my cats, my car, and my home. Still, A will be joining me in July, and we’ll have a week on our own after I’m finished teaching. She’s planning our trip then, and I think we’re going to Rome for a few days. Whatever we do will be fun. I know we’ll hang out in London for a few days with Autumn’s cousin Dwayne. I’m looking forward to seeing some parts of the city that the tourists don’t get to see. Right, Dwayne?

Well, I plan to post photos to Flickr, grlucas.com, and perhaps to RI. I’ll be blogging here as much as I can and be sending updates to Facebook and Twitter, though not as often as I’d like, since I’ll not be able to use my iPhone because AT&T rapes us for international use. Jerks.

Anyway, stay tuned for some great stuff.