Green Suits, Green Islands

Admittedly, the last two posts have been a bit less upbeat than my typical clown-and-kitten parade, but all that changes now. Two awesome things are happening that you all ought to know about.

First, I will be participating tomorrow in the World's Largest Environmental Action Ever. Yes, ever. At the latest count, there were over 4500 events happening across 177 countries (that's almost all of them) and I'm going to be at the one at Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) in Copenhagen. Not only will I be participating, but I will be going along with these folks. By the time many of you read this post, I will have edited it to add photos of me in a ridiculous green suit.

The second thing is that I've finished planning my travel break. We have a two-week vacation to do whatever we want from Nov. 1-15, and I'm going to be traveling to Spain and Ireland.

My original plan was to fly down to Barcelona for some pre-COP15 talks, and slowly take a train back north, seeing parts of France and Germany along the way. It turns out that it wasn't as great of a plan as I thought. I'd be doing it alone, not just in terms of traveling companions, but also in terms of knowing anyone along the way. While I liked the idea of being a vagrant and finding my own way and all that, I realized that having someone to show you around is really nice. I could see some things, but I wouldn't know what I was looking at. Now, I realize that's unecesarily negative, and I think the trip would have been awesome if I did it. But I realized that there are other things I'd like to do more. So, I got in touch with a few people.

Now my plan is still to start out in Barcelona. I'll be staying with a friend of my mother's. I recognize the privilege present in that. Among other things, I'm getting free lodging for five days of a potentially very expensive trip. The craziest part of it is that my mother is going to take a vacation to visit the aforementioned friend, and she coordinated it to be at the same time so we can see each other in Barcelona. So, that's cool, to say the least.

As far as the second half of my break goes, I thought about people I knew who were studying abroad in Europe this semester. I realized that I actually have three friends in Ireland right now. More specifically, they are friends who are enthusiastic, fun, and like showing me places. So, I'll be spending the middle weekend of the break with my long-time friend Scott in Cork. Monday afternoon I'll be taking a bus north to Galway to see my friends and Orientation Committee comrades, Annie and EC. Expect photos and good stories. Annie, EC and I may spend the last weekend in Belfast, actually. I've left much of the planning to them so that I end up doing some things I wouldn't think to do on my own. Can't wait. I leave in nine days!