jawnbc | quand tu es faim dans la nuit

Aside from some administrative things to do (like file grades), I am finished teaching for the summer. It's been a great experience and it's been really nice to get rid of some pesky, annoying debts in the process. I should be down to just my student loans well before Christmas. I'll be teaching this course again in January (and again in May 2010), but will probably keep that cycle: teaching 10 months a year gets real old real fast. Suffice to say I'll be teaching one class of 25, rather than three.

It's a public holiday here in British Columbia (BC Day, in fact), and having a long weekend--even with some marking--has been fookin' great! Friday was a full-on work day, but Himself and I had a nice Friday evening (doing what, no idea, brain fart). Saturday was productive and restful, including several hours by the pool. Beginning Saturday the daytime temperatures stayed around 25-28--perfect really--and blue skies. Saturday evening we went to an acquaintance's place across the road to watch the last night of the fireworks. Same guys, same apartment as last year. Aside from the host being a heavy smoker (not many of those left in Vancouver) and the stank of stale tobacco, it was great. Particularly on the balcony...

Today was a loafy morning, some reconnection time with Himself, a bit of grocery shopping, some lunch. Then more pool time. It all had that end of summer/Labour Day vibe to it--strange, really. Whilst ~~roasting~~ relaxing I finalized my itinerary for the November trip to Europe:

18 November YVR-FRA-WAW
19 November arrive Warsaw (2 nights)
21 November fly to Riga (3 nights)
24 November fly to Athens (6 nights)
30 November ATH-FRA-YVR

This is all (probably) contingent on my paper being accepted for the Athens conference, whose dates are 27-29 November. That will give me 2 full days in Athens (25th and 26th): the departure on the 30th is at a torturous 06h30. From what I've researched a full day in Warsaw will give me a feel for the place: everything I've read says Riga is great especially on Saturday nights. And apparently there's a place just outside Riga where one can take a real frickin' bobsleigh ride...we're talkin' FIBT 100km/hour, driven by someone qualified of course.

And this time next week we'll be jetting off to London. Wow!