travels ahead!

Well I am excited! My friend and colleague, Deb Russell, from Alberta, is doing work with the Ukrainian Deaf and interpreting communities, and in a flash of inspiration she emailed me to say, hey, can you get a cheap flight from England, I've got a hotel room. So I thought, hmmm, sounds good...and long story short, I am heading to Kiev next Monday Nov. 12 and returning Sat. Nov. 17. I'll go along with Deb on tours of Deaf schools, meetings, etc.--it will be great to be with people who live there...and of course I will manage to do my own touristy things when she is in serious meetings. So, watch here for my photos of Ukraine. One thing I know for sure, it is going to be COLD. And there may be SNOW (you all know how I panic at the sight of snow!)

Mary is heading to Birmingham on Wednesday for a meeting of people who work in her field. Then we are hoping to meet in London on Saturday and stay overnight...just trying to arrange accommodation that is even halfway affordable.

I am spending a lot of my time on the internet, looking for cheap flights, hotels, looking for directions and maps...it is amazing how much time it takes. Luckily I am not busy with work and other things so I have the hours to spend.

England is just an amazing place with so much to see. I am having to get used to the idea that we will only scratch the surface of what is available while we are here because there is just so much...and we are also limited in time and energy. And Mary DOES need to do schoolwork--she is coming up to due dates so is starting to feel the crunch a bit more.

I'm driving a bit more, still freaked out by the narrow roads and those roundabouts--I just can't get the hang of who has the right of way. But I just slow down and if someone else is stopping then I figure I can go. Mary is driving like she's been here for years but she tells me she went through her own nervous adjustment at first too.

The days have been sunny mostly, which is so great, and the nights are getting COLD. Imagine, we are in November already! We are looking forward to Bill's visit--he's a friend and colleague of Mary's from New Hampshire, who is travelling to South Africa, Zambia and Ghana for work (I may have one of those countries wrong) and then is stopping over for a few days in early December to visit with us.

I went to Bristol last Friday, where there is a Centre for Deaf Studies at the university. Took the train, then a bus--of course I missed my stop, but some very helpful women on the bus were kind enough to describe how I could get back to the right spot...so I found it, and attended a seminar they were presenting. Then had lunch with the presenter and other professors, and met Paddy Ladd, who is a brilliant author and researcher in the field. I am so impressed with many Deaf people--they know 2 or 3 sign languages, and lucky for me, one that is common is ASL, which I know, so I am able to talk with them. I'm trying to learn some BSL (British Sign Language) but well, it IS another language, so it takes time.

A Deaf woman I know from Vancouver is attending the university to do her Masters in Deaf Studies, so I saw her last Friday, and it was great to connect. We are planning to do some exploring of the surrounding area together.

So that's the news from this end. Lovely to keep hearing from all of you, and if I don't post again before Ukraine, you will definitely be hearing from me after my return!

Karen