January 28, 2011: Plans for the Future

January 28, 2011: It is hard to believe that my stay in Budapest is half way over. As you can tell from my blog, I've enjoyed my stay here immensely and now feel close to my Hungarian hosts -- fellow teachers, students, and friends. However, it is time that I start thinking about how I will return to Los Angeles. As I've mentioned previously, via Facebook I was put in touch with some of my first students when I was a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1970. These students have all grown, raised families, and some of them are probably grandparents by now! It's hard to believe that these "boys" who were about the age of the students I have now have grown to become that "old". So, since returning to Los Angeles is roughly halfway around the world, I've decided to go east instead of west to visit Kuala Lumpur and see them. And, since I'm in the area, I thought it would be fun to see if I could visit any of my former students and friends from Korea and China. So, I sent out e-mails to a friend from each of Malaysia, Korea, and China and was very pleased to receive replies within one day! It looks like I'm all set for visiting Kuala Lumpur in late June. However, my student from Korea now lives in Cupertino, California, and unfortunately he, too, has lost contact with his fellow students. He did however, send me the whereabouts of several classmates and many of these "boys" are now professors at various universities around the world. Therefore, it looks like if I want to visit them, I'd have to do so in the US or wherever they are located now. So, I may have to cross Korea off my list of potential visiting spots on the way home if I can't find anyone to visit. My friend in China, too, has lost contact with some of our friends and has told me, in fact, that some of them have passed on. However, since he is excited to visit with me, I'll be going to Beijing, China. He said he may convince some of them to come to Beijing to see me. That should be fun.

Then, since I've never been to Cambodia before, I thought I would spend a couple days there seeing Angkor Wat. I've heard such wonderful things about the ruins there. And, since I haven't been to Shanghai since 1980, I thought I would revisit it to see all the progress that thriving metropolis has sustained. Therefore, my trip from Budapest to Los Angeles will take a few weeks to complete. And I'm sure by then, I'll be ready to rest for a while.

As for plans for the near future, Ruth is planning on returning to Budapest in mid April and will be staying possibly for three weeks. Hopefully she'll be up to going to see Tosca by Puccini, one of my favorite operas on April 15th. My kids will join us during that time and perhaps we'll take a family vacation. I've always wanted to visit Krakow, Poland. I hear that it, along with Prague and Budapest, are the three "pearls" of Eastern Europe. It would really be great to see the third pearl I've yet to visit. 

Then, in very late April to early May, Ruth and I will be joining a tour of other CETP teachers and we'll be going to Transylvania in Romania. The high points of the tour include places not normally covered by standard tour companies and we'll be staying in the houses of Hungarians who live in that area. Sounds very interesting. Don't worry -- I'll be packing my garlic when visiting Dracula's Castle.

As for May, my mother will be coming to visit me along with two close friends of hers. My mom will arrive May 17th just in time for her birthday the following day. If there are tickets available, I'll be taking her to see Rigoletto at the Opera House. That's one of my mom's favorite operas. Her friends will arrive the day after that and the three of them will spend some time going to Prague.

Then just before I leave in June, Ruth's brother and his wife will be visiting Budapest where they will begin a river cruise up the Danube. They'll be staying here a couple of days before the cruise begins so it will be fun to show them some of the things I've come to love about Budapest -- but where to start? There's really too much to show them in two short days.

You can see there is no end to the excitement that I'll be having the next several months -- so although many people would probably give me a grade of "F" for retirement, I definitely get an "A" for adventure. I'll keep everyone posted as things progress.