I was really hoping to keep the airfare down to $800 or so, but it's starting to look as though that isn't happening. I've been through eight zillion travel sites and there's not much variation. The hard part is that it appears that taxes amount to almost as much as the actual airfare, which seems crazy.
And another irony is that between the two best flights, one has two US legs, where I would be charged $25-35 per leg for a checked bag (and no one can do 10 days overseas in a carry-on) while a non-stop out of Atlanta which is $70 more starts looking better and better because you get one free checked bag on international flights.
Bah.
Speaking of bags, I have a short trip to make soon and I hauled out my bag and realized that my "big" suitcase is a 21-incher - actually legal as a carry-on, even though it's really far too large for that in my reality. So I went online and gulped at the cost of a garment bag or larger suitcase in the same line. And then started looking for for something similar and cheaper, matched set be damned. But then, on my way to get the watch battery replaced (of course, with all sorts of other things going on, my watch battery had to expire - Hello, Murphy!) I stopped at TJMaxx to look at their luggage and darned if I didn't find "my" suitcase in the size I wanted for about $20 less than eBay (that's a first). I'd LOVE to find the matching garment bag, but I'm not holding my breath - this is as much luck as I'm likely to get.
I've worked my way through about half of the Pimsleur lessons. I listen and repeat in the car driving back and forth to work. It takes 2-3 days to start getting through one module, but that's OK. I can follow the Italian parts of the lesson and that's the part I worry about, the hearing and understanding.
I hope to spend some of my time off over the holiday going over my books and trying to make myself out some sort of tentative schedule of museums - I don't want to be over-scheduled, but I also don't want to waste time and miss things by not having a plan.
Still haven't taken care of the International Driver's License stuff. Life has intervened.
