I would love to go to Iran. I read books about it and from it and study the language even with the knowledge I will probably never go.
But you never know!
If you find a spare moment, please check out my new blog, thefaithfultranslator.wordpress.com, and please tell me what you think of it, whether your comments be good, bad or ugly. I want to hear the truth. You cannot offend me, you can only encourage me or save me from embarrassment. It's win-win. I assume (and hope) the quality of the content will improve or at the very least become less abstract once I get my feet wet in the business or just proceed with my studies. So for now it is just a testing ground. So far the only feedback I have to go on is the complete lack thereof, which is a bit discouraging...but this is something I love to talk and write about, so after all just doing it and keeping going is a reward in itself.
On life lately: work is intensifying, but I'm glad to be occupied with meaningful work. I moved into a new flat and while I absolutely love having my own place, and am extremely grateful, I feel a bit as though I live in a hotel, a temporary holding station, where I can eat and sleep until I go. My possessions are beginning to find new homes; projects are beginning to wrap up; I'm doing the last studies and readings I'll have the chance to do in the Holy Land; and I'm spending my last hours in the Shrines. Oh, and I've already made tentative plans to come back. I have some friends who were thinking of traveling to some combination of Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Italy--all places I would have loved to visit if money were no object--next month, but they decided to save their pennies for the transition home. So, with any good fortune, we will visit some combination of these countries together plus Israel five or ten or so years down the road. But, first things first...such as enjoying our last months together--we're leaving in June. Oh, and visiting each other in Madison when we're back in our respective parts of the US, in, say, July.
