It’s November?!

We are three months into our one year sabbatical.  I cannot believe it!  The past three months feel simultaneously like they’ve passed in the blink of an eye and also like we’ve been gone for an eternity.  A quick recap by the numbers:

• we’ve stayed in 22 cities across 11 countries;

• we’ve had 2 family members and 8 friends join us for various portions of our trip;

• the shortest overnight stay in a place was 1 night in Mont St. Michel, France and the longest was 8 days in Puglia, Italy (for me and my parents) and 12 days for Ben and the kids in Aci Castello, Sicily;

• we’ve been denied entry and delayed from entering 1 country – Malta;

• we’ve had one cell phone stolen and damaged a second beyond repair;

• we lost (actually were not returned and then reclaimed from Border Patrol) one passport and two stuffed animals (left by accident in Crete and Venice)

• I’ve played my guitar a total of 10 times thus far and still have (overly optimistic) aspirations of returning home a guitar player;

• I’ve practiced learning a new language for 90 days in a row on Duolingo (first French, then Italian) and have been able to use both with some success;

• I’ve lost count of the number (and cost) of COVID tests we’ve had to take.

That is all…for now…