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“Me Proveró”
In Italian this means- I’ll try - something I would not have known had I not been facebook chatting with a friend of mine in Italy when my Starbucks neighbor began speaking on his phone. I’m not sure what else he said… I was more interested in chatting with my friend than in trying to decipher the phonetics of his Italian. But I do know that, unbeknownst to him, and not really knowing what they were talking about, I found myself sending nice thoughts to him and his caller. It seems weird to me that we live in an age where the technicalities of communication are so simple. I still remember a time when my mother would have me write letters to my grandparents, or a Sunday phone call was a big deal. In the hall of my home there even stood an antique phone, where you had to wind the lever to reach the operator. It no longer worked. But it was a wonderful plaything, a spot to perch toys, and a frequent obstacle when exiting our rooms. (I frequently bumped my head on it.) To my nana though, it must have been like a phone with a cord is to me: a link to friends in the past. But while the act communicating has become easier, the communication itself feels more difficult. Even discounting a world where speaking with someone in a foreign country (who speaks another language) is like shouting up the stairs for my daughter, using multitudes of vehicles for expressing myself can become burdensome. Phone, cell phone, email, Twitter, text , blogs, comments, Facebook (fan and personal pages), chats within just about any of these channels – the list goes on. And, what works for one person doesn’t for another. Does someone like to text with me or Facebook, or email or speak in person. I have to try to remember this, or inundate them via multiple channels. And although all of these avenues make me feel connected in a way I never have before, they also are misleading. I feel close to my Italian friends, but am really not part of their life in any meaningful way. I think I know what is important to my local friends by checking their Facebook posts, and then find they had a major surgery or took a life-changing trip, from their Holiday card. My comfort zone still lies in personal interactions. So, although my trip this summer is primarily to go to England… I suddenly find myself considering a side trip to Italy. I don’t know if I will be able to swing it, but as I told my friend there, “Me proveró.” I’m still waiting to hear about your favorite or planned trips. Leave a comments and let me know what journeys have inspired you and I will enter you into a drawing to win a copy of any one of Daniel Davidson's Travel Free Guides to one lucky commenter during the month of January. Leave your comment and then check back at the end of the month to see if you won. Good Luck and Happy Journey. P.S. In case you haven't found him yet, Daniel Davidson is a travel writer with great advice on saving money while traveling. Check him out at his website: http://www.freetravelideas.com/
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“Now I’ll be able to use my English accent and people will understand me.”
To be fair, my daughter does have a unique ability to mimic accents and voices. This isn’t always a good thing as we’ve had a few awkward moments when she was younger and people may have thought she was making fun of them. Her favorite accent is a Northern English one. I believe she learnt it at an early age while watching a kids show on t.v.- but it never ceases to amaze me how spot on she is with it. And, indeed, she will get to try it out in person this summer. True to my New Year’s Resolution, we started off 2014 by making the reservation for our trip to England this summer. I have a million ideas for our itinerary battling for attention in my head right now. But since the purpose of the trip is to do research for my next book, this sets the priority. Fortunately for both me and my daughter, the trip is based around a mother and daughter’s visits to competing tourist locations of Jane Austen and Harry Potter. There are so many possible sites for each of these that even that will be difficult to cull. The filming of Harry Potter and the many Jane Austen stories has covered many English locales. But the point of the story will be the mother’s conflict between literary pride and commercial prejudice. Expect some romance thrown in there (for my character, not me:>) and it is a story I am really eager to write. It also is a great way to prioritize which of these many locations we visit. I read somewhere that having a goal is a great way to focus a trip. At the same time the author wrote that while the goal might help create the itinerary, the real journey takes place in the experiences, planned or unplanned, along the way. So, while we will be excited to visit friends in England, and eager to finally go to some places my daughter has on her bucket list (like Highclere Castle, Stonehenge and The British museum for the Rosetta Stone,) the purpose of our trip is to experience our mother/daughter time, and allow it to inform the manuscript. We may even blog about it from each of our POVs... a record, so to speak, of this personal and emotional journey for each of us. In the meantime, I’ll try to share our itinerary with you as it grows, and I’ll look forward to your suggestions. I like to hope it will be a Journey Inspired by Love and enjoyed by many. Happy New Year! Here’s to your own Journeys Inspired by Love in 2014. Deanne Have you visited any must-see Harry Potter or Jane Austen sites? Do you have any big journeys (literal or metaphorical) planned for 2014? I love to hear from my blog readers! And to prove it I'll give a copy of any one of Daniel Davidson's Travel Free Guides to one lucky commenter during the month of January. Leave your comment and then check back at the end of the month to see if you won. Good Luck and Happy Journey. P.S. In case you haven't found him yet, Daniel Davidson is a travel writer with great advice on saving money while traveling. Check him out at his website: http://www.freetravelideas.com/ |
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Deanne WilstedLink here to Betting Jessica on Amazon.com Archives
June 2020
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