sure as kilimanjaro rises like olympus above the serengeti

News flash 1: Congrats to my oldest niece on her eighth-grade graduation! I heard that her dress was lovely--I want to see pictures! Of course, I'm not *completely* enthused that my nieces and nephew are growing up so quickly, but they're fantastic kids and hopefully will be fantastic adults (which makes me feel waaaaay older than I am).

News flash 2: Happy birthday (now that it's daytime in America) again to Uncle Mark!

News flash 3: It's going to rain just in time for me and Kerry to go to the train station, judging by how violently my previously-broken finger started aching.

News flash 4: In a shocking change of events, I'm now planning to stay in Dublin a week later and skip the Wampler Family Reunion in Texas. What could possibly convince me to miss the festivities? Well, I was chatting with my former manager from India yesterday; she and her crazy fiance are still there, as are several of my other expat friends. And, they invited me to go to South Africa and Mauritius with them from June 30 to July 9. I initially laughed this off as a joke...until I started doing some analysis (since that's all I'm good for anymore) and realized that this is a golden opportunity. Tickets to Johannesburg from London are about $2000 cheaper than they would be from SF, the time difference is only an hour because I'm going down rather than across, I would get to see six or eight people whom I love and haven't seen in a long time, and this would ensure that I had made it to five of the seven continents before I turn twenty-five. How sweet is that? I was still slightly on the fence, though, until I got this from Heather:

--------------------------
I hear the bodhran drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet Irish conversation
Shes coming in 12:30 flight (from Dublin!)
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide her towards salvation
She stopped Paddy McCootie along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or celtic melodies
He turned to her as if to say, hurry girl, its waiting there for you

Chorus:
Its gonna take a lot to drag Sara away from Dulbin
Theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

The wild boys cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some Expat company
I know that I must do whats right
Sure as Mauritius rises like Sri Lanka from the sea
I seek to cure whats deep inside, frightened of this traveling thing that I've become

Hurry girl, South Afria's waiting there for you

Its gonna take a lot to drag Sara away from Guiness
Theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa, She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa
She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa, She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa
She'll bless the rains down in (south) africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
--------------------------

This is the second time that I've gotten an encouraging email in the form of a rewrite of Toto's seminal song 'Africa' (for the first time, see my brother's attempt to get me to move home: http://saradoesindia.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-bless-rains-down-in-india.html). I love that song, so I find it quite wonderful that other people rewrite it so frequently. Although I must admit that, when I was writing the title to my post, I looked up the line to make sure I knew it...and it turns out that I always thought it was a *leopress* (aka a female leopard, although the word apparently doesn't exist, as I began to suspect when I realized I had no idea how to spell it) but it was actually *Olympus*. That makes so much more sense!!!

Okay, I should wrap up a bit more of my work; I'm leaving in less than two hours for Killarney. I can't wait!