I'm a Senior!

(picture: Malibu, CA from 2006)

CHICAGO, IL -- Okay, so I've been a senior by credits for well over a year now, but as of a few hours ago, I'm officially a senior no matter how you slice it. What's more, only one more semester till I graduate - crazy! Where did college go?

Well, here's to summer! School's out and I sure plan on making the most of what's going to be a whole lot of traveling, and time well spent with friends and family. Here's the new summer schedule as of now (and it's still pretty much subject to change at any moment until tickets are actually booked)...

Summer v3.0:

May 14th - School's out for SUMMER!

May 16th-19th - Las Vegas, NV

May 19th-26th - Chicago, IL and Madison, WI

May 26th-June 4th - Louisville, KY; Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Cape Canaveral, FL

June 4th-11th - Chicago, IL and Madison, WI

June 11th-July 17th - Harvard, Cambridge, MA

July 18th - Winnipeg, Manitoba

July 19th-26th - Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories

July 26th - Winnipeg, Manitoba

July 27th-August 2nd - Chicago, IL and Madison, WI

August 2nd-15th - Stanford, Palo Alto, CA

August 15th-24th - Israel

August 24th-September - Chicago, IL and Madison, WI

So there you have it! A few dates have changed, such as my flying out to Boston a day earlier. Most obvious is that I've added a trip to ISRAEL! The trip is for Birthright Israel alumni from North America to work at a week-long summer camp for children from Sderot, the town in southern Israel only 1 mile from the Gaza Strip that is constantly under Kassam rocket attack.

There's really only about 2-3 weeks all summer I'll be home, and the biggest chunk of that is after this weekend in Vegas. Also, besides the Israel trip, which is not booked and still I would put it only at about a 60-70% chance of happening (not bad odds, but not anything I'm willing to say is set either), the dates of that road trip are still up in the air for a few reasons. As of right now, STS-124, the space shuttle launch I'm going to see, is still scheduled for 5:01:50PM ET on May 31st, but it is still by no means set. I'm checking it pretty much every day to see if they change it, and the longer time goes by, the better the odds that they don't delay it (except for weather). So, as I've said before, in the next week leading up to when I would have to leave, hotels and whatnot will be booked and the dates will become a little more concrete.

Also, a total side note, but I've made the decision that I'm going to space. I know, sounds impossible, right? Wrong! Virgin Galactic, the team that sponsored SpaceShipOne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Ship_One), which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for becoming the first private group to send a human into space twice within 10 days and safely return, is currently accepting bookings for flights on SpaceShipTwo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo). Currently, it costs $200,000 to book your flight, but as more are booked (they have something like 200 flights already booked, pretty impressive), the price will drop to $175,000, then $150,000, etc. until it settles at $20,000. Don't get me wrong, 20 grand is a LOT of money, but on the other hand, this is SPACE! How amazing would that be? I'm going to start saving my pennies right now and maybe by summer 2015 I can go...

That's all for now - my next post should be from the bright lights of Vegas this weekend!