It’s official now (as in, I’ve got my tickets). I will be travelling “around the world” first class for work. Funny how it’s cheaper that way (at least through the company travel agency).

Unfortunately, while the rest of the party will be going to Sydney and Tokyo, I’ll be meeting up with them in Beijing. I really can’t complain, but it’d be really neat to attempt to practice my Japanese.

I start on March 13 with a flight to Beijing, China. It’s not a direct flight – I have a stop over in Chicago, but the flight from Chicago to Beijing will be freaking long. I know they go over the north pole to save time, but it’ll still be the longest flight I’ve ever been on. From there, the travel plans are fuzzy – currently we’re planning on flying to Brussels via Copenhagan, then traveling by car or rail throughout Europe. We may change those tickets to fly direct from China to Frankfurt. Then fly from Brussels to London. I’ll leave London on April 3 to fly back to the states.

I promised my mom I’d take her to Europe this year, and I was trying to get her to fly to London and meet me, but she really doesn’t want to fly overseas herself. So she and I are going to go over later. I’ll have more vacation, and be able to take her for longer. She wants to see everything possible.