In The Beginning

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only see them with our eyes open" (Jawaharial Nehre)

Wow . . . Charlene and I have been planning this adventure for so long that it is hard to believe that we are now only a few days away from take off. Here is how we got to this point:

We have had a love affair with Italy since we first visited in 1986. In March of 2007, we were once again in Rome where Charlene took part in the Team Diabetes Marathon. On the plane home, Charlene was watching the movie "A Good Year" (if you haven't seen it, make sure you do. It's one of her favorites!) The dream began . . . somehow we could live out the theme of that movie in Italy instead of France. Problem number 1 was money. As Charlene was already feeling the desire to return to what she was trained for, the means to the end would be for the teacher to teach. And so in the summer of 2007 Charlene added to her teaching degree and became certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).

Through much research (how did we exist before the internet?) Italy, and Europe in general were ruled out. It is difficult to get a teaching job in Europe without an EU passport an so we reluctantly began looking elsewhere.

In the meantime, Charlene was ready and prepared for a career shift, but could I secure a leave of absence? The first step was to approach my boss. After a calm and reasonable discussion about the possibilities, I resorted to . . .



















....groveling, begging and pleading.

Next it was off to see the GM. I knew him to be a reasonable man, and after a calm and reasonable discussion, we came to an agreement.....















A few months of spit, polish and servitude seemed like a small toll to pay on the road to a dream.
But seriously folks, CTV was very receptive to my request.

As mentioned earlier, we had yet to settle on a location but felt that language lessons were in order, and Spanish seemed to be a logical choice. January through April were spent studying Espanol one night per week. Oh yeah . . . , everything that you have heard about learning a second language beyond childhood it true! We managed to fool our instructor into believing that we had absorbed something, and surprisingly, we graduated from Spanish levels 1 & 2.






Spanish teacher Maria Nesbet








However, the question remained . . . "Where will we go?"

South America soon became our target, and through more research and good old fashioned networking, we soon discovered several direct connections to Chile. We now had time off, a destination, a second language (sort of), a plan for taking care of our home (thank you again Andrea and Jason!) and too much time and energy invested to turn back. As we often said throughout this period, "This train has left the station". By mid-June, we had booked our tickets to Santiago, Chile.

Anyone who has traveled abroad will know the importance of vaccinations, and while Chile is considered very safe in this regard, some injections were in order.



















And as difficult as the needles were, and those who know me well will know, paying for them was even worse!















For the record . . . there is no Malaria or Yellow Fever in Chile.

The summer has been a blur of endless details but also a time to gather with family and friends prior to departure. We were overwhelmed by the fuss and appreciative of the effort.











































Is this the pursuit of a dream, middle age-crazy, or just plain CRAZY?
We invite you to stay tuned!

"A love relationship is based on a desire to grow and to expand one-self through living, and a desire for ones partner to do the same" (Stanton Peele)

N & C