The Journey Begins Des Moines to London

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Dateline Des Moines - March 10, 2009

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I have been preparing for this trip since June of 2008. To begin my longstory short, I am a life long learner and traveler. I love to travel and traveling anywhere outside Iowa is my goal. To my Iowa friends and family, you know me as Ann. To my Trinidad family, you know me as Sandra. This too is a longstory.

To begin my longstory short, I am a graduate of Drake University with a masters degree in public administration (MPA). I hold two other degrees (University of Northern Iowa and Allen School of Nursing) but I am most proud of my MPA degree. As a gift to myself, I enrolled in this Comparative Management course in 2003. I just wanted to travel to Europe. What I got out of it, besides the "A", is that I fell in love with Europe. More about that at a later date.

Since 2004, I have been assisting Dr. C. Ken Meyer with the annual Comparative Management course. First it was the website, then some administrative work and now assisting with the procurement of the travel programs. The 2009 subject matter is Sustainable Management, taking us from London to Brussels to Amsterdam to Berlin to Munich to Venice and ending in Nice. We do this all in 19 days via motorcoach. More about that at a later date.

To compliment the trip, we have a new website, . I will be blogging along the way, but blogging as part of the group. To be fair to everyone, the blog will be about the group travel and not about me. So after reading a blog by Clarissa Unger (intern at the US Mission in Brussels) I decided to start a travelblog for this trip. And if successful, will add on.

So here goes, one day before departure and as much as I have planned, it always comes down to the wire: paying bills, getting packed, cleaning the house, stocking up on groceries, packing personal and course stuff, charging my laptop (bought a new netbook for the the trip), organizing my travel books, did I say pack my bags (checking 1 and carrying 1 plus my purse), get cash, finish my work and so forth and so forth. I am exhausted and we have not left yet. It's 11:30 and time to sign off.

I wanted to end my blog entry with a saying. I hope you all like this one.

LongStory Short,
Ann

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Comments

[Carole]

nice one
I like the "Long story short" theme. I promise to proof you for spelling for the first leg of the trip. See you in London.

[Judy SB]

first blog
Hey Ann! nice job.... "long story short".... also remember XYZ! Thinking of you as you travel.

[judy SB]

first blog
Hey Ann, nice job! I like the "long story short".... but don't forget the XYZ!