Cast your votes:

So, it is two weeks 'til Spring Break and I have yet to solidify my plans, or to even make up my mind whether I need any plans. Nearly ALL my compatriates at LCC have friends and/or family coming to visit them during the break, so I do not have a travel partner. Anything I choose will mean spending lots of days by myself - something that can be both good or bad for me, depending upon my state of mind at the time. Thus far this year I have come up with the following ideas for break, and then summarily dismissed them:

1. Go spend a week at Taize, the ecumenical Christian community in southern France. Pros: very cheap, would be a reflective and relational time. Cons: can't get there easily (long bus rides), can't get there 'til after my friend's wedding on March 10th.

2. Fly to Sweden on cheapo RyanAir (seriously, this is really cheap) and stay in a little B&B or something. Pros: I love Sweden. Cons: Sweden itself, once you are there, is prohibitively expensive. Plus, it's still cold there.

3. Go to Norway and stay with my uncle Larry's cousin, (how distant a relation can you get?!) Klara Johanna. Pros: I want to see Norway! I could be a total mooch, in the great family tradition of mooching. Cons: I'd still have to get there, from Riga, and that's not cheap. Also, I never got a reply email from her, so I'd probably be best not to just show up. :)

4. Forget the long bus rides, the trickily-timed RyanAir flights, the border patrol... and stay near Klaipeda. I do, after all, live near both Palanga and the Curonian Spit - major Lithuanian holiday destinations, with B&Bs aplenty. I thought about renting a cottage in Nida, an old fishing village on the Spit, and spending my days poking around the dunes, writing, and bicycling. Pros: the least stressful option; I could come home if I got bored; it's economical. Cons: I've been to Nida a lot; it is likely to still be VERY cold in two weeks (it's been below zero here this week) so my idea of biking and walking are not terribly feasible.

5. MOUNTAINS! In my "I must go to the mountains" mania of last week, I managed to plan an entire trip to Southern Poland and Tatra Mountains National Park, utilizing the bus schedules online, my very weak Polish interpretation skills, and my friend Jerilyn's hiking maps (she has been there twice). Pros: I can do this trip cheaply, but it will take a lot of logistical planning beforehand; I'd get to see beautiful mountains. Cons: I'd be by myself - which means I wouldn't actually do much hiking or skiing. Who wants to do that alone? (Plus, it's sort of engrained in me that one does not walk around in the mountains, in winter, alone).

So, you see here my dilema. None of these are as yet closed to me as options. But, I just can't make up my mind what I really want to do. I hear God telling me to take some time and really work on writing some things I've been putting off lately - so my main goal is simply to get myself away from my internet connection and get some small change of scenery. What would you choose, dear readers?