What's the Craic? Tuesday, 11 March 2002. A chara! Dia dhuit! Conas tá tu? Tá mé go maith, gabh raibh maith agat. Since this coming Sunday is Saint Patrick's Day, I would like to wish you a happy one. How are things? I have had a change in plans for the coming weeks. Originally, I had planned to fly from Boston to Chicago and then on to Brussels. From Brussels, I was going to take a train to Amsterdam and spend the weekend there. Then, I was going to take another train from Amsterdam on to Paris and stay there for a five or six days before heading back to Boston. I now realise that such an itinerary was going to be much more costly than I had initially anticipated and I also discovered that all the affordable hotels in Amsterdam were already sold out for this coming weekend. Instead, I have now decided to fly directly from Boston to Paris tomorrow and spend five days there. Then I will fly back to Boston; the following day, I hope to fly down to Buenos Aires. Now that the Argentinian peso has been devalued, Argentina is much more affordable (for foreigners!) and the violent riots that were occuring back in December have subsided since their former leader, Fernando de la Rua, stepped down from power. One of the places where I might stay in Buenos Aires even has free 'tango' lessons. While I am there, I could also take a three-hour ferry ride across the Rio de la Plata to the historic town of Colonia del Sacramento, designated a UNESCO 'World Heritage Site' in 1996, in the neighbouring country of Uruguay. If that plan doesn't work out, I will try and get to Spain instead. After all, I might as well take advantage of all this free time while I have it. Just planning this trip has taken my mind off of my unemployment situation and all the difficulties I am still having trying to collect my unemployment benefits. By the time I get back home, it will be the beginning of April and the spring here in New England. I can then start gardening and jogging (I really need to lose some weight; I have gotten so out of shape!) I will also look into taking some courses at a school or a training facility. On Sunday, in honour of St. Paddy and the 'oulde sod', I'll have a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey and a pint of Guinness and think of you from the 'City of Light'. Wishing you lots of 'craic' (Irish for 'fun' and pronounced 'crack'). Sláinte agus adh mór! Slan go Foil