Orange Chip Scones

I am nervous about my trip to Italy. Excited and nervous. As I was just telling my friend Amy on the telephone, I once had the cojones to travel to places like Dominican Republic, Mexico, Czech Republic without a bit knowledge of the language or culture, without a job, plan, or contact.

Tomorrow I leave for Italy. I will meet up with 4 women in JFK and together we will be flying into Nice, France and then traveling by train to Sanremo, Italy. Here we will endure a week long training course along with 170 other English teachers. There after we will be placed in a language school somewhere north of Rome where we will be teaching children the English language through drama, dance, and music workshops.

Where I once believed the success of travel could be measured by the number of sexy men I'd meet, beaches I'd watch the sun go down, boats I'd travel swamps through, I now conclude that if I do nothing else but eat big plates of pasta and hunks of local cheese I will consider this trip a good one.

I made some scones tonight to divert my nervous anticipation. In the same conversation with Amy we got to talking about the difference between baking and cooking. With cooking one can be more improvisational but with baking certain steps need to be followed for a successful outcome. I think this is why when I am nervous I bake. I get my mind focused. I do not let it wander off to thoughts of if my suitcase is packed, if I should bring a big tube or a little tube of toothpaste, if I have enough money, clothes, time to get from points A to B to C.

I am going to kick back with a warm scone and a glass of iced water and watch some Glee. I have a distance to go tomorrow.