May 28, 2018
Dear Family and Friends,
Once again I am planning a summer filled with adventures which I want to share with you. I want to inform and enlighten you with my observations of the world outside of my cozy home in southern California. My less lofty goal is to make you a little envious of my travel adventures. If, by chance, you would prefer not to receive these wonderful letters, just drop me a note and I will remove you from my huge mailing list. Of course this will hurt my feelings, but I will probably recover - eventually.
My wife, Tatyana, and I plan to fly to St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 10 and return home on August 19. We will stay with Tanya’s son, Svyatoslav, in his apartment in St. Petersburg. Tanya’s mother, Anastasia, will join us from her home in Belarus. Alexander (whom we call Sasha) also lives in St. Petersburg with his wife; so we will spend time with him as well.
I am also planning to fly to Israel in July to take a two week intensive course in Palestinian Arabic in the beautiful, old seaside city of Akko.
Part of the fun of travel for me is planning and preparation. I’m in the process of deciding what to pack in one suitcase (to weigh no more than 50 pounds [23 kg]) and a carry-on. The challenge is to pack clothing for the cool and capricious weather of St. Petersburg as well as the consistently hot and dry weather of Akko.
I may try to attach an occasional photo to my letters, but more likely I will post photos on my Facebook page and perhaps Instagram. If you are not yet a Facebook friend, just ask me to befriend you and I will.
As usual I welcome your feedback, questions, comments and rebuttals.
My next letter will probably arrive during the week of June 10, 2018, If you don’t hear from me that week, it will mean that we didn’t make it or that I am suffering so much from ten hours worth of time change (aka jet lag) that I forgot to write.
Grace and Peace,
Bill Goff
