Travel plans: past & future

In 2008 and 2009 I had a lot of botched travel plans.

In September 2008 I was going to Munich for a few months to study German and possibly find teaching work, but 24 hours before I was supposed to get on the plane my living arrangement fell through and I doubted my ability to find something suitable just as Munich was ramping up for Oktoberfest.

In January/February 2009 I had plane tickets to go to Madrid and Chicago, but I got a job instead and canceled that trip.

In April 2009 I had a ticket to go to Montreal for a long weekend, but all the flights everywhere were thrown off by the dense fog in San Francisco that grounded planes for a couple days. I only made it as far as Seattle before giving up and coming home.

When Munich in '08 didn't work out, I wrote:
"Plan to go to Italy in January or March [2009] for one month to take an Italian class and work on the novel.

"Plan to go to Germany next October [2009] for one month to take a German class and work on the novel.

"Plan to go to China in 2010 to teach for a semester at a Chinese university, to learn some Chinese, and to work on the novel."

Sadly, none of these plans have come to fruition due to life circumstances and lack of funds. (Though I have found other ways to fit in working on the novel. Hurrah!)

As soon as I got back from the Caribbean last month, people started asking me, "Where are you going next?" I find it interesting that I seem to have built a reputation for myself as a traveler despite so many failed attempts to travel. But I can hardly blame people for asking when I have managed to leave the country three times in the past five months.

And it just so happens that I do have two ready answers to the question of where I'm going next.
-In September 2011 Mom (and possibly my brother) and I plan to go to Montreal for a week or so
-In March 2012 my friends Joe & Linda have offered to show me around their native island of Maui

I'm also thinking about:
-Chicago this spring, to visit friends and because I've never been there before
-Paris in December 2011/January 2012, because I love that city and it seems like a good opportunity to try out the Couchsurfing network
-New Zealand, perhaps the week immediately following the week in Maui in 2012

My ever-growing list of places I'd like to go sometime in the future also currently includes Italy, China, Japan, Argentina, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, and South Korea. These are, of course, in addition to revisiting Spain, Portugal, England, Wales, France, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland and the Dominican Republic.

I really hope I'm not jinxing these plans and aspirations by writing about them. =*)

Where else should I go?