The definition of "gang aft agley"

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!
-- "To A Mouse" by Robert Burns

Some of you may have looked at the calendar and wondered why I'm not in Russia, playing my little heart out and shivering. Well, we ended up cancelling the trip. Of course, I'm a little disappointed, but I think it's for the best. In fact, over the past week, we've all decided this was probably the hand of God. So, what exactly happened?

Um. Actually, I don't know all the details and I don't feel at liberty to post some of those that I know. The up-shot is this: Dr. Voro was given to understand that she was not welcome at the festival. Having our only Russian-speaking companion out of the picture, we (the three grad students) took a careful look at some of the issues we had expected her to help with. The degree of organization of the festival was such that we didn't know some of the details such as address, phone number, and whether or not any heat was available. We were faced with the necessity of travelling to down-town Moscow to take a bus out to Ruza, which was physically impossible for two of us, or finding alternate transportation, which was impossible without a basic knowledge of the language and an precise destination. Even had we been able to surmount these obstacles, we still didn't know with whom we would be studying. Additionally, T. had an ever-worsening back problem that kept her in agony most of the time.

Besides, I had a sinking feeling that this was going to resemble some other badly organized international adventures I had survived recently. I figured that this could easily be much worse, given my lack of Russian and the difference in mission of the two organizations. Previously, I could rest in the assurance that the Powers that Be were ultimately concerned with my welfare as well as the completion of our mission. This time, I had no idea what the interests of the Powers that Be were.

Over the course of the week, as we all relaxed from the "getting ready for Russia" tension, we were all relieved to be here in Kentucky. T. finally saw the doctor and was able to treat her back properly -- no thirteen hour plane trips, plenty of powerful muscle relaxers, etc. P. and I were able to attend classes (of the snooze and lose variety) that we were rather worried about missing. And I'm finally beginning new repertoire. So, really, even though the week began with a series of frantic phone calls and disappointments, things haven't gone so awfully "agley" after all. People say, "Man plans -- God laughs." I'm not sure He was laughing at us, but I think His eyes are twinkling -- and He may have winked.