My car passed a milestone today. Happy 70th, Jeannie. 70,000th mile, that is!
And for this momentous occasion, I got you some bad weather.
Yup, you guessed it: that’s snow. In the middle of October. What…the…f***?!? Not cool, Mother Nature.. Not cool at all.
The way I see it, it’s the perfect end to a pretty crap-ass week.
In all its glory, my October 2009 12 of 12, with pics taken using just my iPhone. It’s good to be back.
The first day of school always makes me a little nervous. It’s a good nervousness, though, the kind that’s mixed with the excitement of possibility. In less than an hour, I’ll be in front of the first class of the new school year–class of freshmen, nonetheless–so the nerves for that class are extra jittery. I’m not quite as nervous as I was last year, probably because it’s not the first day of my first year as a professor. But I liken this nervousness to the feeling one gets right before going on stage to perform or before going out onto the field to play a big game. I get these nerves just about every day that I teach, but it’s especially pronounced on the first day of school. The slate is clean (on both sides of the desk), there’s new blood in the building, and the school year is rife with opportunity and untapped potential. I know that once classes get rolling the nerves will fade away. But I enjoy being nervous before school. The way I see it, it means that I care. Here’s to hoping I always have first-day jitters.
Tomorrow begins another school year. So, on the precipice of my second year as a full-time faculty member, and in honor of my move up to Lowell exactly 13 months ago today, I thought I’d pass along 13 lessons I’ve learned over the past year and one month. In no particular order:
Hallole! I’m typing this update from about 36,000 feet. Marty and I are headed back to the States after a great trip. Here are some highlights from the end of our time in Germany.
• The last couple of days of our trip were quite relaxing. On Friday, we got up relatively late after our excursion to Austria and Munich the previous two days.
• After breakfast (brunch, really), we headed south to Switzerland to meet some family friends and see some sights.
• We hung around Schaufhaffen for the afternoon, window shopping and visiting a local waterfall.
• Switzerland was nice but VERY expensive. I was hoping perhaps to get a nice Swiss watch with automatic movement, but was flabbergasted at the prices (not that I really expected to get one, but still…).
• The waterfall was cool. Not very big, but still quite scenic. Makes me want to visit Niagra Falls.
• Saturday was an even slower-paced day. We stuck around Burladingen and had an afternoon snack (cake, coffee, and mimosas) with some of Marty’s relatives. The weather was so nice that the two of us just walked to the house.
• Marty and I returned to Sofie and Gerd’s and stuffed our faces with a variety of grilled meats, salad, schnapps, and (of course) beer.
• The meal was delicious but a little on the indulgent, unhealthy side. To give you an idea, at one point I put a garlic cream sauce on top of buttered, cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped sausage. Yup, you read that correctly: garlic cream sauce on buttered, cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped sausage. My aorta hurts just typing that. It’s a miracle we didn’t keel over and die from a heart attack right then and there.
• The alarm didn’t go off so we had to rush a bit Sunday morning.
• No worries, though, as we made it to the Frankfurt airport with plenty of time to spare.
I’ll post the next (and final) TraveLog update from Long Island, including some of post-trip reactions, pictures, and things I learned along the way. ‘Til then, guten Tag!
Guten Abend!
Guten Nacht!
Guten Abend!
• The hotel had a “Sofie”-like breakfast spread ready for us , so we could fuel up adequately for our big day in Salzburg.
• Driving to Salzburg was easy and short. Finding a parking garage, on the other hand, took quite a while. The GPS unit we had did us no favors either, with quite possibly the least intuitive and least helpful user interface ever.
• We eventually found one, and our day in downtown Salzburg finally began.
• The main highlight of the city, the stuff Marty and I were looking most forward to, was the Mozart stuff. We first hit “Mozart Plaza” where there is a big statue of the man himself, surrounded by various shops and vendors. Stay tuned for pics!
• The four of us then strolled the streets of Salzburg, peering into shops and restaurants and, in some cases, spending some Euros on souvenirs and gifts. It felt good to spend money; Sofie and Gerd have essentially paid for everything thus far. They are TOO NICE.
• We visited Mozart’s birthhouse and the accompanying museum.
• Then, it was back to Bad Reichenhal for dinner, which was delicious (surprise, surprise). The Schweineschnitzel, beer, and dessert were exactly what I wanted, taste, portion size, and all.
• Marty and I are going to try to get to bed early tonight (read: before midnight) as we have another busy day ahead of us.
• Tomorrow: Munich!
Schlaf gut!
Christopher Endrinal 