Americana Extravaganza Recap

I really shouldn't be doing this. 

The long night of the museums in Berlin was very long for me indeed last night, and I have resolved to go running on all of my 10am start days this week (4 in total)...allll reasons I shouldn'

t be starting this post at 10:30 pm. The third reason just came through the door.

I'll still try, though. And I might even be able to conjure up some photos, despite my technical ineptitude.

 

So. The first stop of the Americana Extravaganza was Liberty International Airport in Newark, NJ. From there, I took one of the most scenic cab rides of my life into the upper east side of Manhattan. The boys had a pretty intense first impression of the USA. According to the laws of jet lag, we threw the luggage into the hotel room and hit the streets. 

My sightseeing tactic consists largely of wandering. This drives certain types of people

 crazy, but Stephan and Max didn't really have a choice, and didn't really seem to mind too much. We stumbled on a great street fest on Broadway with some really fantastic food (and ridiculously colorful handbags of ambiguous legitimacy) and hit up Times Square. It was great. We met up with my girl Abby for dinner and a wander through the city. I was glad we extended another day...it gave us time to walk pretty much the length of

 Manhattan (from our hotel down to the waterfront. We were on 9th street).  

It was interesting...I've been on trips before, but

 either by myself or with other people who more interested in constructing our schedule than I was...so this was the first time I really had to step up and plan things. All things considered, I think it went well. We managed to walk around so much and so far that we slept like the dead.

After NYC and a 12 hour bus ride, we were in

 Maine for two and a half weeks or so. We took a

 great side trip to see Colleen and Eric and their OP and did some serious outlet shopping in New Hamster.

 Maine was relaxing and full of nature...and family. Lots of family. Some bittersweet familial whatnot, some great reconnections...some old friends. All in all, a good mix. My grandfather's memorial service was hard, and I wish I could say it helped me move on, but I'm not really sure it did. I hope it helped some of the

 people who were there. 

The boys built a small-scale croquet course on the back 9 at my parent's place and challenged all comers...I dug through the four corners of my room, we visited friends and grilled a lot. the trip to the coast to eat lobster yielded some great photos. We managed to hit Reid state park on a great day and the boys got wicked sunburns...really wicked sunburns. Which took at least a week to heal. We ran around some with Mike and Jane, which I think gave the boys a chance to see and do some American things we otherwise wouldn't have done (golf, tubing, etc.) --which I think they both greatly enjoyed...even if Max may or may not have chipped a tooth while tubing behind the party boat. 

When we headed out, I think it was time. The trip to DC took all told I think 14 hours and was complicated by the fact that I somehow botched Ashwin's phone number and was calling New York the whole time during the ride down. The guys got to see a good swath of American countryside and a few cities from the interstate. I think they were probably alternately impressed and terrified by my driving "skills"--although to be fair, I don't drive here at all (a situation I should be working to rectify and am mostly ignoring) so I might have been a bit rusty. But we all survived. That's the important thing, right?

DC was amazing. To all of you that hosted us in any way shape or form: You rock. All y'all. It was just a really wonderful week with great people and intense heat and humidity. I'm not sure I could live in DC for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the tropica

l temperatures. That and, apparently, I dig dive bars. Apparently Berlin is full of them. And in DC, they're kind of hard to find. We managed, though. The Argonaut somewhere near where Julia lives is fantastic. They've got an Allagash beer from Maine! 

Anyway, it's getting late and I'm being reminded of my good intentions for tomorrow morning, so I guess the recap will have to end here and photos will hopefully follow. It's off to bed for the Miachen.

Wish me lots of motivation for tomorrow at 07:30 am...I've got to get started running off all that fabulous American food.

Take care of eachother, kids.

(Ed: Don't ask me what happened to the formatting after I inserted the pictures. I'm one of those people who needs a Kenyon Helpdesk in my real life. The finished product took...two days. Ugh. I'm so techtarded.)

Failed Photo Uploads, etc...

The last time I posted, I immediately tried to upload photos from my camera and then in turn to das Blog. However...it didn't work. I was supposed to go meet some people (for Tapas at the fantastic Spanish vinoria across the street) and I got frustrated and stopped. Now as it turns out, the photos didn't even make it from my camera to my computer. The question is whether or not my originals got deleted after the so-called upload. Don't know and because Stephan's hidden birthday presents for me in our chest of drawers, I can't go looking for my camera to check. 

Since the move finding things here has been complete trial-and-error. There's something incredibly disorienting about a posse of extremely motivated, hyper-clean German women unpacking and organizing your kitchen. And all the rest of your apartment. Seriously folks, if you ever move, make German friends. They wiped out my cupboards, put away my silverware, my tupperware, my plates...and not a single thing got broken. It was great, especially for a little chaot like me. However, it remains at times, difficult to find certain things. 

Anyhow, last weekend was the kindergarten overnight. Unlike last year, the kids didn't sleep much, which meant that I didn't sleep much. They did seem to be quite impressed though. The kids, that is. After all, that was the aim of the game. However, it became abundantly clear to me that I am in no way ready to be woken at 1:15 am by a screaming child. Everyone I work with tells me it's different when they're yours...but my sleep is sacred. Anyone who's related to, chohabitated or slept with me at one point or another knows that. It also seems to be getting worse as I age. This Friday (aka tomorrow) is the Sommerfest. Kind of an end of the year sort of thing where all the kids and their parents are invited and we've got all kinds of games, etc. This year, Julianita decided she wanted to have the kids perform a short theater piece. It's called the little black sheep. After having gone through somewhere between three and five different black sheep, I think she's regretting it. I for my part am ambivelantly counting down the days until we close for the summer. This means on the one hand four weeks of paid vacation for moi--and no children, but also the epic organizational feat that is the Americana Extravaganza. I get panicky when I think about it. I mean, I can't effing wait to get back to the states and see everyone I've been missing for ever--living abroad consists mostly of balancing your adventure/wanderlust with varying degrees of homesickness and longing. Oftentimes, though, it's more satisfying to long for something than it is to actually have it. I basically just have to cowboy up and start planning some shit and I think once I've actually gotten started, it won't be so bad. 

Anyhow, I'm sure there will be more details on that subject whenever I do manage to get my shit together and start making real plans. In the meantime, I've got a birthday/housewarming party to throw. That's going to be lovely. I hope. We shall see. Hope you all are well, I'm going to contain the chaos in the kitchen leftover from my steamed pangasius in white herb-dijon sauce with carrots and get to bed. Or something. Tomorrow's going to be a long day.

Be safe.