Why hello, 2011...

Well, here we are.

New Year, all kinds of other new shiny things--off to a fresh start. Sort of. 2011 promises to be big for me--all kinds of official things will be decided.

Will I get permanent residency granted for 'Schland?

Will I get accepted to a German law program?

Will the Schatz win his latest lawsuit?

Oh, the fun that awaits--I simply cannot tell you.

As for what the end of 2010 gave me, I can give you the brief highlights:

There was the Christmas extravaganza, starting in Schierke-am-Brocken with the Schatz's lovely grandparents starting on the 22nd, the mad dash back to Berlin in crazy winter weather warning conditions on Christmas Day (fallen trees and snowdrifts on the train tracks included), Christmas Day-Evening-Duck-Dinner with the Schatz's Mom and Brother, the Boxing Day packing marathon and paranoid visit to the airport followed by the Dec. 27th epic show of my personal luck. It involved me, four airports, almost no layovers, delays of all sorts and for all reasons, nauseating turbulence, friendly customs agents, no pat-downs, close shaves, and a one-hour-late arrival in Portland, ME. Considering the horror stories we all heard about holiday travel in late 2010, I think we can all agree that I got very lucky indeed.

I was able to spend two lovely weeks in the Great State of Maine with my family and a very few friends (for those of you I didn't see, I apologize). It was somewhat restful and extremely caloric. My mother outdid herself with baked goods, as per usual and I watched a lot of Hogan's Heroes with my dad. I was fortunate enough to meet the wee Patrick Ramsey (Colleen's amazing, wonderful, hilarious, goregous son) and see my little sister's apartment (and experience one of her epic aerobics classes...albeit one for active older adults, which kicked my butt). All in all, it was better than I ever could have imagined.

Which always makes coming back harder. But I'm doing alright. All things considered. I only had to work 2.5 days last week, had to toe the line in school due to my recent absences and started training for the Vattenfall Half Marathon in April. Things were going well until I came home from the gym yesterday and brought in the mail. Inside was a letter from a law firm in Hamburg, alleging that the Schatz had downloaded some music in an illicit manner. And suggesting that he pay a certain amount of money for this infringement. Now, if you know the Schatz, you'll know that he is full of singleminded purpose and principle. And that simply paying up (especially if this suggestion is followed by an implied "or else") is out of the question. So it looks like we're kicking off 2011 with a legal battle. Whee!

I'm sure it will be thrilling. As will any number of other surprises that await me. For example, can I tell you, dear readers, what the Schatz's Mom thought to give everyone for Christmas this year? You'll never guess.

Tickets to see Drake.

Yes. Drake. Do you know who he is? I didn't. But now I do. And I'm going to the concert tonight with the Schatz, his Mom and his Brother. Tonight. Did I mention that?

Again, I'm sure it will be glorious. And I might post pictures, if I think to take my camera. So be very excited for that. I'm just glad that I've got today off from my .5 marathon training plan. That should mean that I'll be a trifle more hydrated and awake than on any other given evening this week. That's what I lovehate about training...you sleep SO WELL, and if you've ever struggled with that, you know how wonderful it is to be asleep before your head hits the pillow. However, it does seem to make me hungry for more sleep than is actually organizationally possible for me to achieve. This is tricky. Fortunately, there are a few days a week where I can squeak in a quick nap at work. Yay for being a preschool teacher!

Anyway, what I failed to put on my list of Events for 2011 is the end of my early childhood ed program, which entails a feisty final paper. (Mine's going to be 30 pages on bilingual language acquisition and how to best embed certain theories in educational mission statements for schools--I know, go for the gold, right? Most people are doing things like 'how beneficial is playing outside?') Oh, and there are exams. Written and oral. So that'll be fun. And considering that I didn't so much as crack a book during my supposed "working vacation" in Maine, I suppose I should make use of this somewhat sunny Sunday afternoon and get some work done. Or something like that.

Play Safe, lovelies. That's all for now.

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.)