#43 Boston - I'm Having a Hot Flash - March 31, 2005

Well, I am not quite that old, just in case if you wondered. I might go off the deep end once in a blue moon, but that is a whole other story. I actually went to the Stuart Street Playhouse this past weekend to see "Menopause, The Musical". Now, I love musicals to begin with, but this one was absolutely hilarious and so much fun! A platoon of four women (Power Woman, Soap Star, Earth Mother and the Iowa Housewife) danced and sung their way through the funk that attacks us babes a little later in life. Pop songs took on a whole different meaning - Smokey Robinson's "My Guy" turns into "My Thigh", Irving Berlin's "Heat Wave" becomes the "Hot Flash" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" ends up as "Puff, Boy I am Draggin". Girls, go see it and have laugh while you can! Guys, you better check it out, so you can see what's coming your way - start construction on that separate "man room" in the basement right now! (http://www.menopausethemusical.com/)

I hope all of you had a lovely Easter weekend - it certainly was most wonderful here in New England - the weather was picture perfect! I had to put in some work time on Saturday morning (a great "opportunity to excel" over the past two weeks had presented itself - good project, lots to do, with some solid progress being made, so I am padding myself on the shoulder officially - right here, right now!!) - but I made up for it big time.

First I headed to Haymarket - located between Faneuil Hall and the North End, this very popular Friday-and-Saturday outdoor produce market is quite impressive. You can find some excellent bargains there, especially if you show up a little later in the day, where they practically throw the stuff at you. For a few bucks you can come home with pounds and pounds of carrots, potatos, salads, all fruits and veggies imaginable - it is quite the scene. Of course you really want to make sure that you do indeed want to buy ten bell peppers (even if they are only a dollar) or 6 pounds of carrots.

After visiting Bostix, the half-price ticket booth for my musical tickets, I headed out to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum - it is the official memorial to JFK, who grew up here in Brookline and who was Massachusetts Senator before running for president. (http://www.jfklibrary.org/) I have to say that this has been probably one of my most enjoyable outings here in Boston - after an introductory movie, you head out on a self-guided tour, which leads you through galleries depiciting anything from a mock 1960 Democratic Convention set-up, to 60s street scenes reminiscent of his presidential campaigns, multi-media presentations with the Nixon-Kennedy debates, and complete reconstructions of White House rooms. There are loads of original items from his presidency, including notes, desk accessories, speeches, letters, gifts received from foreign dignitaries - even Jackie's baby sweaters are there. Mixed in are tons of screens with original footage, John Glenn's astronaut suit, and other fascinating memorabilia. Very moving is the section with footage of his assassination in a completely black corridor, with just the words "22 November 1963" written on it, and three TV screens showing the news reporting from this tragic day. The last room contains a quite sizable section of the Berlin Wall and a statement that was made by JFK in June of 1963 : "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades." Once you exit the tour, you end up in the Pavillion, which is stunning - a 115 -foot high atrium, whose walls are made from a scaffolding-like structure and glass - with a stunning view of Boston!

On Sunday, it was time to get moving, so I joined the AMC on a 6-mile hike in Groton, Mass. Thanks to some rather cryptic directions, I got to know the area really well and arrived a bit late, but the group was nice enough to wait. The Groton Town Forest turned out to be a lovely place to hike, there was still snow and ice galore, and Ella got to prove her "all-wheel-driveness" in a pretty slick parking area. The march lead along some abandoned railroad trails and we ended up having a lunch on an old railroad bridge, which was pretty cool. This was not a botanical hike, so no explanations by our trip leader (who was remarkably quiet), but I did make everyone at least sniff at the Wintergreen plants and explained the difference between red and white oaks to a few folks who were interested. Boot would be so proud of me! Once I got home, I decided the weather was too nice to sit inside, so I went for a 4-mile jog along the Esplanade - amazing what a little nice weather can do! Puts a little spring in your step!! I can never get tired of the view you have when jogging along the Charles River on the Cambridge Side looking over at the lovely city of Boston.

The week has been busy with work, work, work and work, and exercise in the evenings. This Tuesday I met up with my friend and neighbor Mike, who is an anaesthesiologist at the hospital and who was showing me pictures from his trip with an MGH crew for Project Hope, which provided medical help in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, to victims of the tsunami. Quite amazing pictures and it was impressive to hear first-hand accounts on the situation down there.

That's the news from the hub for now - Have a great weekend my friends, we are expecting torrential rains (some snow showers maybe), so it might be time to hit up some more museums!!

Toodles,

pet:)

I have to add a little Boston tidbit (of course), from one of my favorite websites, Adam Gaffin's "Boston-Online.com", where he describes the "Great Molasses Flood of 1919" (I know, by now you are saying, what kind of a place is this? - Good thing is, we have not had one since!):
"If you had to choose how to die, drowning in molasses would probably not rank high on your list. On Jan. 15, 1919, 21 people, a dozen horses and at least one cat had no choice. A 58-foot-high, 90-foot-wide cast-iron tank holding 2.2 million gallons of molasses burst, sending a tsunami of the viscous liquid down Commercial at 35 m.p.h., destroying houses, commercial buildings and a part of the elevated railroad. Today, only a small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park commemorates the disaster. But climb up the terrace (which looks like a stone medieval rampart), look out over Commercial Street toward the harbor and imagine a three-story wall of molasses flowing past."

#42 Boston - Spring, haltingly.... March 25, 2005

Dare I hope that spring has arriveth? It looks alarmingly good, even though the threat of snow and cold weather still lingers in the air - for next week the folks at the Weather Channel are hopeful that temperatures will soar into the upper 50s, I even saw a 61 F in there somewhere. This week has been wonderful weather-wise, with a tiny little storm in there and some snowy-looking rain, but New Englanders are hoping that they have finally exhausted Mother Nature and her winter habits.

It has been a week with lots of activity, especially the healthy kind, as an anxious glance at the scale indicated that it is time to get movin' (the scale was supported in its assessment by my "benchmark" jeans, who have requested a bit more air between me and the fabric). My days (and meals) have been filled with salads and vegetables as opposed to the winter-root-carbo-loaded victuals of the months past. The gym has been visited quite often, and thanks to the television sets across from the cardio equipment I am now again up to date on every reality TV show on the planet. Celery combined with celerity is the motto for the upcoming weeks, and with the weather on the mend, I am looking forward to releasing my bicycle from winter prison and get the roller blades going.

The past weekend was most pleasant (except for a little "let's get lost in Brighton episode") - kicked off by a Thai lunch in lovely Brookline with my friends Mona and PJ on Saturday afternoon.
In the evening, I joined my friends Linda (still #1) and Roger first for a beer at Ned Devine's Irish Pub at Quincy hall before heading to Faneuil Hall to hear the Musicians of the Old Post Road. [http://www.oldpostroad.org/] This chamber music ensemble that specializes in period instrument performance of music from the Baroque, Classical and early Romantic periods was founded in 1989 and brings its lovely music to beautiful historic buildings along the original route of the old Boston Post Road, the first passage connecting Boston and NYC in the late 17th century. The first post rider hustled from NY to Boston on January 22nd, 1673 and thus established the first major overland route in the American colonies. It took the poor chap almost three weeks to cover the 250 miles! "Music from Madrid" featured two Italian composers, Gaetano Brunetti (1744-1798), who was a composer for the King Charles IV of Spain, and Luigi Boccherini, who wrote tunes for the King's brother.
I know I have provided you with numerous iterations on how great Faneuil Hall is (you can pronounce it the French way or Boston style, which sounds more like "fennel") - it still never ceases to impress me! http://www.nps.gov/bost/bost_lographics/faneuil.htm Its amazing history and development from marketplace to the "cradle of liberty" is adequately stated in this little poem by Francis Hatch (1958): " Here orators in ages past - Have mounted their attacks - Undaunted by proximity - Of Sausage on the racks." An extra little tidbit about this great building is that the weathervane on top, which prominently features a grasshopper, is the only part of Faneuil Hall that remains totally unmodified from the original 1742 structure and according to the brochure is "a fine example of colonial artistry."

Sunday was entirely devoted to St.Paddy's day celebrations and we started off with (what else) a road race - the Ras na hEireann race in Somerville - 2500 motivated (mostly by the promise of free beer and soda bread afterwards) runners lined up in front of my favorite Irish Pub, "The Burren" and got crackin'. Now, bottom line is, I did well with a time of 9:16 minutes/mile, but I tell you folks, it was not pretty! I was seriously huffing and puffing - thoughts of impending death and immediate collapse were on my mind, and I could see myself sprawled out on some side street in Somerville with 1500 of the remaining runners trampling over my exhausted body. After the race and after receiving a medal (everyone did for finishing), Elaine and I went to The Burren for our free beer (alas, t'was not green), and then I got myself on public transportation and headed over to Southie (aka South Boston) for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Considered the heart of Irish Boston (http://boston.about.com/cs/government/a/south_boston.htm), Southie is quite wonderful, and the parade is a very old-fashioned, traditional parade - with lots of firemen, police officers, veterans, marching bands and bagpipe players, and girls twirling batons high up in the air. My favorite group were the Cycling Murrays, Irish flute players on uni-cycles (only in America!!!) and some guy who was running for office who came over personally to shake my hand. Little does he know that I can't vote squat in this country. Main thing I made his day, eh?
I hung out with my friends Barbara and Anita who just recently purchased a condo across from the L Street Bathhouse, just down the street from Fort Independence and Castle Island - one of the Boston Harbor Islands that is really not an island any more (sort of sticks out into the harbor - http://www.nine3.com/MDC/history.html). The two took me on a tour of Southie - and of course, we had to stop at Barbara's brother Michael's house for some tasty corned beef and cabbage.

Aside from the no-nonsense exercise regimen this week, I got a little cultural fix in by volunteering with Boston Cares, this time at the American Repertory Theatre for the play "Dido - Queen of Carthage" (http://www.amrep.org/) - the tragic story of Queen Dido who rules over the very civilized city of Carthage in North Africa. She fatefully (and with the help of some nefarious deities) meets Aeneas, who with his son Ascarius has survived the Trojan war. A very well acted play - full of drama (of course) and humor with some interesting interpretations of some of the characters. Cupid was effeminately gay, Aeneas sounded a bit Irish and Juno, sister of Jupiter was played by a drag queen. That's Cambridge for you!

My friends, with these images in mind, I bid you farewell - may you have a enjoyable weekend!

pet:)

Quote of the Day: "If you cannot convince them, confuse them." (Harry Truman).

#41 - Boston - Bears, Pirates and Chinese Sushi Delivery - Oh My! - March 17, 2005

I don't even know where to start this time, to be honest. In some ways this week was wonderful, exciting, filled with wonderful adventures and events - the past two days however had "catastrophe" written all over them, and made my colleague Renee call me "Mrs Worst Day Ever". That would have been yesterday, and let's just get this awful stuff right out of the way, so that you can immediately send me an email, saying "oooohh, you poor thing" and I can at least bask a little in a sea of pity and sympathy.

The groundwork for this little "day of doom" was laid on Tuesday evening with the arrival of my new techno toy, the Blackberry. All excited about it, I hooked it up to the computer (as per specifications from our IT department) and "wham!" the computer crashed - really crashed. It made that sound that light bulbs make when they blow up, and I though to myself "This cannot be good". Upon restarting it, that dreaded all-blue screen came up with a mile-long error message. I decided to call it a day at this point, and head off to the book group dinner.

Wednesday morning started out somewhat innocent, but then a sequence of unfortunate events ensued. Ella, the caah, was not showing any signs of life. I had left the overhead light on since Sunday and the battery was d-e-a-d. I got someone to jump start her and was driving Ella around when on the way back home a Chinese sushi delivery truck bumped into me. I was standing at a red traffic light with other cars as well - but apparently the guy did not know where his brakes were. On the positive side, nothing happened to me, and Ella has only sustained the tiniest of nicks (one of those that when I tell you where it is you will see it......), so she is now considered a bona fide Boston city caah with her first war injury. When I returned, slightly frazzled to home base at MGH, the computer techs showed up, took one look at my computer and said "You need a new hard drive." In my quest to do my work, I was then relocated to the receptionist desk, which made the day somewhat interesting. After receiving the new hard drive and the tech actually hooked up the Blackberry, most was copasetic, except for the fact that the BB does not synchronize any of my emails..... And the saga continues....

I am happy to report that my jog with fellow running club mate Joanne yesterday evening was uneventful, and I did not get attacked by any trees or so, and today (Happy St. Patrick's Day!!)has been fairly benign aside from a couple of minor food-related incidents that have not contributed to enhancing today's outfit. A pint of green beer at Kinsale might be in order today to forget about all this.

Now to the good stuff - a weekend, chockful of events and memorable experiences. Friday night I attended a slide show at REI, where author Peter Potterfield presented his new book "Classic Hikes of the World" - phenomenal slides reminding me of all those wonderful places I still need to visit: Denali in Alaska (that is where the bears are...), Patagonia, Himalayas, Sweden's Highlands, King George Island (Antarctica)..... Mileage donations are being accepted!

On Saturday morning, I headed for Lynn Woods, about 11 miles north of Boston, and one of the largest municipal forests in the country. It was raining cats and dogs that morning, so instead of doing work on the trails we decided to do some paintwork in the ranger's house/visitor center. Once the rain turned into snow we headed out onto the trails, removed some toppled trees and went for a hike.

Now Lynn Woods, my friends, has a pretty interesting history
(http://www.flw.org/951.htm). A pirate named Thomas Veal housed there sometime in the 17th century, hiding out in a cave guarding a treasure acquired by him and fellow pirates. Legend has it that during an earthquake in 1658 he got crushed by a huge boulder and that was the end of poor Thomas. Subsequently spiritualist Hiram Marble and his son Edward kept digging tunnels near Dungeon Rock (the boulder that crushed unlucky Tom) to find the treasure, but 30 years of digging did not turn up anything. Under the guidance of Ranger Dan and armed with flash lights we did manage to go down into the Marbles' tunnels, 35 feet under ground. Very cool! Once a year Lynn Woods celebrates Dungeon Rock Day, where you can dress as a pirate and hike through the woods and hunt for a treasure or just stop by at the Hog's Breath Inn for grog and cookies. Lynn Woods is a magnificent place to hike - all 2200 acres of it.

Saturday night, I volunteered (yes, again with Boston Cares) at an event in Cambridge, where Musica Sacra (http://www.musicasacra.org/) performed a "Choral Bestiary" at the First Church Congregational at the Cambridge Common. A very nice and interesting program, flimsy and funny; all of the pieces performed related to animals somehow - among my favorites were McCord's Menagerie ("Let us ponder the condor; biggest thing on the wing, like a kit on a string; a subject not cultural, but very vultural" / "Jaculus jaculus (a gerbil) – Nothing miraculous, rat of a sort, front legs too short, hind legs too long, All rather wrong") and El Bestiari de Pere Quart ("Bacillus - Not a good speck, the Microbe").

On Sunday morning, as promised, I went on my second naturalist hike with Boot Boutwell of the AMC. Again, Boot was a trip leader extraordinaire and did not disappoint. It had snowed the day before, so the Mass Audubon Habitat in Belmont was an absolutely postcard-picture-perfect winter wonderland (http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Habitat/index.php). I was able to apply my knowledge from our last hike, but there were many new lessons in botany to absorb (the spice bush and the striped maple were among my favorites) and interesting New England stories to learn. The plant of the day was the Winged Euonymous (http://www.paflora.org/Euonymus%20alatus.pdf) or Japanese Spindle tree, which is quite unmistakable. The best Story of the Day was under the Headline of "Who ate Roger Williams?"
(http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/RIPROtree.html) - as we pondered the local apple trees, Boot related the story of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams, who was buried on his family farm, and when the Rhode Island Historical Society wanted to exhume him to give him a proper burial (him being the founder of the state and such) poor dead Roger was gone, poof! Apparently the apple tree got to him, the roots into the coffin exactly depicted his body shape.....
Also got to sample maple syrup right from the tree (tastes not like much as it needs to be boiled down first, but we had to try, right?).

Sunday night, again (I should be volunteer of the month!) I assisted with Boston Cares, this time at the Huntington Theater ushering at a play called "36 Views" - great acting, phenomenal stage work, beautiful theater and a pretty nifty topic - art dealers, fraud, Asian antiques, and a love story as well. http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/36views/36views_about_the_company.aspx.

The week (aside from the calamities, which in hindsight are not sooo bad) has been filled with seeing friends and on Tuesday night with the book group, who in connection with reading Khaled Hosseini's book "The Kite Runner" went to "The Helmand", an Afghan restaurant right across the river in Cambridge and enjoyed some pretty spectacular food!

The end of this week and weekend will be filled with St. Paddy's day activities, including a road race on Sunday (The Ras na hEireann Race) and the parade in Southie, as well as some solid couch time, and hanging out with friends, new and old.

Slan go foill,

pet:)

I have to add a little morsel that I have been saving up and it really does not fit with anything in here, but is just a fun thing to know.
There is a lake in Massachusetts - Webster Lake in Webster - its Native American name is: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagochaubunagungamaug or Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, which translates into "you fish on that side, we'll fish on this side and nobody will fish in the middle".

#40 Boston - The Lump - March 10, 2005

Aaah - yes, that would be me - the lump. Jet lag has turned me into the quintessential sofa spud this week, tired, wrinkled and with the biting temperatures outside the weather has made it easy for me to indulge my body's wish for down time. I have already consumed all my Netlfix movies that awaited me at home, and am now moving on to magazines and books, nothing is safe as long as I don't have to leave the sofa.

I returned to Boston late Sunday where conditions have been muy frio, mis amigos! Tuesday morning I left for work with a balmy 40 degrees, so decided to put on a short skirt, and leave the polar wear at home. When I returned from work at 6 PM, I was welcomed by ... well, what was it? Hard to say, it looked like snow and all was white, but I swear it was raining ice! Cursing and cussing I ran down the street in my little skirt and my little pumps, and was convinced that I would never make the 100-yard dash home without sustaining serious frostbite. Massachusetts weather at its best, yet again (and no, I am not tired of it yet...)! That night, the sky kept dropping rain, sleet, snow, ice and who-knows-what, and combined with crazed gusts of wind, I could observe the most unbelievable display of weather-related turbulences. Needless to say the running group this week has not taken place, and we are hoping that by tomorrow we might be able to make a feeble attempt at jogging outside.

Meanwhile, back in Amsterdam the weather had been equally disconcerting, at least to the Dutch, who had not seen weather like this (8 inches of snow) in 25 years. The city was obviously overwhelmed, side walks were either not cleared at all (which made for some nice icy surfaces to slide around on) or attempted to be cleared with diggers and dredgers that they pulled off the closest construction site. The airport shut down and when my boss arrived a day late, he could not believe that they closed the airport for this imperceptible amount of snow - he was expecting huge snow drifts and blizzard-like conditions New England style.

The conference itself was enjoyable and busy, held at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, a mere 20-minute walk from my hotel. We were all given passes for the trams, but after experiencing one ride, I decided to walk - people were packed in like sardines - scenes reminiscent of the Tokyo subway, where they push people in until they pass out. About 300 people attended, a very small conference by comparison, but it allowed some more in-depth discussions with those who were there.

Friday night, the organizers had come up with a social program - I was a little suspicious at first, since by its name alone I could not - even by stretching my imagination - figure out what it was or supposed to be. "Boom Chicago" (http://www.boomchicago.nl/) is apparently an Amsterdam institution. Most of the conference attendees and yours truly crammed into the 300-seat Leidseplein Theater for dinner and a show. Not only was the dinner top notch, but so was the program! Boom Chicago is an improv troupe - with some scripted skits but most of it improvised - with (in our case) enthusiastic cooperation from the audience. We had a grand old time, folks! Amber Ruffin, Tim Sniffen, Rachel Miller and Rob Andrist entertained us to no end, and even I made it into one of their little parodies ("Where's my little Petra?). A particular crowd favorite was a segment called "Dutch Products We Are not Going to Endorse" which included "Sissy" (soda), "Pipi" (toilet Paper), "Retard" (a cough syrup if I remember correctly) and some other unmentionables.

The Dutch are a friendly, but dangerous kind - as I learned one evening in my hotel, when I headed for the bar for a night cap, and got involved in an interesting discussion with two sailboat sales guys from the Netherlands. I learned that the beer I was drinking was called an "amsterdammetje" and I was educated about a New Year's custom called "Carbidschieten", where it is apparently pretty easy to blow your head off (If you want to experience "Death by Milk", this might be for you - carbide is put into a milk can with some water, which makes explosive acetylene gas and is subsequently set on fire). Apparently people die from getting in the way of these exploding milk cans! These people are insane!

The weekend is coming near, and after vegging out at my house all week, it is time for some action and outdoor activities! I will be attending a slide show at REI on Friday on "Classic Hikes of the World"; will do some trail conservation work with Boston Cares on Saturday up in Lynn Woods (a 2,200-acre municipal forest park north of Boston); and on Sunday, go on a hike with Boot, the AMC naturalist - this time in Belmont at the Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, just six miles northwest of downtown Boston - so look for another botanical lesson coming your way! We are expecting snow again this weekend, so this might be interesting!

I hope this update finds you in good spirits - until then! Goede Avend!

pet:)

#39 Boston - Germany - Amsterdam - March 2nd, 2005

"Wenn einer eine Reise tut, dann kann er was erzaehlen" - "Those who travel, have tales to tell" - that could certainly be the motto of the little trip I took this time, leading me from my chosen residence of Boston to Germany and then to Amsterdam. Getting to Amsterdam was not that easy as it has been snowing here non-stop since last night. Our plane was delayed for a solid hour-and-a-half, circling above the snowy skies. The cabbie this morning had told me that it was announced on the radio that this has been the biggest snow storm in 20 years, and as of now it has yet to stop. The Netherlands generally don't see a lot of snow, and apparently at the sight of even one snowflake all hell breaks lose here.
The Amsterdamers (-damians?) are as giddy as I have ever seen anyone at the sight of the white stuff, grown-ups are engaged in snow ball fights on the streets out there and on the slanted roof of a subway station near the Rijksmuseum (where they have the Rembrandts and such - http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/index.jsp) kids were zooming down the hill on sleds, garbage bags and cardboard boxes (you can tell they are not prepared).
Apparently throwing snowballs at passing cars is a past-time here as well - scared the bejesus out of me. That and the crazy bike riders - no weather can deter them from riding these deadly weapons. They just put a plastic bag over their bike seat and who cares if the snow storm of the century is taking place. When Noah loaded up the Arc, the only people out there most likely were Dutch bicyclists. Scary -at some point paranoia actually starts to set in, every step you take you are convinced that one of them will get you. They would not even flinch, I swear!
Aside from the constant fear of being run over by a bike, Amsterdam is a beautiful, gorgeous city - and even more stunning in the snow. You can walk along its famous canals, the Grachten, or pay a visit to Vinny's place (The Vincent Van Gogh Museum - http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/bisrd/top-1-1.html - don't even think that it is pronounced "van go" - it sounds as if you just had your windpipe removed and could only croak out some strange, raspy sounds). Van Gogh was a disturbed fellow, mostly in and out of his mind - to use a description I read in a book "his eyes glinted with a light not quite sane" - spent some time in Holland, some time in France, some time in the loony bin, went back and forth between being a evangelist preacher or an artist, cut off his ear at some point, and eventually committed suicide. His art is simply stunning, some of it so cheerful that it is hard to imagine it came from such a troubled mind !!
Also paid a visit to the Anne Frank House (http://www.annefrank.org/content.asp?pid=1&lid=2), which is an absolute must if you are in Amsterdam. A very moving place, fitting tribute to a young woman who had such vivid dreams and hopes in the face of such overwhelming tragedy.

Amsterdam is very hip, very international, everyone speaks at least Dutch, German and English, great food as well! On the way back to my hotel I played my favorite game trying to find interesting names of places and so far we have a few winners here: Shampoo Palace, Cafe van Puffelen and a store whose name I forgot, but which featured head-bobbing Jesuses and kids tees with the words "My Mummy is a Yummy Mummy." They also had card board versions of Van Gogh's ear, but I managed to resist the temptation.

During this past week, Europe has definitely shown itself from its chilly side, temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius in Germany, actually minus 40 degrees in some corners of Bavaria. It snowed my first night in Germany as well, I seemed to have brought the Boston weather with me. Arrived in Germany last Saturday, and after a hide-and-seek game with my brother at Basel Airport (the airport has exits to France, Germany and Switzerland - I waited in Switzerland, my brother was in France), headed home for a power lunch and power nap before the first friends arrived. The coffee and cake event turned into a joint performance between my brother's parrot Carlo and my friend Margit's 4-month old son JT - the two of them riled each other up in a cacophony of sounds which was definitely unmatched and should have been recorded.
Sunday the whole family went out for brunch at my friend Helga's Hotel Anika (www.hotel-anika.de) - we ate and ate and ate.... The brunch at her place had definitely a very different style to it. Food was served sequentially and so we sat there eating for three hours straight. Felt just like Thanksgiving, buttons were popping, people were drinking Jaegermeister to help with the digestion, and everyone was ready for a nice long map. And of course, there is no better place to observe rude behavior than at a buffet table. The food items had barely been placed down when said leeches lined up to fill their plate again and again. In addition, there were some unsatisfactory states of personal hygiene, which did not increase their popularity with the rest of the room.
Sunday night the Schoki Club met again for some mediocre Greek food (not that this was our intention), but some cocktails helped to mediate the situation eventually. Monday I met up with my friends Roland and Ulla, who are celebrating their wedding this Saturday (Congratulations!!!), at a most quaint restaurant, the Klemmbachmuehle (Klemm Creek Mill) - located in the foothills of the Blackforest, very rustic, good hearty food and beautifully situated.

Of course, throughout the whole week, I also have been sick - not the big dreaded lurgy, but maybe a mini-lurgy of sorts, turning my nose into a beacon and my mind into mush.

Other travel observations:

*No one seemed to be bothered that there was a bird flying around the terminal at Washington, Dulles airport.
*What better place for smokers than the smoker's lounge at said airport (miracle that the bird is still alive, but then again, he may not have gone near the smoker's lounge) - one room, completely enclosed, surrounded by other smokers and a thick juicy nicotine fog - must be the ultimate thrill and nicotine rush, eh?
*During the flight from Boston to Dulles, I had the pleasure of sitting right next to the "facilities", and apparently I was the only person on the plane capable of opening the door - even the flight attendants needed my help.

My friends, it is time to go - more news from Amsterdam after my return to Boston. A few kudos to some of you who have become quite the wordsmiths in your updates to me - First place goes to Murriah, whose reaction to the Raspberry Honey Ale was that it sounded "gag-able" and second place to my friend Linda for the use of "harpsichordy"!

Varweel,

pet:)