Another Catch Up Post

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and didn't end up trampled under crowds on Black Friday. Jason and I were back in the States for the week of Thanksgiving. We had a great time visiting friends and family and especially enjoyed climbing at Rock Spot with Jason's siblings. One of the big events for this trip back was Jason's 15th high school reunion. The best part of that evening was the bar we went to after the reunion, where a friend's sandwich was taken by a drunk girl when he left it for a moment to go to the rest room. Her response, with a mouth full of sandwich, was: Yeah? So what? 

Jason headed back to Germany on Sunday evening, and I headed out to Concord, Mass to spend the week in the office and in the wonderful Best Western (Plus!) at Historic Concord. One of my colleagues says it smells like dirty socks. I think the smell has improved slightly with the addition of the "Plus" to the name over the last year. (One thing to note: if you are booked in a Best Western in Europe, do not despair! They are really classy joints here--the largest and nicest hotel room I have stayed in outside of Las Vegas was a Best Western in the Netherlands.)

My company has been growing recently, so there were a number of new faces in the office, including a new boss for me, who started that Monday. If nothing, I have good timing. There was also a cube realignment, which, for a space management system that is supposed to be flexible and easy to change, took a surprisingly long time to complete. I, luckily, was able to find my favorite chair and a desk to sit at, so I was content for the week.

The base from the bike trail

I returned to Germany that Friday, ready to face a busy week and jet-lag. Jason was kind enough to help keep me awake the Saturday I returned, mostly by watching TV shows with me. He was off, though, for the week Sunday, on a cultural education trip to Hamburg. I, in an effort to get my clock back to normally, went out for a  mountain bike ride in the cold and wet woods. I miraculously avoided the rain drops, and had a really nice view of the base under the cloudy sky, but was *covered* in mud on returning to the apartment, as the pictures below can testify.

Covered in mud

There is a pair of shoes under there...somewhere

While Jason was up in Hamburg, learning the details of the current German and European cultural landscape, I had a work trip that involved three cars, two trains and two planes. I supposed it really involved four planes, but 2 of them, headed to Hannover, were cancelled due to snow in Munich, and the fourth was found mostly by accident when asking in jest how to get to my next destination by the next morning. It turned out that the place I was headed, this small city two hours outside of Hannover, has an airport and the plane was leaving that evening, though delayed. Proof that it is always worth asking and that every cloud has a silver, though often slightly tarnished, lining.