The World is Your Oyster

I changed the view of my blog so it'd be wider. I'm undecided about it, any strong feelings?

During my short stay in New York, I had lunch with two friends from Penn: Robyn Bald and Rachel Silverman. It's good to catch up with old friends. I'm jealous they live in NYC, they're jealous of my travel opportunities. I consider us even. I bought a different journal. I needed one with thicker pages and no lines (who wants to be restricted to writing straight? My writing naturally curves and slants so I felt it needed to be liberated). My apoloigies, the information about a new journal may not keep all my readers at the edge of their seats, but I bet there's someone who appreciates my mentioning it.

I had two notable observations during my visit to New York. One, I look at the North American fruit with an air of South American elitism after 3 weeks of abundant Brazilian fruit. It'll be hard to readjust. Two, the annual elevator maintenance chart in Robyn's building dates back to 1983; someone has inspected it every year since that date with a four year hiatus between 1994 and 1999. Made me laugh.

I stocked up on peanut butter and American candy for my German family while I was in the city, and then stood on the packed E train during rush hour for 50 minutes, only to get to JFK so the security guard could violate my personal rights in making sure I wasn't trafficking anything forbidden to Germany. "How much peanut butter ARE you carrying, ma'am? Wait a minute, what's this, aren't you aware of the 15 lb. international Reeses limit?" Maybe they didn't ask me exactly that, but they may as well have. We boarded the plane on time, then sat patiently in our seats for 3.5 hours while the Delta maintenance crew tried to fix the plane. They decided it was unsafe to fly, so luckily they had a spare plane (a spare 767?! How is that possible? Think about it), and we took off for Frankfurt a mere 4 hours late. I didn't mind too much, I was just happy to be on an airplane that Delta airlines felt confident flying. Plus they make the seats in coach so comfortable, I though I was sitting on air! Poor Suse waited in Frankfurt to pick me up. She hardly noticed my plane was late - you know those Germans, so patient and laid back! Well, she might have noticed I was a little behind schedule. We cruised the happenin' Zoo area of Frankfurt and tried see some animals (they're German animals, totally exotic), but it was closed. I hold Delta Airlines accountable for my ruined German vacation. Lawsuit potential, anyone?

Suse and Andreas are working today, so I'm enjoying an afternoon of Internet access at the law office of Linten und Wieser, Rechtsanwälte. Tonight we leave for Hintertux Austria where we will ski for the next week with the rest of my beloved German friends, Ulrike, Markus, Annette, Peer, and many more. I'll post when I can!

By the way, I have decided to entend my trip by several weeks to spend some time in France and a few extra days with my brother. I will be returning to Seattle on Tuesday, May 30th.