Shots From My Way To Work

Hello all -

Here are some pictures taken from random spots during one of my many bike rides to work/school. They are, for the most part, in chronological order.

While looking them over, you will see a Northern German "hill" that I struggle up on my way home, a nice sunrise over an expansive cornfield, some frozen things, me not trying to drop my camera, the most bumpy, uncomfortable road I've ever biked on, the city I work in, and my school!

So now, when I write that I struggled through another day of biking to and from work, you can imagine me laboring through these photos on my stylish lady's bicycle.

Coming soon: Photos of my stylish lady's bicycle. Also of the house I live in and my room.

Today (well, tonight for me) is the Super Bowl! It starts at 6 PM on the East Coast, which means that it starts at 3 PM on the West Coast, which means that it starts more or less at midnight for me. But naturally that's not going to stop me. I'll be faithfully watching on the internet from my little corner of the world.

Bye!

Hi folks. So in keeping with my usual trends, here is a much belated post for your reading enjoyment..

Well, what a great time to be an American! This past Tuesday, as I'm sure you are fully aware of, was the inauguration of Barack Obama. I've already written about what the magnitude of Obama's accomplishments mean to me, but I don't think a person can talk or write about something like this enough. This type of thing only happens once in a person's life. I am sure that there is a lot of excitement back home in the States, as many people here in Germany are quite excited themselves. Many people, including colleagues and friends, have been asking me questions regarding Obama. And, from the sound of it, Obama hasn't been disappointing - he has been busy at work in the White House in his first week on the Job.

Now, with that said, I did note some pretty funny things during the inauguration ceremony (while I was using the internet to watch it live, thank you world wide web!).

- The first was the look on George Bush's face as he was making the long and ceremonial walk to the stage where the inauguration was taking place. I remember thinking that I wanted to make it a point to notice his face whenever they showed him, and I just could not quite place his look. It appeared to be a mix of confusion, pleasure, and fear. Confusion, maybe, because he just wasn't quite sure which way he was supposed to go during his approach to the stage. Pleasure because of the knowledge that he would no longer have to make so many difficult and hard decisions, and act like you know what you're doing. And, finally, fear - because of the realization of not knowing what the heck he is going to do now. I don't know. I just thought it was a really funny look. Plus I was just happy to see him making that walk :)

- The second funny thing happened during Obama's speech. Throughout the speech, the TV station, I believe I was watching FOX News, would switch between shots of Obama and people in the crowd. On one of these particular crowd shots, I happen to see a black man yawning and dozing off! At the inauguration of the first black president in the history of the United States. One of the most important moments of your life. You are there in person. And you fall asleep. Man, the the irony of seeing that got me laughing out loud by myself.

- Lastly, how about that poor lady that had to follow up Obama's speech with that poetry? I am not taking away from her poetic skills, but honestly - they want follow up entertainment for one of the best speech givers of recent history, and they pick the poem lady? Anybody is going to have trouble following Obama and the poem lady was no exception. I felt bad for her.

So, all-in-all, I was pretty excited about the whole inauguration scene. I'm happy and I'm hopeful for my country. It's a great time to be an American.

On a completely different subject, a couple of weekends ago I made a short trip up to Elmshorn to visit the Baumann Family. The Baumann's, if you remember, are the family I did the bike tour on the Mosel River with. It was both a fun and relaxing weekend. The Friday that I arrived, I ended up hanging out with Anne and Philip and watching movies. The highlight, I would say, was watching Terminator 3 on television. I got to show the two Baumann kids a little bit of American culture, hehe. Saturday was a cool day. The whole family and I drove into Hamburg to do some sightseeing around the harbor. We were still in the middle of a big cold chill in Northern Germany, so a good portion of the Elbe River (the main river that makes Hamburg such a big/busy port city) was prozen over. It was so cool! I had never in my entire life really seen a river as major as the Elbe with more ice than water at the surface. We checked out some other things, including climbing to the top of a ship-shaped building that had stairs on the outside of it. It was a good day spent in the harbor area. Funny enough, after dinner that evening, the family and I capped off the night watching Terminator 2, which they happened to have on DVD.

Lastly, I have a little something to grip about. This may not come completely as a surprise, but there are different driving rules over here in Germany. Now, this doesn't make driving a completely different experience over here (I don't drive, this is just from a passenger's perspective), but it is a big enough change to where you would have to do some studying should you want to drive on a vacation to Germany. So now to my grip. One of the rules here, apparently, is something called "right before left." What this means is that at unmarked intersections of streets, the car on the right always gets the right of way. Example: I am making the long, 40-minutes bike ride home from work this past Thursday. On the home stretch. I am on the main drag in a smaller residential area, so there are so traffic signals. A dude on a motor bike approaches my street, wanting to turn onto it, as I am crossing. He quickly does his best to communicate his frustration with having to wait 5 seconds for a dog-tired biker and drove off. This is one situation where I do not miss America's rules at all. I definitely prefer our rules of the first one to an intersection with stop signs gets to go first and when turning onto a road, you must yield to traffic already driving on your desired road. Small, but still, it bugs me.

This weekend has been a lazy weekend for me. This past week I felt like I had a cold the whole time. Particularly on Friday and Saturday. So I stayed home this weekend, saved money, and got healthy. Luckily, I came to Germany with a small doctor's office-worth of stuff to help stave off disease. Thanks Mom!

I am a little behind on updating my computer with pictures, so when I get the Baumann weekend pictures uploaded, I'll update this post with some pictures of our day at the harbor. That's all for now!

russ.

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Hello family, friends, and whoever else might be reading this! A few days ago I returned to Bremen after a great time in Luebeck. The past couple of days have been spent getting my life back into order (I sort of lose touch with reality while I am vacationing from my already vacation-like life) by doing massive amounts of laundry, getting out and jogging, and general cleaning-up around the room.

My first order of business is to wish you all a very happy new year! (Which is exactly what the title of this post is doing. Just a little FYI for all you NON-German speakers out there..shame on you). I hope that you all had a great time ringing the new year in. I, too, had a very fun time on New Years Eve (called Silvester over here). I tagged along with my uncle Stefan (Mom's Bro) and my aunt Thesi to a small town on the Baltic Sea called Travemunde. This town is essentially at the spot where the Baltic and the river (can't remember the name of the particular river right now) that runs through Luebeck meet. A very pretty place, with a long beach and a big boardwalk-type area along it. We got there right on time, as people were beginning to really start their firework shows. And, damn, these Germans sure take their fireworks seriously. The place looked and sounded like we were in middle of a war-zone, or what I would imagine a war-zone to kind of be like. The sky was aglow nonstop. The air was full of smoke. So full, in fact, that many of my photos ended up looking like I had taken a picture a greyish wall. The lights and explosions lasted long after the strike of midnight; and were still going as we were driving off after we had had our fill of watching people blow their money up. It was a nice, quiet (well, not really. But I hope you get what I mean), and enjoyable new years.




















I've never been particularly huge on new years, except during the whole Y2K deal, that was a hoot. To me it always just feels like any other day. I never get that "little kid" feeling I get on Christmas, or that feeling of great anticipation during Thanksgiving when I smell the bird cooking. However, despite this, I like to view the turning of the year as a good time to set some good, long-term goals and to reflect. So with no further ado, behold my goals/reflections list!!

1. If you came to me a year ago and told me that, a year from then, I would be sitting in Germany writing this blog post, I would have laughed it and you off. Goes to show what a little hard work, persistence, and a year's worth of time can do. Cliche, I know, but true.

2. I want to return to the States in better shape than when I arrived back in August. Two reason for this: to prove my mom wrong, hehe, and just because I enjoy getting out and being active.

(a little history about that: back in the Summer as I was preparing for my trip over here, mom told me that I would undoubtedly return with a beer belly, or some form of one. afterall, I was going to the land of beer, Germany. so this is a little stubbornness on my part. but it also helps me with staying motivated. hell, for all I know, that was a little bit of reverse psychology on mom's part. or maybe I'm thinking too hard..)

3. By the time they make me leave here, I hope to have improved all of my students' English speaking abilities. But, more importantly, I hope to have instilled in them a little desire to learn about "stuff" in general - different cultures, languages, whatever.

4. I want to become as proficient in the German language as I can.

5. I want to find a real job, so I can start the multiple-decade-long process o paying off the dreaded student loans. Hopefully I can do this (find a job, that is) before I return.

6. I want to run and complete a half-marathon. And possibly get into triathalons.

7. When back in the States: Ride my bike more, and drive my car less.

8. Get good at waking up early. And do it regularly.

9. Write a short story or get a sports related article published somewhere.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I know for sure that I am forgetting some major things, but I just can't pull them out of my brain at the moment.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure, here are some photos: (Decorating the tree w/ Lutz being a goofball, the dudes of the house and me, an artsy-fartsy picture I like, preparing food in Oma's kitchen while Oma refuses to sit idly and let us do the work, eating a very nice lunch with Oma - Anna-Maria, my aunt, is on the right, Stefan and cousin Jan - Lutz's younger brother.)




















So, there you have it - my first blog of 2009. Hope you liked it. And, like I've been continually saying, I am going to give it my all with becoming a more frequent blogger - hey, that's another thing for my list above :).

This week I plan on getting my first haircut/trim in Germany, how exciting! It'll be the first time since I was in the States, woah.

Start planning your trip over here, Tony!!! Ciao!

Much love,

Russ.

A Very Merry Christmas

Hello all! To start things off, I would like to wish everyone reading my blog a wonderful Christmas (or Weihnachten)! If yours was anything like mine, then you had a good time.

To everyone dealing with "Snow Storm 2008" back home in Western Washington: Be safe asnd don't have too much fun without me!

So, a little bit about my German Christmas. I arrived at my uncle Stefan's house in Lübeck on Tuesday the 23rd. Lübeck is a beautiful city in Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea. It is the marzipan capital of the world as well. If you haven't heard of marzipan or have never eaten it, that is simply a shame. Marzipan is a delicious, sweet treat made from almonds and sugar with (normally) a chocolate coating. Just ask my good friend Sara Bear (Hi, Sara!).

I was welcomed with open arms into House Stefan Olbrich by the man himself, his wife Thesi, their two sons, Lutz and Jan. On my first night with the family, Lutz and I promptly went to a local "disko" to do some partying/dancing (Lutz pretty much took care of the latter of the two).

The next day was what we Americans know as Christmas Eve. Here it is called Heilige Abend. This day is the Germans' true celebration day for Christmas in terms of spending time together, going to church, opening presents, etc. Christmas day is also important, but Heilige Abend is the equivalent to our Christmas. We ate a nice dinner, went to a short church service (where the pastor used Harry Potter as a metaphor to his message), then returned home to do the opening presents thing. Now, I like to think of my time here in Germany on the Fulbright Fellowship a good enough present: I am essentially on a year-long vacation, get to see my Mom's side of the family, and have the opportunity to fully immerse myself in a new culture and learn a great deal of 'stuff.' However, I was taken aback when I was given a few very thoughtful gifts from my uncle's family. Add them to the gifts that were in a rather large box sent from the States (from, guess who, my lovely mom) and I essentially made out like a bandit. So, I'd like to thank Family Olbricht and Family Wacker for a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas! :)

The actual day of Christmas was more or less a lazy day around the house. The high point of the day was definitely in the evening, when I got a little "cultured." One of the Christmas gifts from the day before were tickets for the whole family and I to go see a movie called Buddenbrook. This movie is based on Thomas Mann's novel about the rich Buddenbrook family in Lübeck in the 18th century and it's eventual demise. It was a good experience. A pretty good movie that gave me a good perspective on how port cities thrived in the "olden days."

Just when I thought things couldn't get any nicer, the day after Christmas day the boys of the family and I went to visit Oma! (that's grandma for you non-German speaking folk). The last time I had seen her was waaay back in 1997, the last time I was in Germany. We spent a great afternoon talking with Oma and exchanging yet even more gifts. Oma seemed to be in very high spirits and surprised me with her agility when she moved around the house. It sure was good to spend a day with the only grandparent I have yet.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this post - I am using Lutz's computer and don't have the necessary equipment with me to upload photos.

Tomorrow Lutz and I are going to Hamburg to take part in what sounds like a very fun night of what essentially amounts to bar/disko hopping. That should be interesting!

So, again, I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas!

If you have a chance, drop me a post and let me know how you are doing! Keep tuning in. Ciao!

russ.

the last trip w/ the girls

So I met the girls in Bremen on Wednesday the 3rd after a particularly long day at work. It had already been decided that our last trip together would be to Amsterdam, so we needed to get ahold of our tickets. I had to get my roundtrip tickets, the girls had to get tickets from the German border to Amsterdam (because they had a German Rail pass, which pretty much meant they could travel wherever they wanted to in Germany for free), and we had to get one for Colin, who is a friend of Leah's from college and who was in Europe trying out for several football (soccer) clubs. After a short while, the tickets had been purchased and the trip was set.

On Thursday, the day before we left, we met up with Colin in Bremen and I got to play tour guide once again. So we walked about the historic parts of the city, checking things out, and looked through the (very impressive) Weihnachtsmarkt they have going on in Bremen. The last part of the day was spent on a tour of the Becks brewery located on the river Weser. It was a good tour (much, much better than the heineken tour in Amsterdam) with a great ending - a sort of beer testing session, where we had to try and distinguish between Beck's and Haake Beck's beers (Leah, Sara, and I were right. Colin was wrong). We ended up drinking a decent amount of beer, which helped because the weather outside was freezing with snow flurries.

On early Friday morning we began our 5 hour trek to Amsterdam. The trainride was no fun, as we had to switch trains 3 times. We eventually arrived at the old and always crowded mainstation in Amsterdam. After taking a bus to our Hostel and freshing up, which included a nap for me, we rode back into the central part of the city to do some walking around. Colin had to meet up with a friend of his who happened to be living in the city, so the girls and I went and got some dinner. After dinner, we met up with Colin and his friend. His friend ended up showing us around, kind of giving us an insider's guide for what we should do/see while there.

Saturday was a day of an immense amount of walking. We started off in Rembrandt Square intending to find a place where we could rent bikes. However, at the beginning of our search, we found a huge flea market adjacent to the square and ended up spending a decent amount of time there. By the time we had walked through the whole thing, we were close enough to the museum area that we decided to just go there by foot. We ended up seeing the Rijksmuseum (but did not go inside), which is a wonderful museum of art and history and features a magnificent selection of Dutch paintings from the Golden Age (okay, I stole that last part from the Rijksmuseum webpage), and spent time in the Vincent van Gogh art museum. That was wonderful. I had learned a decent amount about van Gogh from art classes way back in my college days (I can say that now, can't I? hehe), but wow, seeing all of these original pieces of work from him was just amazing. If you are ever in the neighborhood, the Vincent van Gogh Art Museum comes highly recommended from me. (Pictures: Leah and Sara hanging out with a Rembrandt statue, the Rijksmuseum, a sweet shot from behind the Rijksmuseum)

We concluded the day with meeting up with Colin's friend for dinner at a nice restaurant called Ocho (I couldn't help but think of Chad Ocho-Cinco/Johnson when hearing of this place), I had the ribs. On Sunday, right before our train left, we hopped onto one of the canal boat tours you can do while in Amsterdam. It was nice to be able to see the city without walking, but I still prefer to go and see things for myself. However, the very funny captain/guide of the tour had some quality bits of information to share with us. (Pictures: Te smallest flat in Amsterdam! It is only one window wide. It's the one in the center with the protruding white window. Some typical Amsterdam flats.)

After Amsterdam, the girls and I returned "home" to Bremen for their last couple of days in Germany. The last two days were essentially spent in Bremen (when I was done teaching, of course) at the Weihnachtsmarkt because the girls wanted to do some shopping and buy some gifts for their families back home (they also bought a gift for my colleague with whom I live, which was very nice). It wasn't all that bad for me though, as I made a couple of necessary purchases: warm socks and a nice side-satchel man purse type of thing, big enough to carry things I need for school, or food, or clothes for a small trip.

This past Wednesday, at 4 in the freaking morning, the girls were picked up by a taxi and went to the Bremen airport for their 6:30 flight back home. I had a wonderful time with Leah and Sara, and am so thankful that they found the time, money, and motivation to visit me over here in Germany. The three of us accomplished a great amount in 3 weeks and had a heck of a time in doing so. Now, after 3 weekends of spending money, I have accepted the fact that I will have to have a few quiet, uneventful weeks of life if I want to keep my money budget where I want it.

Coming up very soon is Weihnachten (Christmas), which I will be spending with my Uncle Stefan, his wife Thesi, and their family in Luebeck, which happens to be the Marzipan capital of the world, if I'm not mistaken. I am very exited to have the opportunity to spend a Christmas in Germany! Although, nothing beats being home for the holidays, and I will definitely be keeping my family and friends in my thoughts during my time here.

The last time I wrote, I had just returned from a great 1st weekend with the girls (Leah and Sara) in Berlin. Since then, we were able to make a couple of other fun and exciting trips.

The weekend following Berlin, I met up with the girls down in Cologne. They spent the week down in Bavaria, checking out the Swiss Alps, among other things. So, when it came time to meet up with them on thursday evening, we decided to meet at the hostel I had reserved in Cologne. Everything worked out nicely and they were in the lobby of the place waiting for me when I arrived.

Our time spent in Cologne was really awesome. The Weihnachtsmaerkte (Christmas markets) were in full swing this time around which made it all the more fun (the weekend before, in Berlin, they were merely setting up the markets, so we didn't have a chance to check those out). Our first night there, Thursday, happened to be Thanksgiving! The three of us decided that it was only right to try and have as close to a Thanksgiving dinner as possible. So, we walked around a little bit, on the lookout for a good restaurant and, low and behold, we found a place called The Chicago Steakhouse. After a short deliberation, it was decided that this was as close as we were going to get (plus we were by that time very hungry) and we went in. It was a nice Turkey Day Dinner spent with good company, but it didn't even compare to the real thing back home. Despite these shortcomings, we made the best of it and had a good (and our first ever!) Thanksgiving away from home. The rest of the night was just spent checking out the various stalls at the Christmas market and enjoying ourselves. (Pictures: The main stage at the Christmas Market right next to the Cathedral, our Thanksgiving Dinner restaurant!, the three of us at dinner).

The first thing we did the next day was conquer the Cologne Cathedral (Koelner Dom) and all 500 or so steps required to get to the top. It was a pretty decent workout and the reward at the end was great. If you have never seen it, the Cologne Cathedral is really something to behold. It is incredibly large and just as beautiful. We also got to learn a little bit about it's history. During WWII, the entire city of Cologne was bombed, leaving it literally in shambles. Amazingly, the only thing left standing, for as far as the eye can see, was the cathedral. Here's a good link to get what I'm talking about: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral-photos/wwii-bombing-cc-gordonr.jpg

(pictures: view of Cologne from atop the Cathedral, the three of us at the top, the Cathedral from ground level, the part of the Cathedral that we climbed - the tallest part!)

After returning to the safe earth, we had to rest our weary legs a little bit before setting out again. The rest of the day was sort of spent walking around, checking out things here and there, getting coffee occasionally, and getting meals. That night, we went out for drinks with a couple of British fellows who Leah and Sara happened to meet during their travels in Southern Germany. It was a fun time and a good way to cap out trip to Cologne.

The next morning we hopped on a train headed to Duesseldorf, where we would be spending the day/night (we could only get the hostel in Cologne until Saturday, so we kind of had to). By this time, however, we were all kind of tired from all of the traveling. So, long story short, the three of us pretty much were content with getting dinner and relaxing at our hostel with a dvd and some beers. From what I did see of Duesseldorf, it looked like a pretty alright city to me.

On Sunday morning, we had to once again part ways - seeing as how I had to teach for another week, and the girls had to travel for another week. So we said our goodbyes, I headed back up to Bremen, and the girls headed East to Baden-Baden for a (from what I heard) very luxurious time at the world-renown spa. The next time I'd be seeing my two friends would be the following Wednesday in Bremen.

Hi! Major apologies for slacking on my bloggage. I've been quite busy, as you will now find out...

On the weekend of November the 14th-16th, I got to do some traveling. This weekend was spent with some of my Fulbright friends in Amsterdam. It was my first time there and I was totally blown away by it. For starters, it really is one of the more beautiful cities that I've ever seen. The architecture is great. Many of the buildings/houses are painted a variety of colors, and looking at them in pictures online just doesn't do them justice. And bicycles rule that city. By the looks of it, the people on bikes outnumbered those in cars like 10 to 1. It was just insane to see so many bikes, everywhere. Every single place that we went had accommodations for our rented bikes. And pretty much every single street has a bike lane, so getting around is very easy and safe. It's funny how much things can change when you go only a couple of hours by train out of Germany. Alex, Ian, Ashley, and I pretty much went and saw all of the usual tourist spots in our 1.5 days there. It was a very fun weekend after a fairly busy week of work. Here are a few pictures from the weekend: In order of appearance: Ian and I just after renting our bikes - this was taken while riding, A pretty little neighborhood square, Getting food and drinks at a nice restaurant - Alex and Ashley are opposite of us, A small pond in the middle of Vondel Park, And me on the Heineken Brewery Tour (which was only average).

On Monday, the 17th of November, I got the day off from school to attend a meeting in Lueneburg, which is a little bit outside of Hamburg. This meeting was called, in German, "Begruessungsveranstaltung fuer die auslaendischen Fremdsprachenassistentinnen und assistenten im Schuljahr 2008/2009." German is such a fun and beautiful language, isn't it? For those of you who didn't understand that (probably most of you), it essentially was a meeting day for all of the foreign language teaching assistants in and around Bremen. And it wasn't just for English speakers, as I met nice people from France, Spain, and Italy. We spent the day talking (only in German of course) about our personal experiences so far assistant-ing (made that one up) in our respective schools. I found this incredibly helpful because now I know a bunch of people, with wide-ranging cultural backgrounds, that I can meet and have fun with in Bremen. Yay!

Two days later I got another day off from school. This time around it wasn't so fun. I had to go to the "Auslaenderbehoerde" to extend my Visa. I got to experience the wonderful world of sitting in a stuffy room with a lot of other non-Germans and waiting for my name to be called. I arrived at 8:15 (15 minutes after it opened) to find a line already 30 people deep. Then, after standing in that line for about 45 minutes, I got to take my seat among the others hoping for a Visa extension for another several hours or so. Despite the extreme amounts of uneventfulness, I was very happy at the end of the day because of two reason. One was because I got my Visa extended and now wont get kicked out of Germany. The second was because I was out of there in time to go meet Sara and Leah at the airport in Bremen! Boy it sure was good to see two of my best friends in the whole wide world. After picking them up, I gave them a very short tour of Bremen (they were, understandably, very tired), I took them back to my place so they could rest up for a very fun weekend in...

Berlin! That's right folks, my first of three weekend trips with the girls was to my favorite German city/Germany's capitol. We arrived on Friday the 21st and stayed until the 23rd, and what a fun weekend it was. Since I had recently been there, I was able to play a little "tour-guide" role for them. So, long story short, we basically saw all of the great and fun things I saw last time, but with a freezing cold/snowy/christmas twist on it. On the trainride over to Berlin, we got some snow. And then on Saturday night we got to witness our first ever German snowfall together! And snow it did. Unfortunately, the real snowing pretty much began after we had retired to our room for the evening, so we only really got to go out and play for a little bit (plus it was insanely freezing!). But we had enough time to toss a bunch of snowballs, write "OBAMA" on the top of a car, and just about get frostbite in our fingers. Also going this weekend was a miniature Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) at Potsdamer Platz. This little markt had a really big fake-snow inner-tubing hill. Leah and Sara took a go on it and loved it (I opted to pass, as the combination of steepness and iciness looked too perilous for my accident-prone self), even after they smashed into the back retaining wall at what looked like about 60 MPH...alright it was probably more like 10. Other than the normal touristy stuff, our weekend was filled with lots of laughter, my attempts at Usher dance moves (if you don't know what I'm referring to, you will have to look him up on youtube), and good food and drinks. I think it was a wonderful start to what should be a very fun and exciting 3 weeks with those two girls. Pictures in order of appearance: The three of us at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, The girls in front of the Brandenburg Gate, The huge, icy hill that the girls tubed down. They're at the top in this picture. The three of us in the Sony Center after getting dinner, The OBAMA Car! Sara and I at a random/interesting club, Leah and I at the same club.

Aaaand, after all of that fun, I returned to school today (the 24th) by making my usual 40 minute bike-commute. Only this time I had the pleasure of doing it in near freezing temperatures and icy/snowy streets and sidewalks. :) But it wasn't so bad, it definitely beats getting poured on by a bunch of rain!

Hello friends!

I haven't done much since my return from the Mosel River trip, so I thought I would do a small commentary.

Three days ago Barack Obama was elected by the people of the United States as its 44th president. As you all probably are aware of, this instantly goes down as one of the single most monumental things in the history of our country. I took several history courses in my days in school, so when I look back on our nation's history it is simply remarkable to think about how far we have come in such a short period of time. To put it (very) briefly: We, as a people, have come from fighting a war against one another over the issue of slavery. Thinking about slavery now, it just seems utterly ludicrous to force a race of people into slavery. And yet, many of our forefathers were willing enough to kill their own countrymen in order to preserve it. We have come from the Jim Crow Laws, which essentially earmarked black people as an "inferior race," taking away simple civil rights that many of us take for granted today. We have come from listening to people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and countless others standing up for what is right and what they believe in only to be knocked right back down. Now, we have Barack Obama as our next president. I think that president-elect Obama said it best himself when he talked about that 100+ year old woman in (I believe) Georgia, who has lived to see just about everything - now that includes the first black president of the United States.

What an exciting and pride-provoking time that we get to be live in. I think that I will be saying this many times throughout the rest of my life: This is one of, if not THE, proudest moments of my life thus far. Way to go America!

The reaction here in Germany has been great. I arrived at school on Wednesday and was immediately congratulated by one colleague after another. I knew that they, too, sensed the gravity of what had just happened in my home country. I could tell that they were elated as well.

The election of Mr. Obama gives a glimmer of hope to the entire world, and the reaction I received from my colleagues and students told me that they realize that. It's funny, living abroad has enabled me to gather a whole different perspective of the States and the world in general. And, after reading various newspapers here, I am 100% convinced that the United States is one of the only countries in the entire world where John McCain would have stood even the slightest chance against Barack Obama. Go figure.

However, with all of that being said, the work does not end here. In fact, it has barely begun. With the state our country is in, I think it will take quite some time to "right the ship," so to speak. Too much has gone array in our great country to be complacent with what we have achieved.


Moving on to a whole different topic. I want to say something about a side of athletics that too often goes unnoticed. In this day and age when statistics, fame, and fortune are the measure of greatness in sports many other, more important, stories go unnoticed.

After reading these two articles, I was reminded of the special place athletics holds in many people's lives. Many times there is much more to sports than simply winning and losing and getting good stats, and these two stories go to show you that. Go ahead and check them out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3683219&sportCat=ncf

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=clemmons/0811107&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1

Well, I hope you enjoyed my once-in-a-while serious talk about things. I think the news back in the States warranted such a post. Hope all is well where ever you are reading this from.

Ciao!

Russ w.