The Munich Diet

July 9, 2010 at 5:58 am (Germany, Travel)
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Today we left Nuremburg and spent most of the day in Bamberg.  We took a brief tour of the cathedral, then had lunch in a biergarten.  So the only parts of town we got to see were on our walk from said cathedral to said restaurant.  It’s a very picturesque place and everyone wanted to stop and shop and take pictures.  Time did not allow for this.  I didn’t even get to buy a postcard. 

Lunch in the restaurant was ok, I had currywurst which is still not as good as what we bought off the street vendor way back in Oranienburg.  We left after lunch to tour a palace that was used by the prince bishopric I think.  (Priest bishopric?  I can’t remember.)  It was a 30 minute tour, we really only looked at some of the rooms on the first floor and then were off to Munich, which was about 2.5 hours away.

We passed the BMW headquarters on the way in, which is a massive cylindrical structure.  We also saw the top of the Olympic Stadium, which we’ll visit during our tour of Munich. 

We were free for the evening, which caused a rush of planning.  Hofbrahaus was at the top of many people’s list.  We know it’s as touristy as you can get.  But now we can say we’ve been to the original Hofbrahaus and had a beer.  Now I can say I’ve been to all three of them.  Since we all wanted to make other stops, we didn’t stay too long.  (Even the waiter, when asked for the bill, said “so soon?”)  I’m not sure anyone even finished their beer. 

I stopped by the Hard Rock to get a shirt for myself, and then met up with everyone else at the Glockenspiel which is awesome, although I may have spelled it incorrectly.  We were a little disappointed because the clock never started up, so we didn’t get to see what it does. 

Another biergarten (where locals actually go) was the final stop of our self made whirlwind tour of Munich last night.  This is the spot our group leader suggested.  We walked in and this place is huge.  There were easily 2000 people there, a live band, full tables in every direction you looked, and a playground for the kids.  The band was actually pretty good, they do some songs in English but the highlight for me was hearing them perform “99 Luftballons.” 

Back to the hotel after that, and luckily it’s a late morning.  I will need a lot of food though.  Dinner tonight consisted of a pretzel eaten while walking to the Hofbrahaus, a beer at the Hofbrahaus (which I did not finish, but it was a liter!) and then an ice cream cone while walking to the other biergarten.  I certainly felt full but ate nothing of substance.  It was a great dinner.  I wish I had gotten 3 scoops of ice cream instead of two. 

And now we’re looking at our last day in Germany as a group which is sad.  We had a really good group and a great itinerary.  Many people are extending their trips and taking off to many different places in Europe.  I’ll be spending a few days in Croatia before heading home.  Everyone is splitting up today, we get to choose what we want to see.  A few people are heading out to Dachau which I would like to see, but we have been to Sachsenhausen and if I went with that group that would take up all morning and early afternoon.  Plus, I also really want to see the Olympic Stadium and other sites around Munich.  We meet this afternoon for a tour of a monastery where the monks brew beer, and then have our final dinner together.

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Orientation

June 26, 2010 at 1:37 am (Germany)
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I made it to D.C. with no problem.  My flight was actually supposed to be delayed, but the flight before mine was also delayed and since they still had seats, I was able to take the earlier flight.  So I wound up leaving about 15 minutes before my original scheduled flight, and who knows when that left. 

I opted to pay for convenience and took the Super Shuttle from the airport to the hotel.  (I did not feel like fighting with my suitcase on the metro when it’s 100 degrees outside.)  The hotel is very nice-Marriott Wardman Park?  Something like that?  I met up with a couple of other people from my group and we got lunch and hung out until 4:30 when our orientation started.

There are two groups that are leaving tomorrow, although we have different itineraries once we’re in Germany.  Orientation tonight was really just an introduction, telling us about the trip, answering questions, etc.  Then we had dinner (a Mediterannean style meal) and were free to go.  A few people needed to pick up some things, so we hit the CVS across the street from the hotel.  I did pick up a snack for the flight, but I think I have everything so I luckily didn’t need to purchase anything else.

Tomorrow we meet at 9:30 at the Goethe Institut.  (And if I’m hearing them correctly, it’s sounds like Gerta when you say it.)  We have the second part of orientation and then go directly to the airport from the Institut.  Our flight leaves at 5:45pm Saturday, and we land in Frankfurt at 7:40am Sunday German time, 1:40am EST.  We do have a little time to freshen up after we land, but we do have a tour on Sunday.  The incredibly important Germany vs. England game is Sunday afternoon/evening sometime, and we all want to watch that.  I hope I can stay awake, because it doesn’t sound like we’ll get much sleep.  I hope to sleep some on the plane, but by the time it feels late to me we won’t have much longer before we land.  So we’ll see.

I figure the next time I get to post anything will be from Frankfurt-hopefully I’ll have some pictures.  Don’t forget to root for Germany.

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2.5 weeks and counting

June 9, 2010 at 9:41 pm (Misc., Travel)
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My trip is slowly approaching.  I have a friend going on the first trip, who leaves Friday.  I asked her to let me know if anything odd happens, such as our bizarre experience at the actor’s house in Poland last year, just so I can be prepared. 

As far as I can tell, I’ve done everything I need to.  (Except learn a lot of German.)  I’ve paid my deviation fee (since I extended my trip) and have booked my flight to and from Croatia, as well as my hotel room in Germany for the night before I head home.  I’ve started to mentally plan the clothes I want to pack.  They’re putting heavy emphasis on the whole pack light thing, but with virtually no option to do laundry (other than the costly hotel service) I’m not sure exactly what to do.  I know I do not like wearing the same clothes over and over (as we did in Poland) nor do I want to purchase new clothes in Germany just so I have clean clothes to wear.  Next week I’ll begin to lay stuff out in my suitcase and see how heavy it is.  I am packing a duffle bag in my suitcase so that I can spread things out on the way home, and so that I can check my suitcase in Germany and take only a small bag to Croatia.  I hope to avoid checking a bag at all on the flight to and from Zagreb.  (So everyone will just have to get over not getting a souvenir from Croatia.  I will buy myself something, certainly, but I’m not trying to stuff a bunch of things into my small carry on.) 

Our group has been communicating a bit the past few weeks, which is nice.  I think I’ll have a running buddy so I won’t get lost by myself.  (If we have time to squeeze in any running at all that is.)  And I’ve made plans to meet a couple of people in DC for lunch before our orientation, since I’ll arrive around 10:45am.

I think I’m going to be very happy that I bought the netbook and the Nook.  I’ve bought a few books for my Nook, and downloaded several other free ebooks.  So I’ll have plenty to read.  I plan on buying a few more before I go, but I’ve probably got enough now to get me through. 

I do wish I was more consistent with the German studying, but I think I know enough to at least introduce myself and ask basic questions.  Maybe I’ll pick up a few things while I’m there, which would be nice.  I certainly won’t have any time to continue with German (whether on my own or in a formal class for awhile) since I’ll start working on my Master’s in History in the fall.  But maybe once I’m finished I can get into a formal German class.  Although I can’t think about the Master’s until I get back from my trip.  It is lurking in the back of my brain though. 

What I expect next is a frenzied week to a week and a half of packing and repacking my suitcase and carry on bag.  (Though my carry on bag should be wonderfully light since I only need my netbook, Nook, and camera!)  I’ve still got to make phone calls to the bank, my cell phone carrier, etc., to let them know I’ll be out of the country so I can use my ATM card and cell phone if necessary. 

I feel like I have a lot to do, or maybe it’s a lot I want to do, before I go.  I think the next 2.5 weeks will be one of those bizarre timeframes where the days seem to simultaneously creep and fly by.

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Nook or no Nook?

May 14, 2010 at 1:59 am (Photography, Travel)
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As impatient as I am, things are finally starting to come together in terms of my trip to Germany. 

I received my itinerary and list of other participants last week.  During our two weeks we’ll visit Frankfurt, Berlin, Schwerin, Nuremburg, and Munich.  We’ll also have day excursions to places like Potsdam and Bamberg.  Various castles are on the agenda, as well as Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and the Nazi Party rally grounds.  Interesting (to me anyway) we also have a trip to an Adidas and a Puma factor/plant/something.  We will hopefully get to visit with several classes at various levels, from grade school through high school. 

I also have my flight information.  There was a bit of an issue in figuring out how to get me from Norfolk to D.C.  (There are no direct flights from Norfolk to Dulles.)  There are direct flights however, from Norfolk to Reagan.  I will have to get myself from Dulles to Reagan when I return, but I think I’ll book the Supershuttle for that. 

The unfortunate part is that I have to leave Croatia on the evening of July 13th to head back to Munich.  My flight leaves Munich at 6:15am, heads to Frankfurt, and then to D.C., arriving at 12:40pm.  (Giving me plenty of time to get the 30 miles from Dulles to Reagan for my 5pm flight.  Well, it should.) 

I’ve got my new camera and have played around with it a few times trying to get a feel for it.  My favorite picture so far is of my niece at the park. 

Now the question on my mind is whether or not to invest in an e-reader.  My BF was hired recently at Barnes and Noble and will be working with the Nook.  She got me thinking about it.  I did take a couple of books to Poland last year, and bought several more while I was there to have something to read on the way home.  I’ve got 6 flights of varying lengths, as well as travel within Germany.  I’m going to need a lot of reading material.  However, I could also use the money I would spend on the Nook on my trip, if I didn’t mind lugging a bunch of books.

I haven’t put my hands on one yet, and that’s on my list of things to do this weekend.  I’ll give it serious thought, but I am kind of leaning towards purchasing one.  It would be so nice to have all my books together and only have to carry one small, light item.  I guess we’ll see after I check it out in the store this weekend.

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Munich to Zagreb and back

April 1, 2010 at 1:46 am (Photography, Travel)
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I sent in all the forms yesterday for my trip to Germany, including the form stating that I want to extend my stay in Europe.  It’s only for a few days, but I am definitely going to Zagreb to visit a friend that I haven’t seen since high school. 

We’re free to go our own way the morning of July 10th.  I’ll catch a plane to Zagreb ASAP, and will visit Croatia until the 13th or 14th.  (I’m hoping to stay until the morning of the 14th, but it depends on when my return flight to D.C. leaves.  I have to fly out of Munich, since my return flight is paid for by the Goethe Institut.  Cross your fingers that it’s an afternoon flight, and that I can catch the early bird flight out of Zagreb and get back to Munich in plenty of time to catch my flight home.  I hope to avoid having to book a hotel room for one night.) 

I’m also told that I’ll either stay with my friend, or that I’ll be able to use her sister’s apartment which will be empty at that time, and is located near here:

I would love to run around that in the mornings. 

I know they haven’t even received my information yet, but I am so impatient.  I want to know where we’re going, where we’re staying, what we’re doing, and my flight information.  (I want to book my flight as soon as I can to avoid expensive last minute fares.)

But I know that all of that info won’t arrive for awhile.  That hasn’t stopped me however, from beginning my mental list of things I want to take, or that I need to purchase before I leave.  I recently purchased a netbook, so that’s taken care of, so at the top of my list is a new camera.  I have a perfectly nice DSLR that I love.  But it’s huge.  As much as I love it, it was a pain to drag it (and the long lens) around Poland for 4 weeks.  My point and shoot is not sufficient, that’s really just for goofing off, not for anything really important.  So a friend recommended this one:  http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/Z981_Digital_Camera/productID.169236500.

It’s the new version of what she has, which I admired and inquired about.  She used it in Ecuador a few years ago and I think the pictures turned out very well.  This camera has sufficient zoom, megapixels, and hand shake stabilization.  It also has a black and white setting which I like to fool around with occasionally.  And the coolest thing is that you can tag your photos when you take them, say for Facebook, and when you connect your camera to your computer, it will automatically upload the photos to wherever you tagged them.  That feature will really come in handy since I try to upload photos while I’m gone, and maybe it’ll save me some time.  (It’s quite time consuming to upload photos and blog each evening, but I like to share what I’m doing while it’s fresh in my mind.  Although, if I weren’t so long winded, it might not take so long.  )   

The camera is available in April, although I’m not sure when in April, but hopefully I can get my hands on it soon.  I just hope it’s as nice as it looks on the website.

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Sham Rock On, and waiting impatiently has paid off

March 26, 2010 at 10:56 pm (Running, Travel)
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Two major things have happened this week. 

First, this past weekend was the Shamrock Marathon, half marathon, and 8k.  I chose to run the Dolphin Challenge, which was the 8k on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday.  I ran for Team McGraw, which is an organization that raises money for brain cancer research.  I did this in memory of my grandfather who died in June of 2008 from brain cancer. 

Weather on race weekend was nice.  Saturday was perfect, no wind at all, and I ran the entire race with Leonard.  We were careful to take it slow, since we had the half the next day.  Great race, then I rushed off to work, before collecting Jeffrey and heading out to Trent and Lynne’s to eat large quantities of pasta and spend the night. 

4:30am on Sunday arrived quickly.  It took two cars to get everyone out to the beach.  We found a parking spot within about 8 blocks of the start which was nice.  (Not so nice at the finish, when you wind up 20 blocks from the car.)  Sunday wasn’t as nice as Saturday, it was cooler and very windy.  We went to our assigned corral, which for some reason was the very last one.  Now, I’m slow, but I’m not that slow, and I know I didn’t put down more than 2:30 for my predicted finish time for the half.  Yet I started behind the 2:30 pace group, and with the walkers.  So for the first few miles, all I did was waste enormous amounts of energy weaving in and out of people who were running a much slower pace than I was.  This was very frustrating and I didn’t think I’d run a decent time at all. 

Between miles 3 and 4 it finally started to thin out a bit.  That calmed me down, but I still felt like I was behind where I should have been.  But it all worked out, I wound up taking 2 minutes and 38 seconds off my OBX time to give myself a new half marathon PR of 2:08:12.  (I can’t help but wonder what I could have run if I had been placed in a higher corral and trained properly?)  Hyojin also ran a PR, taking 5 minutes off her OBX time. 

I was happy with the time, and I felt pretty good afterwards.  I unfortunately did not quite make my Team McGraw goal of $1000.  I’ve got about $840 sent in already on my website, and I’ve gotten a few cash donations lately (which will bring my total up to $915.)  I can still send in donations, so I can still reach my goal, which I will of course work to do. 

I’m glad race weekend turned out so well, and I hope that the money I raised, while I know it isn’t much, is a help.

The other major thing to happen this week occurred on Monday.  I got home from work to find an envelope from the Goethe Institut in my mailbox.  I told myself it was just a rejection letter, but I ripped the envelope open to find an acceptance letter and all the forms I need to submit to the Institut for the trip!  So on June 25th I will head to D.C. for the night, and leave for Germany the following day.  I am of course ecstatic and am doubling my efforts to pick up the German language (or at least enough to get around) before my departure date.  I was going crazy waiting for this letter, I knew there was potentially another full week before I would hear anything, but I was crossing my fingers that it would arrive well before April 1st.

I’m also very excited because you have the option to extend your stay.  I originally wanted to visit Switzerland and see the Alps, but after talking with a friend who lives in Croatia, I’d like to go visit her for a few days before I fly home.  I’m waiting to hear from her about exact dates (she has a wedding to attend in mid-July, so I’ve got to get precise dates from her) and then I’ll send in my form for the extension and plan my trip from Munich to Zagreb. 

I think I’m even more excited about this trip than I was about Korea or Poland.  I guess because I’ve already started (well, made an effort to anyway) learn the language, and I plan to pick up a guide book and read up before I go, which is something I did not do the previous two trips.  I guess since I’ve gone on a couple of trips now, I have some idea of what I need to do to prepare myself beforehand, as well as some idea of what/how to pack.  (And if I can pack for 4 weeks in one suitcase, packing for 2 weeks in one should be no problem.)  And on this trip it looks like I’ll get to see an old friend, as well as her home country.  I know I’ll still be a bit nervous traveling by myself from Munich to Zagreb and back again.  (My return flight is paid for, but it’s out of the Munich airport, which is where we end our study tour.) 

I really have no information on the trip yet, other than we’re flying into Frankfurt and out of Munich.  I guess after the Institut receives our forms they’ll send some more info out to us. 

And of course now I only have to wait impatiently until the 25th of June.

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Sightsercise? Exerseeing?

March 13, 2010 at 10:46 pm (Misc., Travel)
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Not that I can rollerblade, but if I could, this would be a cool way to see Paris.  Or really any city for that matter.  And get in a good workout at the same time.

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What a weekend

February 23, 2010 at 2:00 am (History, Travel)
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I spent this past weekend in Washington D.C.  I’d been looking forward to this trip for several weeks, especially since I stay pretty busy with work, the part time job, and trying to squeeze in a run every now and then, not to mention the tedious things I have to do like laundry or grocery shopping.  So it was a highly anticipated weekend getaway. 

The whole purpose of the trip was to participate in a focus group for the Smithsonian.  (Yes, the Smithsonian!)  The National Museum of the American Indian (henceforth referred to as NMAI) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (henceforth referred to as NMAAHC) have joined together to create an exhibit called “Indivisible.”  It focuses on people who are of Native American and African American descent.  This will be a traveling exhibit and the museums were looking for feedback on the exhibit as well as some resources they’re trying to put together for teachers.  I signed Sarah and I up for it immediately.  (Who wouldn’t want something with Smithsonian in front of it on their resume?) 

Anyway, so that was the entire point of the trip.  We met at the NMAI.  The group offered input on how multiculturalism is taught in their districts, and the challenges associated with it.  When viewed the exhibit, offered our input on that, and then took part in a primary sources activity, which they hope to make available to teachers for classroom activities.  (To me it was interesting, I won’t bore you with those details.)

After the primary source activity, the museum coordinators gave closing comments and we were done.  Now we had the rest of the weekend to be touristy. 

I really felt like I needed to see the Holocaust Museum, especially after visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau this summer.  So we headed there first.  We only had about two hours before the musem closed, but that was enough time.  I guess I really should have seen the museum before I went to the camps.  I hate to say that I breezed through some parts, but I don’t know any other way to describe it.  A lot of the artifacts were on loan from the museum at Auschwitz and when you’ve actually stood in a barracks at Birkenau, seeing one single bunk (even one from Birkenau) doesn’t hit you in the same way.  I’ve since talked to people who have visited the Holocaust Museum who were very moved and upset by the exhibit.  I’m certainly not trying to say it wasn’t moving or upsetting, but I guess a musem exhibit just pales in comparison to having actually visited the camp.  I think the museum would have been more meaningful if I had been able to visit before going to Auschwitz.  I am glad I was able to visit it, but it is more meaningful to see the camp firsthand. 

We ended Saturday on a high note, with dinner at Fogo de Chao.  If you’ve never been to Fogo de Chao, it will sound like a mythical place that can’t possibly exist, but I assure you it does.  It’s a Brazilian steakhouse, with a great salad buffet, although this is not why you eat at this particular restaurant.  When you are seated, you have a disk.  One side is red, the other green.  When the green side of your disk is face up, men will bring you meat.  There are 15 different types of meat, and whenever a guy with meat comes by he will stop at your table and offer whatever he has to you.  When you don’t want anymore meat, you flip the disk over to the red side.  And on and on it goes, as long as you can eat.  About dinner, I can only say that I love the man with the bacon wrapped filet mignon. 

Sunday we visited the American History Museum first.  I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t overly impressed with the exhibits.  They had a good one on Lincoln, and the exhibit they have now (for the NMAAHC, since their museum has yet to be built) was interesting, but nothing really struck me.  The best thing was seeing the flag that inspired Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner.”  (That exhibit has changed since I last saw it-they no longer hang the flag, it’s instead laid out flat.) 

Then we were off to the WWII Monument, since Sarah and Tony had never seen it.  The water was gone, I guess they turned it off due to the weather?  (Speaking of weather, yes there was still snow everywhere, most of the sidewalks were cleared, it was still slushy in some places.)  After that we continued on towards the Lincoln Memorial.  When we saw all the people walking on the Reflecting Pool in front of the memorial, we stopped and stared, and then immediately joined them.  We walked the entire length of the Reflecting Pool from the WWII Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.  The ice was starting to crack in a few places, but it was still pretty thick and supported us with no trouble at all.  It was the coolest part of the weekend, walking on the pool.  And how often do you get to take a picture of the Lincoln Memorial from dead on like that?

We made our way down the length of the pool and met Leonard, who also happened to be in D.C. that weekend.  He was nice enough to drive us to the hotel to pick up our bags, and then we went with him to Georgetown Cupcakes.  None of us had been.  We parked in some small lot and walked the couple of blocks to this place.  It was a corner store, with the door on the side street and a line that wrapped around the corner onto the main street.  We waited in line for at least a half an hour to order a half dozen cupcakes.  They were delicious, and the Key Lime was my favorite.  Jeff and I each got 3, and sadly, they are all gone.  (Not to worry-they ship nationwide!) 
That was our last stop before heading back.  (With Leonard being nice enough again to drop us off at the Franconia Springfield station so we didn’t have to take the metro.)  It was a packed weekend, especially considering that we spent several hours at the NMAI in the focus group.  (It is an intereseting exhibit-check it out.)  I was completely worn out when we got home, but I think it was well worth it. 

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A PR during a near perfect weekend, and on to the next goal

November 18, 2009 at 2:34 am (Running, Travel)
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The OBX Half Marathon has come and gone.  It was a great weekend, I set a PR, although I did not quite make my goal of 2:10:00.  Actually, 3 people in our house set a PR, one of them by 20 minutes!

We headed down on Friday afternoon and hit the race expo which was pretty difficult to find and very tiny.  I did get a cool OBX race shirt and a couple more of those Bondi bands I like so much.  One even has skulls and crossbones on it, in honor of the pirate theme for the race.

After the expo we checked into the house, which was awesome!  3 floors, a doorway onto the deck in almost every room, and a nice view across the sound and coincidentally the huge bridge into Manteo at the end of the run. 

Saturday we did a couple of touristy things, like visiting the aquarium on Roanoke Island and Jockey’s Ridge.  I’m not sure Jockey’s Ridge was the greatest idea, I don’t know if we should have been climing enormous sand dunes the day before the race.  Aside from jumping up and down on the sand dune, and trying to be in sync with three other people for a picture, I took it easy and watched where I was going. 

The aquarium was nice, there were few people there so we could take our time.  In one of the shark/large fish tanks they had divers cleaning with little vacuums.  That was interesting to watch, the fish paid them no attention and it was funny to see someone vacuuming underwater. 

Saturday evening (with about 12 people in the house) we fixed a huge pasta dinner and carbo loaded like crazy.  After a round of Scattergories everyone headed to bed early since we had to be up at 4am and out of the house by 5:30.  The 6 of us running took the shuttle to the start, where we had to wait about 45 minutes until the gun.  It was chilly, but warmed up fast once we got going.

I wasn’t happy for the first half of the race, I felt like my pace fluctuated too much and I kept getting stuck behind people and did a lot of swerving.  I actually thought for a long time, until about mile 7 or 8, that I wouldn’t be anywhere near my goal.  I was hoping to run 9:45 minute miles, but it just wasn’t happening.  Somewhere between mile 6 and 7 I fell in pace with an older guy and I stuck with him for most of the second half of the race.  He got me over the bridge, which is what I was dreading.  It looks very intimidating when you’re running towards it, and feels like it’s never going to end when you’re running over it.  We did of course slow down quite a bit over the bridge, but we ran every step of the way. 

The bridge took a lot out of me so I took my last gel a mile earlier than I had originally planned, but that was ok.  After the bridge we turned towards Manteo and were in the home stretch.  I picked it up as much as I could, because at this point I knew if I missed my goal it wouldn’t be by much.  And it wasn’t, my chip time was a 2:10:50.  Not quite what I was hoping for, but a PR nonetheless. 

And now I’m already looking towards my next goal, which is the Shamrock Dolphin Challenge.  The Dolphin Challenge is an 8k race on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday.  While yes, I would like to hit that 2:10 at Shamrock, my main goal is to raise $1000 for Team McGraw, an organization that raises money for brain cancer research.  My grandfather died last year from brain cancer, and I’m running in his memory.  While I’m sure the time goal will float around in the back of my head, what I really want is to raise the $1000 (or more!) in honor of my grandfather.  If I can do that, my race will be a success, no matter what my time.

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An uneventful trip home

July 22, 2009 at 1:32 pm (Poland, Travel)
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I got up early to wander Warsaw before I left, but it started raining so I didn’t make it very far.  Ola came to the hotel and took me to the airport, which was nice, and she got me in the right line to check in and left.  The line to check in at LOT was very  long, and when I finally got up to the desk, my suitcase was overweight.  So I had to repack.  The woman at the desk told me I didn’t have to get back in line, and she had someone else who was free help me when I was finished, and I was still overweight.  So I rearranged things some more.  This time she ignored me, and the other woman walked away from the counter.  She had sent me to an empty line to rearrange my stuff, and people kept trying to line up behind me, and since I was tired of confusing them and being ignored, I just got back in the long line.  Luckily, this time my suitcase was ok and I got checked through.  I had awhile before the plane took off, so I found my gate (stopped to get a candybar along the way) and read.  We were a little late taking off, about 35 minutes, but we landed in Chicago right on time, at 3pm. 

I couldn’t really sleep on the flight, and there were quite a few noisy kids.  I finished my book and watched one of the movies.  In Chicago I was starving (the food on the plane was not good, and for dinner I ate only the Kit Kat type candybar that was our dessert) so I got a Chicago style pizza.  I made it through customs and everything ok, I didn’t have to wait too long in line for anything, it just took awhile to get from one part of the airport to another.  But we left Chicago right on time and it was a short flight to St. Louis.  By now I was really tired, since it was starting to be the middle of the night for me, luckily it was only about a 45 minute layover in St. Louis.  Again we took off right on time and I couldn’t stay awake on the flight to Norfolk.  It was also a short flight, an hour and a half or so, and I dozed most of the trip. 

My luggage made it home and I pulled out most of the stuff I bought to show Jeff when I got home, but I wasn’t up long, since I’d been awake (with the exception of the doze on the St. Louis to Norfolk leg) for almost 24 hours.  On Monday I got Chinese food for lunch and then took a 3 hour nap.  Yesterday was ok, I didn’t nap but I did go to bed pretty early. 

I still have pictures I want to post, that I’ll work on periodically, and now I’ve got to think about putting together my curriculum project for this trip.  Well, when I go back to work on August 3rd I’ll start thinking about it.  I’m going to enjoy the two weeks of summer vacation that I do get.  And when I go back to work, I’ll also start trying to figure out where I’ll go next year.

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