Welcome to the blog!

hey brent, man, that made me soooooo laugh!! well done! i spent the best of my day today half-heartedly hammering out an application for another endeavour scholarship in australia - they have substantially changed the process. well, we’ll see where this goes and what happens next year. now jodi and i are looking forward to some pizza!!! *yay* home made, of course. oh btw we made the most of Sunday and went on a trip to the Federsee, a lake about an hour from here and an important nature reserve with tons of birds etc., it was really nice. we packed water melon … and a camera …. and jodi, right, jodi, took that picture down there … well what can i say! anyway i struck back by taking one myself!!! *hehe* we are about to go for a run so i better get changed and mentally prepared for this …

In amongst all that hard work we both do there are sometimes rays of light on the horizon - like now!!!! We are about to have a BBQ on my balcony after having spent a great day out walking around the town of Blaubeuren where the river Blau (=Blue) originates from a deep, deep blue funnel-like spring pond, at up to 36 cubic metres a sec! We also did some shopping and spent a few hours on a blanket next to the river in the grass, which was really cool. Also, it is tomato harvest season now - my balcony versions are giving us produce, finally! Some pics below. That’ll give me back some energy I invested into moving my friend Oli who took off to start a new job in Bonn next week. Seriously, it is time to get done with this degree … everyone is leaving!!!

Okay …. so I know some traditions are weird and they are around the globe. This one comes over us once a year, and it is always on a Monday. The mayor of Ulm has to renew his oath to do the best he can for all the people in Ulm and then … everyone goes into the river. No kiddin’! And since the Danube is wide and deep people take all sorts of floating devices with them, preferably self-made and adhering to a self-picked theme. The result: A river full of people trying to get each other as wet as possible (at the same time also the people on the river banks watching the spectacle), hijack and sink boats, drink lots of beer and sing and paddle …. of course some brass bands and elaborately ornamented boats are also part of the festival!!! Some pics below. And for everyone with some German knowledge, more info here and pictures here. Jodi is doing fine in her corner of the Bavarian forest - although they seem to have a rather basic accommodation (they do their dishes themselves) and a ton of work (sitting around in national park offices). Can’t wait to have her here for a week from Friday on!!!! YAY!!!

Hmm … so what does one do other than work when coming home in need
of something relaxing!? Right, make soap!! In this case a Jodi special
soap, I mean she has to get something to take when she goes away so a
bar of good smell is definitely a sensual and olfactory gift of the
special kind, especially when hand-made and self-cooked And it DID
work! I used the usual suspects as a base (sunflower, rape seed, cocos
and olive oils plus cacao butter), titan dioxide (a white cosmetics
pigment) and indigo (blue) for the colors and lilac essence for the
scent. Wow it turned out really impressive! I layered the white in the
bottom of the mold and the blue on top. Pictures will follow, but
pssst she does not know (and won’t have internet until Friday) …
ok I am on the bus to uni right now. Got a hell of a lot to get done.
Man, life is a challenge …

It was really hot here today - to avoid any confusion let’s simply say almost body temperature: The point where sweating doesn’t really help any more. And Jodi had to suffer through this all the way back to Freiburg for hours … well the trains are supposedly airconditioned, however, combining a Sunday afternoon (= packed with people), bright sunshine (= peak solar radiation) and high temperatures (I was sweating without making a move, no kiddin) results regularly in heat islands on trains … the aircon is simply not up to that task. It can’t cool fast enough to compensate for such a massive attack. Anyway she made it and who knows, maybe it even helped with the mononucleosis … yeah, right, no fun … i am still waiting for symptoms to show Oh I also went to a book crosser’s ‘meet-up’ tonight which was nice and yielded some cool books! Always interesting to see who and what shows up … ok off to bed now …

Last weekend was a conference weekend - and as such, it was dominated by great food and lots of boring sessions. In essence, it was a single Marathon from Friday noon to Sunday noon, even on Saturday we were in Debate until eleven thirty PM. Anyway, self-administration is a very basic principle in democracies and so are elections - since, we simply have to meet once a year. Scholars representing all universities in Germany and all FES scholarship holders in one huge room. And then we discuss: Seminar topics for next year, elections to the board, issues of the different groups, the working groups on topical issues … but the GSI in Bonn was again a nice venue. Bagles for Jodi were of course the mission on Sunday, by special request I did a spontaneous detour to Freiburg - and walked J to the specialist doc since her swollen lymph node still has not gone away. And, as docs usually do, all he could say was that it was not dangerous or serious and more depends on a blood sample … well then I guess we’ll simply have to wait until that’s through. Work is insane. Everyone wants something from me these days … and more comes up. I am a little sick of all of it right now … man … time to change something. Probably best to get this PhD done with and run ….

Well the news of the day: My dad’s taxes go into Jodi’s pocket for another year!! Well done guys!! She got the extension for another twelve months!!!!! *yay* Including some flight money and insurance. That’s definitely one worry less Thanks so much, DAAD! She is one happy Jodi …

Since the end of the year is always good for a get-together and party and we thoroughly enjoy doing both of this, plus having a decent BBQ, and since it only happens once a year, we figured it was long overdue to introduce the annual ‘New Half-Year’ and so we did the past weekend. We met at Göttingen for a nice BBQ and New Half-Year’s Eve party complete with a midnight bottle of champaign etc. It was REAL FUN and we had a splendid time. Since pictures always say more than words, here are some … The BBQ went on until late, necessitating a flashlight, the dancing was definitely OFF THE GROUND and our trip to the Plessburg, a nearby castle, was very relaxing, too. Flying sheep were observed over the weekend, too .. as was consumption of good beer …. and waffles! And yummy coffee at Britta’s all new apartment - really nice!!

S