BudaPesch

With four days in Budapest, I managed to get a taste for the summer city atmosphere: hot, alive, colourful, busy. The buildings are gorgeous and preserved and so are the people!

We had quite significant a fork in the holiday wheel, though, as far as health was concerned. Lauren insisted Hungarian malaria was what we had. I rationalized. It was highly likely that she had sinusitis, as the doctor told us that morning at her appointment, and I a sinusitis/bronchitis combo, as the doctor had told me the day before. What a duo! We walked and toured as our bodies allowed, sat in every square and park known, ordered ginger ales and sorbet, spent money on vitamins and curing Hungarian tea, and destroyed whole boxes of Kleenex... together, we were a tourist team to be reckoned with.

Games in the Park

Question: What can you do when it is hot and beautiful in Zurich? Answer: Go to the lake with friends, come home seeking shade and match the pictures to a baby picture! Not too much has changed since then.

My weekend was intents.

The fearless trio of leaders, Andrea, Julia and I, survived a camping trip with eight high schoolers (alternative perspective being that they, in fact, survived it with us) to experience the culture and environment of Lugano, the Italian part of Switzerland. Even counting the sore muscles and stinky gear, it was a beautiful trip. For me personally though, it brought me to a realization that is, unfortunately, a familiar one: It seems that I can go so long, a year in this case, working in the same building as these fantastic people like Julia and Andrea and never really 'meet' them until our time together is almost over.

Speaking of Mysteries...

London

Five days, five teachers, forty-five students. Nuf said! Phew!

The Triple Change. August - October - May

Another transformation for Suedstrasse 1. A new big corner couch. This is so fantastic because the other(s) were dangerously uncomfortable. I am now, until I get a truck to get rid of those hidden in my basement storage cubbies, in possession of not one, not two, but three.... sofas. I'm 25 years old! Isn't there something else I could mistakenly collect?

May oh May oh May

Warm enough to leave the jacket at home, but cool enough to be comfortable. The sailors are out, the fairs are in full swing and the people are full of love and energy. Yey!

Ozel gave Mark and I haircuts in my apartment today. We decided on a throwback bowlcut for Mark. The Middle School girls softball tournament was two days where I was posted as first base coach with some scorekeeping and downtime in between.

What was usual was the skating that happened on Sunday at two o'clock. What was unusual was the thunderstorm that happened that same day at four o'clock. What would seem usual was the dissappointment that happened directly after that. What was unusual was the relocation to the Burkliplatz pavillion that happened til late afternoon. We danced!

The Motorcycle Diaries 2008 - Gruetzi!

Nothing is to be expected when Dad comes to visit. I know this from last year. My Dad, and the bike of course, allowed me to see more of Switzerland in four days then I have since I arrived in this country last August.

Kothlow Tour de Switchbackland

Agerisee

Another mountain biking and camping trip has taken place at the Agerisee with Jack, Kari, Katie and I, and eight high schoolers doing their Duke of Edinburgh camp. I'd go so far as to wish it as an annual event for us. Our bodies fried by day and froze by night. This didn't apply to the two down cuccoons pictured below on our tarp. For me, it was the last time I use my Lightsack 200 bag before the real summer.

London

Let me say something about London that I haven't said before. This time, because I was there for work again, I had to stay around my hotel room in London proper. Which means, for me, shopping. As I wandered around Oxford Circus, swirling in and out of shops, I thought of all the nice things I had bought: shoes, a new book, lunch, a shirt, a pair of capris and a snow globe of the London Bridge. Did I splurge and buy too much? I asked myself. No... was my answer. Think of all the things that I didn't buy today. Now that is a lot of stuff.

Am I where I should be? What really is happiness? How does that Kraft Dinner commercial go again? ... and other musings from Hyde Park

I wandered back and forth through Hyde Park a few times over the course of these three days, thinking about nothing and everything at the same time, and even thinking about 'thinking in Hyde Park' long enough to decide to write about it here. It seems that this considerable time spent in a foggy park ironically cleared my head and, I discovered, that remarkable thought patterns trickle through a clear head. To fill the space and time, I seemed in this pattern of unconsciously asking myself a huge, unanswerable question to ponder for awhile. This was followed by little to no success at even grasping the magnitude of the question. This would lead back to thinking about nothing for another moment again before I'd find myself mindlessly humming a show tune or commerical jingle. The wisdom from this is that maybe, in the middle of these high and low level thoughts, those breakthrough-life-direction-changing epiphanies have their opportunity to appear. I didn't necessarily have any life changing epiphanies, even though Hyde Park is very big... and I'll take that as something in itself.

Ode to the Swiss Inn Hotel

I spent a week of Spring break with Melissa on the Red Sea in Egypt. As you can see from the picture below, both of us are smiling with our whole faces. I am pretty sure we did this the. entire. time.

Dahab, Egypt