Christmas Is In The Air, And So Was I...

Christmas was in the air around Munich in the weeks leading up to the holiday. A festive snow fell the weekend before I left and the city was abuzz with Holiday decor.

The Mercedes building near my apartment displayed their Advent calendar with old-timer cars again...

Every day another curtain would be drawn to reveal a different model of old Mercedes car...

On the other side of the main building a Christmas tree was lit. Since I can see this building from the window of my room, this serves as my Christmas tree...

Of course downtown Munich sported a large Christmas tree on the Marienplatz surrounded by the stalls of the Christmas Market...

Christmas, it seems, was in the air...

But on a gray Monday morning I took the S-bahn out to the airport and boarded my plane to Atlanta.

We took off and soon we were above the gloomy clouds looking at a glorious day. The low clouds surrounded the Alps like white sea foam...

We soared past the north end of the Alps...

...then over France, the Atlantic, Newfoundland, and eventually the Eastern Seaboard of the US.

On the way I watched several nature documentaries and GI Joe (two thumbs down).

I arrived in Atlanta 10 hours later, went through customs without a hitch and a few hours later I was on my flight towards Utah.

From the Alps to the Appalachians...

The sun began to set right about the time we passed over the Mississippi...

Em eye es es eye es es eye pee pee eye...

The last bit of light went out over Denver...

And soon I was flying over the Salt Lake Valley and we landed.

I met Mom & Dad at the airport and then we went to find a place to eat.

We decided on Hires, some of the best burgers in Salt Lake, and when we went in I was surprised to see the entire family gathered in the party room to welcome me home!


Of course, in the excitement of the moment I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few taken later on...

(yes, Tom really did sing opera to Matt)

My six-year-old niece, Lily, provided a special song & dance number...

Good times...

I ordered the Mountain H (without sauce), a great burger, with a home-made vanilla coke, and cheese fries. It was an excellent first meal back in the States...

Mom thought so too...

The Christmas lights on the Winder lane were shining christmasly...

Grandma's house...

And brother Mike's...

After being awake for over 26 hours I slept well that night.

The next day was Tuesday and after sleeping in and babysitting my nephew, Caleb, for an hour, I went to Jordan Landing to spend a leisurely amount of time in Barnes & Nobles, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, and lunch at Panda Express. I didn't actually buy that much, but it was fun to just be in these big American stores again and look around. I refilled my drink at Panda several times just because I could.

That evening I had another surprise party, this time from some of my good friends from high school. They came over to my parent's house and we ate a bit of ham, I shared some of my German Christmas goodies and we had fun.

It's now Sunday and since arriving in Utah, I've kept very busy delivering egg nog and gift boxes for Winder Farms, eating at other sorely-missed establishments, hanging out with friends and family, watching movies (Avatar 3D!!!) and shopping for shoes.



Christmas is coming...

Flotsam und Jetsam

Nothing too exciting has been happening lately, but there are a lot of things that have come and gone in the last few months that I haven't blogged about. So here are a few of those things...


The Saturday before I went to Slovenia last August, I went with my friends Joseph and Emily and their daughter Megan on a little day trip (they are the ones I stayed with in France last year).

We drove into southern Bavaria to the Benediktbeuern monastery...

This monastery is famous for being the site where a medieval manuscript of poems was found in 1803. This manuscript is known as Carmina Burana (Latin for "Songs of Beuern" ...Beuern is short for Benediktbeuern). In 1935 these poems were set to music by a composer from Munich named Carl Orff. I'm sure you'll recognize it (you don't have to watch it, but listen to it as you read further)...

The grounds were very well-kept, including a beautiful courtyard...

A fancy chapel...

Notice the clock above the altar. I've never seen that before. It must be good for the congregation and maybe it puts a bit more pressure on the priest to finish on time...

Inside the monastery there was a small exhibition with a few notes about Carl Orff and his musical setting of Carmina Burana...

There was a wooden man made from the wood of a wood tree. Creepy...

Megan found a nice place to sit and read...

Megan and I outside the monastery...

We then drove to the quaint little town of Bad Tölz on the Isar river...

As usual there were detailed frescoes on the walls and façades of the buildings...

Including this one with a horse having a leg cut off. Maybe this was a glue factory?...

We strolled the walking streets and bought some ice cream...

It was a nice day and a fun little day trip...

Some of my English students are funner (more fun) than others, and at the end of 45 hours together in one week we often develop very good rapport. Occasionally some want a picture at the end of our week-long intensive course.

This was a fun group of five I had back in October...

This was a nice couple who I had last summer who were getting ready to move to Michigan for business...

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye when Friday rolls around. The good part about it, though, is being able to get to know so many interesting people.



One day we had an elders' quorum activity where we went hiking. Of course I was game.

We were to meet at the train station and when I got there I saw a large group of young adults getting off one of the trains surrounded by police with dogs, riot gear, and heavy equipment...

Apparently these were "hooligans" who were in Munich to cheer for their home fußball team from somewhere else in Germany. The police had to keep a careful watch on them to keep them from getting out of control. I saw this another time while at the train station as well, so apparently this is the norm when a big match is on.

It ended up only being three of us for the hike!

We still had a fun time hiking at dusk near one of Bavaria's famous lakes. Our hike down was in the dark mists. It was cool.

On our way back we stopped at a small restaurant with live Bavarian music inside and a large group dressed in their traditional costumes enjoying the evening. We ordered Kaiserschmarrn on the terrace and it was really good. It's like a broken-up pancake with toasted sweet almonds and plum jam. Very tasty...

During Oktoberfest LEGO was in downtown Munich building the world's highest Lego tower...

Kids could come and help put the blocks together...

And then they stacked them onto the tower...

By the time they were finished it stood 98.3 feet, 550,000 Lego pieces. I didn't get to see the finished tower, but here's an AP image of it...

In October the Young Single Adults had a Pumpkin Fest at the church. The organizers did a good job decorating...

There was a good and spooky turnout...

We ate pumpkin soup and other pumpkin-related dishes...

There is nothing between me and the wheel of fire. I see it with my waking eyes!

I cry light...

After eating we had a pumpkin carving contest. I thought I would be clever and print out a Darth Vader pattern from the internet to carve into my pumpkin...

but I didn't have proper tools or patience...

And so I gave up and Sven made the pumpkin as scary as he could despite my Darth Vader incisions. I went on to have fun with the balloons...

In the end all the pumpkins turned out rather nice (except for Sven and my pumpkin with all the knives in it. You can still see a vague outline of up-side-down Darth)...

FAIL...

In November Angela invited a few of us to the opera house to see her in the closing night of the opera Jenufa. It was great! But I found it interesting to go back stage with her and see some of the other actors and singers running about in costume. It reminded me strongly of being in musicals in high school. Some things don't change much from high school stages to world-class professional opera stages. Backstage zaniness is one of them.

One day while teaching English we heard a commotion outside the window and looked out to see a protest in progress...

These were students from the University (down the street) protesting tuition practices. It was a big turnout and just kept going...

...and going...

It wasn't the first time my teaching was interrupted by marching protesters. This was a regular occurrence when I taught English in Cusco. In fact, watching the the students loudly march down Leopoldstraße brought back a bit of nostalgia for the workers marching down Avenida del Sol in Cusco...

So there you have it, a few odds and ends, flotsams and jetsams, bits and pieces, pumpkins and protests.

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