It’s been a long crazy year. Thus, we are greatly enjoying our lazy holiday here in Bucharest. We have a tree, and there is snow on the ground. The heaters work well (unlike Germany), and the shutters block out all of the late morning sun (again, unlike Germany).

Although we are staying up late and sleeping in even later, we do have some projects to keep us busy. Brady is writing a graduate paper and practicing bass guitar for an upcoming concert with a blues band he is a casual member of, and Jeanette is reading, knitting, cooking, and (shutter) getting a head start on her report card writing.

Most importantly we are trying to decide what to do next year. We must notify our school by Jan 4 of our intentions. It’s either stay, find another school, or take a year off in Hawaii. Your comments as to why the third choice is the only logical one are very welcome.

Be sure to check out the Christmas photo album in the photos section.

Merry Christmas!

We attended our first halloween in Romania, and surprisingly enough, nobody dressed up as a vampire!

I’ve never seen anything like it! Jeanette and I were walking down the street in Bucharest after school today near the semi-posh Howard Johnson hotel. As we waited for the light to change, I noticed a man hurriedly run over to where we were waiting. . .

I didn’t think saying goodbye to Germany would be difficult. It certainly seemed like a no-brainer in February when we were huddled in our cold, dark apartment wishing that we could at least say that we were saving money. As Spring set in, however, Wiesbaden came alive, the sun returned, and Germans started to catch World Cup fever.

In one of my graduate classes at ULV, we were required to create and present a personal success timeline. At first I thought it was a silly project, but the forced, positive self-reflection turned out to make for a very interesting assignment that I have subsequently given to my own students. Taking the time to reflect on the little triumphs of life can be a good thing.

Ok, so it was the year of the Apple iPod right? Apple’s stock price has doubled in the last year, they are switching to Intel processors, and. . .