Countdown: 5 weeks

I had a dream last night about leaving Germany. The time has really come to start going home. I read a few posts from my Blog at the beginning. It's nuts how much can happen in less than a year. Plus, I'm 25, getting old. According to Men's Health Mag, the human body stops repairing itself and begins to break down at 25. That means right now is the peak of my life. Sounds silly.

Oh, new pics are up. Pics 13 are the last few weeks here. Haven't gotten to my pics from Switzerland yet, but they'll be done soon.

So where did I leave off.....After Easter (and visiting Janine for the last time) I went to a soccer match for the UEFA Cup. This is a international competition between the 2-4 seat in every national league in Europe. It was a lot of fun and my first (and only) soccer game that I went to in Europe. But worth it and a present from my lab here. Thank you to everyone!

After that, I didn't do a lot outside of working. Work has really stepped up and I am cramming to get everything done before my time is up. I also gave another presentation about the US to about 60-70 people, all not from the US. I went really well and I truly think that people learned some constructive things. It's wierd, but I am more proud of this accomplishment than much of the "real" work I have done in my life. After about two crazy weeks of work, Noemie and Devon visited me in Aachen. It was very nice to see them and had a few good nights. It's always nice to get visits. It makes the place you live feel like a vacation again.

What was also interesting is: I haven't gotten a visit from someone in Aachen for a long time. The last times I was very sad when they left (Noemie, Sylvain, and ok, parents) because I really had someone to send time with. These visits were back in August and I didn't have really any friends or a life back then. So when they left, I was alone again. This time, of course I was sad to see them go, but I wasn't devasted. I have friends here and actually spent much time with my friends here, introducing them to my visiting friends. It made it a different experience and again underscores the amount things have changed since I've been here. I really have great friends here and will miss them very much.

After that, my friend Sebastian had a birthday party and I was off to Switzerland with my parents. What a fantastic country. The natural scenery is terrific and what I liked the most was the extreme differences you see in one country. That isn't typical in Europe. It's kind of like a mini EU. Each country in Europe is much more homogenous than the US, but the EU itself is actually far more diverse. Which makes both Europe and the US sort of paradoxical. In the US you have more diversity within one country, but less diversity and interaction to that outside. So the US is both diverse and not, and Europe is both homogenous and not.

Anyway, Switzerland (die Schweiz, Suisse, ....) is really cool. It is a conglomeration of different provinces of one upon a time different countries and areas in Europe. And since they're initial confederacy, they never split or had internal battles. Over 500 years of peace within it's borders, between peoples of very different cultures, languages and beliefs. For example:

I land in Zurich and spent a couple days there, speaking German and eating German food. There are only Protestant churches here. Then we went to Luzern, still speaking German and eating German food. But here, everyone is Catholic. Then we went into the mountains, ate German food, and saw a lot of farms and tourists. After that, we traveled to Gruyeres, where everthing was written and spoken in French and we ate only French food. Gruyeres was very cool. It's an old city still inclosed in the protective castle walls were cars are not allowed up. It's also perched in the pre-alpine hills and is surrounded by beautiful scenery. Then we drove to Geneva, spoke French and ate French food.

So to recap: Everywhere we were, we were in Switzerland and everyone was Swiss. However, the Swiss either speak German, read German and eat German foods, or do the same with French, or with Italian or with this other Latin based language Romansh. All train signs are translated into German, French and Italian and it's hard to remember that you are always in one country. I then took an 8 hour train ride from Geneva back to Aachen. The trip itself was fun. I struggled with French at the beginning (speaking and reading signs), then with German (Swiss German is spoken very differently than high German) and then was bored when I was back traveling through Germany. I could understand everything again. Blah Plus, it's really easy to know when you cross the border from Switzerland into Germany. At first, there are many swiss flags on all the houses and then there are no flags at all. You are now in Germany.

Take a look at the pics!!
spence