The Oregon Trail

Well! It's now around noon on a Friday, and for the first time in longer than I can remember do I finally have a minute or two to jot down a post about Spring Break, and What Then Ensued.

It was, in a word, ausgezeichnetollariffic. Being the hopelessly emotionally co-dependent twins that we are, Shauna bought me a ticket to come spend 11 days with her in Seattle. It was just what we needed. Although we all -- she, Amy, Steve, and I -- started off with these grandiose designs to go out and conquer the Pacific Northwest, we actually ended up spending the majority of our evenings just sitting around on the floor with various open packets of German chocolate and glasses of wine, and spraying crumbs as we guffawed and told stories until the tyrannical clock finally drove us off to our respective futons. Sometimes we'd even get downright daring, and move the whole operation -- gasp! -- out of the house. The bartenders at Big Time Brewery have gotten to know Shauna and Steve so well that a trip or two down to enjoy their delicious ales always proves worthwhile, wink wink! ;)

For Easter weekend, Mom flew up from Tucson, laden with travel books about Scotland and Ireland, and we did pretty much the same: sprawled on the sunny living room floor, surrounded by books and web addresses, and finalizing our plans for The Big Trip this July. Occasionally, someone would glance out the enormous sparkling windows that cover one half of the studio's wall and remark that a plane was landing on Lake Union -- the edge of which is two blocks down from the house -- and we'd all crowd around on the balcony to watch the maritime traffic.

The view from Shauna and Steve's place

I also got to go visit the Department of Germanics at the University of Washington one Friday while everyone was at work; and had such a great time, I spent all morning and part of the afternoon there! They're all very sweet: from the administrative assistant/academic advisor to the head of the department to the individual grad students. Dr. Bansleben, the department head, remembered my application -- in suprising detail! -- and advised me that it had simply been too focused on applied linguistics, and not enough on straight literary theory (which is the department's strength). He said that, once I figure out in which direction I want to go, if it happens to be the straight German Studies route (and not so much emphasis in language pedagogy), then I should give them a call. Aw! We had a great conversation, and then I got to meet the other grad students, who were so fun and funny that we all went out to lunch later.

The next day was Saturday, and we all put on our Brave Goodbye Faces to drop me off at the airport. Now, this next part is a bit of a long story, and some of you know it already... so suffice to say, that after I departed for a connection in Portland, Oregon, there turned out to be some complications with Lufthansa that resulted in Amy, Shauna, and Steve driving down to join me once again for a day of fun in Portland! We poked around downtown and got coffees, snooped through Powell's Books -- the country's largest bookstore -- and then drove down the scenic Columbia River Gorge to check out the beautiful Multnomah Falls and the clifftop Vista House. By the time I eventually made it back to Frankfurt, I was exhausted and jetlagged... and completely spiritually recharged. :)

Thank you, everybody, for a wonderful time!