1 car, 1 toyata hiace (camper from the 80's) 3 Germans, 2 Americans, and several surfing boards and sails made their departure last friday early in the morning from Fischbach on their way to Lake Como. morgan and i carried our bags to andreas' appartment. we drove to friedrichshafen to meet Gotti and Anja. we helped pack for an hour and then we were off. we drove around the bodensee, through austria, lichtenstein, and switzerland. we drove over the Spügelpasse. hairpin turns, switchbacks, curving mountain roads with no guardrails. the border between switzerland and italy was at the peak [View Full Entry]

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So... Morgan and i are supposed to be in Austria right now. last sunday morgan emailed Monika, the woman we were supposed to stay with near schladming, austria, and asked her whether it would be better for us to come on monday or tuesday. we had a ride to the train lined up and had scouted tickets. then on monday i was returning a coffee cup to the coffee room and Andreas Möck, a maintenance man i work with, asked if morgan and i wanted to go windsurfing in italy on lake como with him for a week so very suddenly [View Full Entry]

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The best gifts are ones of no material, they are of surprise, they are from above, and they intend to make the heart filled with the riches that don´t fit inside a box with decorative wrapping papper. I experienced and discovered many riches as I found myself in the Switzerland Alps climbing up the side of a mountain and as my feet took me higher into this masterpeice the more my gift was unfolding. It just so happened that the staff from the school were taking a trip together in the Alps to discuss the upcoming year, which coincidentally happened to [View Full Entry]

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We have been in deutchland for over a week now and it is still new and endearing. Every German that i have met knows at least some english. when i am the only person sitting at a table of germans they speak german but if there are more than one or two english speakers at the table they just go on with the conversation in english. the different dialects throw me sometimes. johanis from franconia rolls his r's. christian pronounces hard g and k sounds like sh. we have been told that germans in the north speak a more proper high [View Full Entry]

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we are alive and well. First a warning: kezboards are different here. the y and z are switched so instead of me retzping everz word with a y, just replace the z with a y in zour mind. we flew from 730am thursdaz morning until 6am fridaz morning then we rode 4 or 5 trains to get to leonburg near stuttgart where Magi, morgan's friend, picked us up. we stazed in Rutteseim in a vacant apartment in a nursing home/senior citizen complex where Magi's father is superintendent. mazbe someone just died or stopped getting old, we dont know. We ate and [View Full Entry]

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The new year had just begun, and morgan and i sat together in her apartment considering the past year. i asked morgan what her favorite voyage was in 2006. she thought for a moment and replied with disbelief that she hadnt left the state of ohio in the entire year of 2006. i had been to australia for a couple of weeks and oregon for a week and alaska for more than a week and new york city for several days. Being confined to ohio for an entire calendar year, we decided, was absolutely unacceptable. with a few last minute arrangements, [View Full Entry]

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the week before I left was a blur. I worked almost 60 hours at the bistro and the new renters were moving into the duplex I was renovating the day I was leaving. my schedule seriously went something like work at bistro for a shift or 2 then drive to the duplex work until I had to work at the bistro the next day then back to the duplex. that went on all week. I passed out here and there; on the restaurant floor, in a cabinet at the duplex, in my car. my flight left at noon on Sunday. I [View Full Entry]

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