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Published: January 7th 2009
Hello Everyone!
Thanks for the comments and messages!
So, I finished up a statistics class before the Holiday break and went to Norway between the 21 Dec and the 3 Jan. That trip was phenomenal!
My second flight from Amsterdam was delayed and they set me up in the same hotel in order to take the following morning's flight. Then the vacation...
I arrived and spent a couple of days soaking in the finer pleasures of life: cognac, hearty food and a blazing fire. I stayed most of the time at my uncle's house which sits on top of a hill, removed from the city but not from a good view of it as well as the surrounding forest. We talked about everything as the cozy environment demanded. Also, he has a wood shop in which I dabbled with some projects.
Christmas was truly beautiful with the coldness outside and the family inside. I'm used to having a Christmas of 4 (mom, dad and brother and myself) which has its merits of course, but something should be said for having a larger family with a young, blond-haired terd (don't exactly know what image that conjures up
in your mind, but anyway) running around whilly-nilly and a grandma sitting calmly poised in the corner. I had conversations about religion, politics and homosexuality with my hip-to-the-tip grandma of a ripe young 90 years of age during one morning's breakfast--impressive until the didactic wooden ladel comes out of the drawer. Just kidding, she just uses her bare-knuckles to moralize those of us less enlightened.
New Year's was spent at a house without electricity in the Norwegian woods. Wolves howled. Wine was swallowed. Indian food was eaten. Debates were discussed... about wolves, the best Beatle band member and if Barack Obama is going to really save the world from his platform of hope and change as the Europeans expect him to. This New Year's was a strong contrast with the 2 million people on a beach in Rio de Janeiro last year. 😊
Parting with Norway was sweet sorrow... it was really good to see the family yet again (September and December) which as given me the shortest time that I've ever had between visits. It was also my first Norwegian winter experience. Basically, I feel like I got to know the country and my family a lot
Grandma Reading
She's so smart she can read Norwegian.better this trip. But I still wanted to get back to Freiburg.
So, I flew back to Freiburg.
Now I'm back in Freiburg and I have just started my new module "Forests and Water". This seemingly innocent and innocuous title gives little to what the first class entailed. Basically, we tackled fluid dynamics, vertical profiles of air, and other various and delectable qualities surrounding micrometeorology. Ugh. I keep telling myself, "You asked for it," and some further comfort is had when looking around the room to notice incredulous looks of the other students... The lecturer asks, "any questions so far?" and our silence is not understanding, but rather the difficulty in formulating the necessary first question "about what?" It's true that you have to understand something about something to ask something about that something. Still, I learned a lot about that ineffable something today. Tomorrow I hope to have a question ready and brave it in the asking.
I HOPE EVERYBODY HAD A HAPPY HOLIDAY AND WILL HAVE A HAPPY YEAR...
Peace.
Love.
Shane
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