I'm not trying to make excuses, but here's what has been going on:
Last week was the final week of the school year, and rather than subbing, I was copying, filing, and providing moral support for the school secretaries. Then we went to Hamburg for a long day on Saturday to see baby Fiona. She is Tom and Sonja's daughter, who is about 2 weeks old. She doesn't have much of a personality yet, but we like her parents so she will probably turn out all right.
We got home from Hamburg around 1am and turned around to pick up Samantha at the train station Sunday morning. She is a former student of Brian's from St. Paul, who has just graduated college and is traveling around on her way to Copenhagen for a two month program, the beginning of her Master's in Scandinavian Studies. She had a bit of a hard time getting over the idea of staying with a teacher and learning about him as a regular person rather than an authority figure, but it didn't phase her too much because she made the effort to get here and even called him by his first name.
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| Samantha, Brian, and Sankey on the McCarthy Hannover bike tour |
On Monday, I started working a week-long summer camp at the school. Last year I lost my engagement ring on the first day of summer camp, and on the second day, a camper found it. I was not pushing my luck this year, and just left it at home. We did crafts, went swimming, played games, and were generally all happy campers until Thursday. That was the day I physically restrained a kicking and screaming eight year old on the platform at the tram station. Then I had to try to carry her upstairs but luckily larger, stronger reinforcements came to help.
In the meantime, Brian's friend Steve came to visit. They've known each other since middle school, but we hadn't seen Steve in about four years. He's a musician who quit his day job, left his New York City apartment, and is living in Berlin for two months. Unlike Samantha, Steve had no trouble calling either of us by our first names and he mixes a mean cocktail.
Now we are having a deliberately quiet weekend, getting ready for our trip to the U.S. on Monday. I will warn you now that posts might get sporadic again for a while, but don't worry, I am still here.
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