Me Again!

Checking in at 2:04 in the afternoon on January 15th.

I wanted to inform everyone that after the visit to the doctor that I had last Tuesday, I now have an official clean bill of health. This is the first time in about two months that I've actually felt like me - healthy, awake, energetic, and happy. It feels wonderful.

Possibly the best thing was going for my first run after that long time of being sick - I had my iPod with a book on tape going and went on a different route through the city than I normally do when I run and I just felt alive again. Health is under-appreciated. I'm sure not taking it for granted now.

Among other things, the semester has officially started back up again (yes, to my friends who are reading this and not studying in Germany, we are still in our fall semester. Classes end on February 17 and then there's a two month "break" ((this is when final exams occur)) and then the spring semester starts in April) and the fact that I'm no longer exhausted from simply walking up one flight of stairs makes going to classes and understanding what's going on much easier. And, to make things even better, Erin was here to visit last week!

Erin, who is studying abroad this year in Scotland but usually studies with me at Mills College, was a fantastic houseguest! While she was here, we drank a lot of tea, went on several lovely walks through the city (during which she took several lovely pictures - Erin, can I steal some of them from your facebook page and post them here?) and even had a double-feature movie night with a friend of ours here (David) where we watched Crash (Called L.A. Crash in Germany) and The Princess Bride. There was also some Sopio playing (a game you really ought to know) and a good deal of talking about how strange it will be to be back in California next year.

Unfortunately, Erin had to leave to get back to her studies, but it was wonderful to have her here, and I hope she comes to visit again before the year is done.

I've been thinking quite a lot lately about trying to make videos more often. I don't know what any of you thought of the last one, but I wanted to know if you have any ideas about videos I should make. Is there anything in Mainz you'd like to see more of, or something that I haven't even shown or written about but that you are curious about? Should I explain some of what we're doing in my classes? Give you a more close-up look at anything? Are videos better than blog entries? Worse? About the same?

If you can spare the thirty seconds it takes to write a comment here, please do so. If writing a comment seems beyond you technologically, you can also write me an email. :)

I've gotta go work on some programming homework, but do check in. I like it better when I know for whom I am writing, if you know what I mean.

Have a lovely rest of your Sunday and a good upcoming week!