When Mohammad says that Albany is a black hole because it attracts people, I say it is a black hole because it sucks in time. Time just flew and farewell dinners and meetings approached increadibly quickly.
Monday: pack suitcase
Tuesday: dinner at the Richardsons'
Wednesday: Columbian dinner
Thursday: PhD student farewell gathering
Saturday: Columbian farewell
And then I spent two very nice days with friends in New York and with my landlonds' family.
Then came the day my mother was looking forward to for months. I flew home and stayed there for 10 days. During this time was wedding no. 1 - my cousin's.
By the time I had adjusted to the time difference and the jet lag was gone, I moved to my study place Mannheim again. Some of my clothes had overwintered in a friend's basement in close neighborhood of quite an accumulation of cockroaches. Luckily these friendly animals stayed outside the box with my belongings.
Short after moving in, the next event approached - a presentation at the System Dynamics Workshop in Mannheim. This made it a little easier to leave Albany because it was a nice opportunity to meet many people again.
Barely here and already gone again. I left for the second wedding. It was in wonderful Palma de Mallorca. A German friend of mine from my studying time in Bayreuth (Didi) married a real Mallorcan. The first day there, I walked Palma for many, many hours. The wedding was on the second day. Spanish and German wedding customs are definitely different. There is no kissing in the church. Oh, oh, it is very catholic. ;-)
The party was on an estate in the hills (picture above, wedding pictures will follow). Beautiful! The Spanish usually only eat, drink, and dance at a wedding party, but they also liked our German wedding games. We made the couple answer 20 questions about who once made the first step (her), who spends more money, who needs more time in the bathroom (the groom in this case), ...
Three glasses of wine during dinner made me still feel a little sick when the plane faltered a little on the way back home very early the next morning.
And now, time to quiet down - until the next trip for the System Dynamics Conference ...
