I'm leaving Mainz for Amsterdam and then New York in less than two weeks... Where did the time go? I find that two months is a magical time frame in traveling and being in new places. During the first two months, you see all the differences, spend your time adjusting to a new environment, let your patterns of being get shaken up a bit. After the two months you don't notice differences as much, old patterns reassert themselves and blend with some new ones to give you a, perhaps, more sustainable way of being in your new setting. So, what would happen if you just made sure to move every two months and never allowed yourself to settle? I guess then, you would develop a way of compensating and just begin to develop coping mechanisms in which you began to see the similarities of behavior and patterns everywhere you went. You might not be rooted, but you would be the traveling, transient you. Whatever.....
Observations on returning to Mainz from Marrakech.
Bus etiquette: marginal
Accommodations for the elderly: few
Visible elderly: lots of gumption and durability -- able to get on and off buses while using a walker
Weather: been kinda grey and wet and cold
People in the department: great
Friends: FANTASTIC
Life in general: ups and downs -- this always happens when I'm getting ready to leave somewhere I like with people I like.
Most wonderful and fantastic: new baby girl Ina Frederika in the Zimmerman family
Pretty darn great: Receiving a gift of an IPad as a late Christmas present!!
2nd public presentation: 'On Hearing Native American Voices in Cinema' -- went fine. I'm in recuperation mode.
Upcoming two weeks: short trip to Goettingen to meet Ina, Leo and Lucia Zonn coming (should be fun), packing for trip back to U.S., storing stuff I get to leave here for when I come back for summer term.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
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