Taking flight

Another 4-day weekend is staring me right in the face with nothing but a few hours lingering between me and all the fun it promises to bring. To make it even better, my mom is still here! She'll get to see my stomping grounds when she meets me in Frankfurt for lunch, and later we'll go out on the town and see what the night has in store for us. I am like my mom in that when I look at a map, my head absolutely swims with possibilities for adventure. We both sat down a couple nights ago to pour over our Germany map and plot our weekend. With about 1,000 ideas on the table and perfect weather in the forecast, it's gearing up to really be excellent.

And, have I mentioned? Mainz hosts a Red Bull Flugtag on Monday! You know, when groups of people build hilarious go-cart type things and then launch themselves as far as they can over a body of water? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check it out here. It's bound to be entirely entertaining and good for an afternoon of laughs. A genius marketing idea, too. I like that these people are taking on a ridiculous challenge and flying as far as they possibly can while not sacrificing for a moment their enjoyment of the event.

Along those lines, I am in full-fledged job hunting mode since my return to the USA is less than 2 months away! I am in the unique position of being able to now head in any professional direction I choose, but whatever I choose is probably the path I will then stay on. I studied business and finance but then worked in politics and have now acquired international experience. The job I was holding out for looks to be a no-go timing wise, so now the question is... where do I want to live? I had sort of figured I'd head back to DC and put my new foreign experience into play, but maybe that's not what my next adventure is supposed to be. Job hunting is always a bit stressful but also rather exciting too, don't you think?

Maybe I'll go here, or here, or try to become this or this.   :)   Oh! the possibilities!

"Hau-der-Tower"

Here is my office building all lit up for Luminale 2012 in Frankfurt this week.

Isn't she pretty?

Redefining "Tiny"

You're going to love this. Ok, really I just love this, and I hope that you can love it too. Guess what I did on Sunday? I went to...

 

LIECHTENSTEIN!

Can you believe that one? The most fun part of the whole trip was dreaming up ideas about the country with the 3 other friends who traveled with me. What is this place? Why is it so incredibly tiny? What does it mean to be one out of roughly 35,000 Liechtenstein-ers? Does anybody else find it amusing that we walked from Buchs, Switzerland, into Liechtenstein, into the capital of Vaduz, up to the castle, back down, through the entire city of Vaduz and into another called Triesen? We covered 1/3 of the length of the entire Western border of the country by foot. For comparison, to walk from Havre, Montana to Cody, Wyoming, what I estimate as a third of the length of the US from Havre, would take just less than 5 days! Since we went on a Sunday, everything was closed. We found a few open restaurants right below the castle where the cheapest plate was 16 Swiss Francs, so we walked to McDonalds in Triesen where one can purchase a cheeseburger (89 cents in the US) for 2.50 Swiss Francs. A bus ride back to Buchs was 4.30 Francs. Holy guacamole! It's expensive to live the life of a Liechtenstein-ian, -er, -ite (?). But let me tell you, Liechtenstein might be laughably small, but they picked a great little piece of land in the Alps there. Truly gorgeous, and I highly recommend making the journey.

Preferred method of transportation? Tiny train through tiny country?

Up, up, and away!

Lookie lookie! I was up before the sun this morning to watch a plethora of hot air balloons launch at sunrise in Casper. It was a delightful 50 degree, coffee-filled, colorful way to start my day. By the way, I might be on the verge of becoming one of those people who divides their day into two parts and uses the term "pre-coffee" to describe events that happen in the morning when I'm not fully with it yet. When I'm in the process of waking up, I'm like, "WHY DID I CHOOSE TO DO THISSSSSSSSSSSSS??? NO HOT AIR BALLOONS-- SLEEEEEEPPP NOWWWW". But then once I'm up and I've brushed my teeth I'm like, "This is awesome. I love being awake. Lookit the cool things I'm doing." So, you know, life.