Hi Ann,
Thanks for writing me. I'm still around, just had a few things going on over the last 2 weeks. The rule of thumb I use for my friends here as far as time zone is, " Your mornings are my afternoons". There is a 7 hour time zone difference between Eastern std time and Germany.
Last week I was in Maine visiting my brother and friends, didn't have my computer with me.
I am home this week, but fly back to Germany on the 12th. I'll return to Plymouth, MA on the 18th to spend the week of Thanksgiving with my parents and family.
Then, I'll fly back to Germany on Nov 27th, return to Nashville on Dec 2nd.
I'll fly back to Germany on Dec 14th and return to the states on Jan 12th.
That's as far as my schedule is made for now, but I do know that I will continue working in Europe through next year.
It's been a great year for me. Although it's hard being away from home, the experiences I have had over the year have been wonderful. My wife has come over on 3 different occations and we took some time to explore.
She will come over during the Christmas holiday period, and we are planning to spend Christmas in the Alps, either in Austria or Switzerland. It should wonderful.
3 weeks ago, my meetings were in England. So, on Friday, after working all week in Germany, I took a flight to London, stayed in the Covent Garden part of the city,, and spent the weekend touring London. I then went to the Portsmouth area of the UK for my meetings. London was great. I took a tour on the double decker bus, cruised up the Themes River, saw Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, Prince Albert Hall, the London Tower, London Bridge and took in the Theatre on Sat. night. I saw "The Producers".
Ohhh.. almost forgot.. I got to find my way around on the "Tube" or Underground... " Mind The Gap".. If you traveled on it.. you would get that! It is their way of saying watch your step as you exit the train. I took 411 pictures the first day I was there... whew......
I still worry at times about the "what-if"s" concerning my heart, health and type of care I may get overseas, but... I figure I can sit on my porch and watch the world go bye, or continue to work and enjoy the experience.
I even made Octoberfest in Munich. I told my doctor I was thinking of him, as I drank a few beers there. Each mug holds 1 liter of beer! So, I told my doc, I was following orders and only had 2. He forgot to tell me what size was acceptable for the 2 drink rule.
Atually I had 2 1/2 beers there. The beer tents were huge, each one holds between 7,000 to 10,000 people. That's alot of drunks!
My Cardiologist is German, so I also bought him an offical Octoberfest hat and gave it to him during my last ceckup. He got a kick out of it, and wore it around the office to show his staff.
I hope you are also doing well. I do try and get on daily and read the board, but the last few weeks I guess I took a brief vacation.
I figure by the middle of next year, I should be speaking much better Deutche
mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Rob