Random Flashback for Friday 12/10/10

And so ends the tale of my time overseas in 1990. This photo was taken by my sister as I spilled out into the terminal at Newark (which is close enough to NYC to continue my theme week concept, right?) in December of that year. I brought back with me 3.5 months of memories, connections with great people, a multi-stamped passport, the ability to dream in a different language on occasion, a frequent hankering for Wienerschnitzel, an early affinity toward stronger, darker beers, that piece of the Berlin Wall I referenced weeks ago and a desire (not yet quenched) to return. The economy interfered with my early plans for a 20 year reunion there -- maybe it's meant to be 25 in 2015? Jawohl! Time to start saving my pfennigs [showed my age, there, I mean euro cents!]

Random Flashback for Friday 12/3/10

After multiple months overseas many many years ago, the group of us in Koln had grown a little homesick and weary of the semester abroad experience. How do I know? Because we got taken to task by Klaus one day (he's the older gentleman behind me) when the group of us were told that we had to start "adapting to the local conditions" better. It turns out my smart-alec-ness and antio-authoritarian streak were both well developed even in 1990, as the event captured in this photo is me passing out the infamous Fruh beer deckels labeled with the "Adapt to the Local Conditions Awards" at our farewell party. And, even back then, I couldn't edit well as you can see by the stack of awards I'm passing out. My awards that night ... "the most devoted member of a long distance relationship (with Cher)" ... "the most competitive class ender (often through questioning comments)" ... "the ducks' best friend" ... "most interested in testing McD's quality control" ... and ... "most complex personality". Much doesn't change in 20 years, after all!

And, here's this week's Amazing Race Aside -- I guess adapting to the local conditions in Hong Kong means dealing with the bait and switch. Meaning that the room that looks like Asian karaoke is really sushi-til-you-pukey! Tricky, Phil, tricky. [P.S. Dear tattooed punk girl, I got angry watching your boyfriend who apparently went off his meds this past week. I would have supported you throwing him overboard and you finishing the next few legs with the parakeets as partners instead, just so you know!]

Random Flashback for Friday 11/26/10

On this holiday weekend when so many travel, I thought it only fitting that I show my favorite Bahn stop as I arrived & left Koln each day to get to my host family's house in Bergisch-Gladbach. Now that I've lived as long as I have in Chicago, the notion of a train stop isn't quite as unique as this experience was to me twenty years ago, but it certainly was an everyday part of my semester abroad. [Cindy, didn't you and Brian and I all take the same route?] Regardless, this picture certainly can represent my wish that all have safe travels who are still out and about this weekend.

Random Flashback for Friday 11/19/10

As you get closer to next week's holiday, may you plan to spend it with family or friends (or both), and may you be as happy as I apparently was in this shot from a party in Germany 20 years ago! Alcohol had a lot to do with it, and I definitely recall a dance circle with Meatloaf (the Aday version, not the meal) where I might have been initially exposed to "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights". [And that's not a euphemism -- I think that's where I actually heard that song for the first time.] I'm pretty sure this picture was taken very soon after our little group's Thanksgiving meal together (pizza at a local shop with hard boiled egg as a topping, as I all too vividly recall). Ah ... vergnugen (as in the VW Fahr-variety -- just without the word that means "driving").

Random Flashback for Friday 11/12/10

What's wrong with this picture? I mean, other than the late 80's acid washed jeans? And the oh-so-chic JCPenney Hunt Club sweatshirt? Or the fact that the collar length hair in my other Germany shots from this time frame is somehow missing (thanks Tracey for haircut #1 of 2 that semester abroad)? Can't figure it out? Well - let me say that the railing in the foreground is actually a luggage rack on a train ... and that I'm really holding on for dear life, supported by the celling of that train I was riding 20 years ago! Adding to the list of things wrong with the picture -- I climbed up there willingly and wasn't being hazed! Oh to be of a weight where that would still be possible. Or, better said, oh to be on any part of a train in Germany again!!

Random Flashback for Friday 11/5/10

For my semester abroad 20 years ago, we lived in Koln, but the West German capital of Bonn was just "eine hop, ein uberspringen und ein sprung" away, so when I heard that Gorbachev was coming to town to visit Helmut Kohl, I skipped school and went to stand outside the gates to catch a glimpse of him. You can barely make out the limo speeding past at the very right of the photo, but it still felt historic.

Amazing Race Aside: I would much rather have preferred to have babushka'd women cheering Gorby on that day much like in the St. Petersburg potato challenge last week. Instead, it was just a handful of celebrity seekers and the odd paparazzi or two joining me along the fence!

Random Flashback for Friday 10/29/10

Yet another picture in the Real World: Koln series ... and I don't know what it is about our group of exchange students in Germany 20 years ago, but we sure did like piling up together to pose for a group shot. If I had to guess, I would say this was from a bus trip across the border to Brussels for a tour of NATO's European HQ. (Sorry, what can I say -- it was university sponsored, so they weren't going to send us to Amsterdam!) Other than flying into Heathrow outside of London and an accidental walk on the wrong side of the mountain on the day we visited Trier that landed John B. and I in Luxembourg at a locals bar featuring a giant green glowing golf ball structure in the middle of it all (sounds like we might as well have gone to Amsterdam when it comes to that trip, no?), this was the only other country I got to visit from that time abroad!

Random Flashback for Friday 10/22/10

And here's part 2 of "what's a boy to do in Berlin (in 1990)" when faced with the famous wall that once split the city? Why -- climb up on it of course. Sadly, this was in the days before the digital camera, so we didn't realize that I was mostly in shadows until the film was developed back home. But if you look closely, you'll see the Adidas sneakers, the black denim jeans jacket and the collar length hair that's been in the other photos from this year. Just climbing the wall wasn't enough, though, so I chopped a piece off to take home with me. That hunk of history now sits on a shelf with my other mementos from that trip -- a (now broken) Fruh Kolsch glass, lots and lots of beer deckels, a CDU election headband and the reflective thingy I pried off the road when we all went out for Thanksgiving. [As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't count as "hoarding" if you can still remember the story attached to every item (and if you haven't lost a pet or family member in the debris).]

Random Flashback for Friday 10/15/10

This week in my ongoing series of Real World:Koln shots -- part 1 of "what's a boy in Berlin to do (twenty years ago during my semester abroad)"? Why -- go see the wall that ceased serving its purpose just one year prior to that visit -- of course. By the way, the graffiti (and that last word is planet, not plan) points to the fact that I was on the western side of Checkpoint Charlie for this photo. As we enter a particularly partisan election season, let's remind ourselves that successes stem from finding common ground. Unity ... can save our planet!

Random Flashback for Friday 10/8/10

With the exchange program of 20 years ago based in Cologne but being held during the (re)unification of Germany, it was a no-brainer that the group should take a "school sponsored" trip to Berlin. And, to save money, it makes complete sense that we should all stay together in a hostel (the friendly hippier kind, not the ones from modern day horror movies). But at no point was there a mandate that we save even more money by all piling into one Doppelstockbett. That's just what college kids do. [And to continue the Real World:Koln theme, I vote for this to be the picture on the title frame that goes with "seven strangers ... who stop being polite ... and start getting real" (even though I think I can only count six bodies in this pic, and even though there were more like 15 of us on the trip).]

Random Flashback for Friday 10/1/10

Twenty years ago this weekend (October 3 to be exact), East Germany and West Germany were united as one Deutschland as the Cold War rushed to a conclusion -- and our group of exchange students had a front row seat to history. Four or us chose to brave the Donnerwetter to go find a spot next to this tree along the banks of the Rhein river in Koln to drink in the fireworks (and celebrate with some Kolsch and Schokolade). Regardless of the controversy over the first holiday being called re-unification inappropriately, it was amazing to be there to witness a people united. On this 20th anniversary of German Unity Day ... Prosit!

Random Flashback for Friday 9/24/10

Last week, I introduced the favorite drink of those in Koln -- Kolsch. And as this shot shows, it was also the favorite drink of those of us studying during my semester abroad in that city 20 years ago. Of course, the studying happened during the day or maybe in the early evening (or possibly the morning after on the ride into town on the Ubahn) -- but this was clearly the nighttime activity. On the table, amidst the glasses, you can see the 'deckels', the cardboard coasters that we collected around town for the over two dozen different brands of Kolsch. It was like an alcohol treasure hunt, and for this 18 year old (oh yeah, I was a young'un in college), it was quite an enjoyable experience! Every night had the potential to be Oktoberfest!!

Random Flashback for Friday 9/17/10

Random Flashback for Friday --> Best thing about my semester abroad 20 years ago: Kolsch (the local brew of a light pale ale). Second best thing about that time in another country: our group consisted of students from three schools (LVC, Allegheny and Gettysburg) all placed together around Cologne and all studying together. This picture is from when best thing #1 met best thing #2 on one of our first nights out (like Real World:Koln -- except we didn't all have to live in the same house)! And Amy, I am confident that you could have walked without the assistance of Brian and I ... and we were simply fooling around for the camera, right?

Random Flashback for Friday 9/10/10

Last week's shot was of the haus in Germany where I landed twenty years ago for my semester abroad ... and this one is 3/4 of my host Familie (only sibling Sabine was missing). Mama's on the left, her oldest daughter Petra is is the middle and Petra's husband the baker is next to her. In the 7300 or so days since I took this picture, I've somehow forgotten why the cigarettes are featured as prominently as they are ... so we'll just have to assume it stems from some good old fashioned German sense of humor or an overabundance of some good old fashioned German alcohol! Jawohl!

Random Flashback for Friday 9/3/10

Twenty years ago, I was spending my Labor Day weekend saying my goodbyes to friends, family and colleagues, as, thanks to a very welcoming program at LVC, I was off to spend a semester as an exchange student in Germany. And this was the house where I landed in Bergisch-Gladbach (right outside of Cologne). Mom and daughter (and I) lived on the first floor, her parents were on the second and her ex-husband was in the house directly adjacent -- which sounds like a set-up for a sitcom ("Mein Haus in Deutschland")!