October 11?

Ouch. Well, I'll just pretend the three month gap didn't happen and move on.

So, just a recap: in November, I went to Hisar, Bulgaria for a conference. A sad and interesting place, Bulgaria. Some of the stereotypes are true: people (strangers) aren't so friendly and the food is meat-centric. But where isn't this the case (the meat, not the people)? The communist spirit still reigns in many places. Case in point: some folks from the conference reserved the bowling alley in the basement of the hotel for a two hour bowl-a-thon. I showed up to the event about 20 minutes late and ordered a beer. Response: Sorry, we ran out of beer. Weird, I thought, especially given that there are two bars upstairs, a host of bars down the street and they knew we were coming for three days. Oh well. I walked upstairs, ordered my beer and went back to the holy bowling action. Communists were well known for their resourcefulness, after all.

I experienced one of the funniest cultural mishaps in Bulgaria to date. I needed to ship a box of books back to Germany and when I asked the person at the front desk of the hotel if I could have FedEx pick up the box on Monday, she just shook her head. WTF, I wondered. I'm not asking her to take the box to the post office. I just want it to be available when some schmo comes in and says "I am here to take a box to Hamburg." I stood there with my head cocked to the side, wondering how I had failed to adhere to accepted cultural protocol for international package shipping. While I was pondering my failure, the woman, who seconds before had summarily denied me, grabbed the box and stuck it under the counter. Good lord, I thought. Did my blank staring finally threaten her into compliance? Turns out, acquiescence/agreement/'yes' is, with body language, realized with a side-to-side head movement, much like the rest of the world signifies 'no.' This explains a lot.

Next stop, AZ/NM. Most of my faithful readers know that David and I spent a few days in Arizona just prior to Thanksgiving. We spent the big day in the 505 with friends and family. In both cases, it was nice to be back and spend time with people I care about.

From there, I went north to Montreal for a few-day seminar. I really like Montreal. It's bitterly cold, has a mind of it's own and knows how to make vegetarian sushi. I could for sure spend a couple of years in that city. By the way, shout out to the Dube family - it was great to catch up with you!

This trip was followed by the holiday season - a great time in Germany. Shortly after my return home, we welcomed our VIP house guests: Jori, Maurice, Abe and Jeff (in no particular order). We spent a week touring the Weihnachtsmarkts (and managing to consume reasonable quantities of gluehwein and Feuerzangenbowle) and the highlights of Hamburg including our favorite haunts and the gratuitous men's tour of Hamburg. It's pretty innocuous, despite the implications.

After we bid a fond farewell to Jori and Maurice, we all piled into our rented Mercedes (thanks to Abe!) and drove as fast as humanly possible to Vienna, Austria, where we spent Christmas and the New Year with Joshua. Vienna was such a pleasant place to be - beautiful, bucolic, bombastic, [insert appropriate b'word here]. We had a great time touring the city, the museums, and the restaurants. We also managed to squeeze in a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia, a quick trip to the country outside of Vienna and about 24 hours in Prague. Wow, Prague.

But, I get ahead of myself. Just a quick few lines on New Year's eve, Vienna-style. Vienna, in its infinite wisdom, sets up several big stages around town where live music is played and celebration is had by all. While the logistics of this arrangement are much more sensible than the single, centralized festivities in Berlin, there was still street peeing all around and mysterious cigars carried aloft by a blinking, wildly popular bathrobe-clad Jesus. We celebrated New Years day at the Vienna Rathaus dancing the 'Blue Danub' and sipping champagne, in the most traditional style.

This brings us almost current, with a short trip to New Jersey in the interim. Princeton is a beautiful little town, filled with legends dead and alive. My first night in Princeton, I watched as Cornell West took a seat at the hotel bar. The same night, a friend explained that John Nash is still spotted muttering and puttering about campus. A couple of nights later, I saw the cemetery where John Tukey rests. Man. That's a lot of personalities.

I'm back in Hamburg, getting ready to head to Sharm el-Sheikh next week and then after that, I am home for several weeks. I'll make no promises regarding my blog maintenance; however, I would like to believe, I'll let you know how things go in Egypt.

Until then, I still, unreservedly, love Hamburg.