Dear friends,

The past three weeks have been cheating and surely must have been five. As planned, I completed another training in Cologne, finally collected data for a study of my own, quite unforeseen substituted for a colleague and took over her lectures and cursed about non-ferrous metal thieves who had stolen the aerial line on my journey home. In such times, the hectic bustle forces to serenity. In all, I find that I have become much more laid back this year, but have also started to ponder which facets of life can still be modified.

The beginning of the year took place in Stockholm. That Lufthansa had postponed our flight there by several hours was something we were not happy about. That we chose to rather fly earlier from Berlin apparently annoyed the universe: The first train to the airport became increasingly late. Waiting in the lounge was cancelled, as the receptionist was stuck in a delayed train. Waiting in the adjacent burger place was crowded with the upper floor closed due to heating problems. The next regular train departed on time, but did not get very far. We stood for hours in Delitzsch, just 12 km outside the gates of Leipzig and were eventually allowed to continue our journey by taxi. If you think that Delitzsch taxi drivers are jumping with joy at the prospect of driving you a couple of hundred miles to Berlin, think again. Every single taxi was booked to drive dialysis patients. In the end, we arrived later than if we had taken the regular flight from Leipzig.

Altogether, the year was in rich in 3D travels. To catch some sunshine, I flew to Bordeaux in March and met the regional group there. The meeting was spontaneously cancelled and a programme of Frank entertainment was established. Only the sun was not to be seen. Rather I learnt on the Dune of Pila that dune plus wind equals sandblasting. At the congress in Cardiff, I arrived on Friday evening at about half past ten and just in time for the end of the first day, so that I had pretty exactly one day left. Still enough for many pleasant encounters over tea, a pint, a walk around town or breakfast. There were plenty of seconds at the ISU World Congress in Irvine. There I distributed little marzipan hearts as promotion for the congress 2019 in Lübeck, used the opportunity to teach Americans how to pronounce “ü” (they were eager to learn), drank a variety of cocktails with my besty Betsy and learnt on an outing to the Orange County Fair that Americans do not bother with chicken thighs, but put whole turkey legs on the grill. On the culinary level, also Switzerland scored at the D/A/CH meeting in Trogen: Schlorzifladen tastes just as good as it sounds.

Once at the West Coast, Los Angeles and San Francisco begged to be visited. The city of angels pleasantly surprised me. I keep memories of the afternoon sun on the art déco theatres of Hollywood Boulevard, the peaceful calm in the gardens of the Getty Center, long bus rides along the seemingly endless roads together with Latin American housewives and of enormous blisters from my walk along the beach from Santa Monica to Venice Beach.
I met my husband at San Francisco airport. For months beforehand, he had been nervous about flying on his own. I was even more nervous when I still waited for him two hours after his plane had landed, because the machine he had eagerly selected for his immigration was in fact reserved for registered frequent flyers. Our hotel boasted complimentary coffee every morning and filtered water available at reception. When we kindly asked what an “urban bundle” might be that appeared on our room bill with $22.50 each day, we learnt that free is apparently relative. There are two things that I underestimated about San Francisco. For one thing, everything is always uphill and also Cable Cars are no help, since always full. Furthermore, I think I would like to agree with Mark Twain who said that the coldest winter that he ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco. How the Summer of Love could ever take place is a mystery to me. After all, you think of people dancing outside on the lawn and not of “Shut the door! It is getting cold.”

With my Godson Konstantin, I rather watch superhero than Disney films these days. A big adventure was the trip with overnight stay to Tropical Islands. The check-in into this gigantic indoor pool took one hour and a half and although it is big enough that the Statue of Liberty could stand and the Eiffel Tower could lie in it, we were unable to find a single free deck chair on the first day. Evidently, we reserved a chair on the second day, so that new guests could indulge in the same experience. Being on the water slide at ten p.m. or with a cocktail by the indoor beach still had something to it.

Much more deserted was the register office in Leipzig on 24 October. For the conversion of our civil partnership into a marriage, exactly three people and the trickle of a fountain were present. Quite fitting to this bizarreness and sobriety, we celebrated the event with a piece of cake at Karstadt, a nearby department store.

Nice, new things were also present in everyday life. On Monday mornings, a statistics class with the guru of linguistics statistics. Although this meant that my lectures had to take place at four and at six in the afternoon. Thanks to the wedding voucher from my colleagues, the best meal of my life at the gourmet temple Falco. My parents turned seventy. When we offered them vouchers for the same restaurant on these occasions, I had some doubts whether my parents would go out on a dinner for two. With little need for persuasion, Olaf and I were invited for our regularised marriage. In summer, a concert of Les Yeux d’la Tête in Connewitz with old friends from Jena and with prosciutto, parmesan, Holger and Andreas a classical evening on the picnic blanket, even though I barely knew how to sit due to a slightly slipped disc.

The new year, what will it bring? For the summer term, an annual railway season ticket, which will allow me to travel within the whole of Germany. I will give up my room in Erfurt und shall see how it goes to commute between uni and home. For everything else, I shall wait impatiently und I hope that you and I will do a thousand nice things together next year and share plenty of beautiful moments. Enjoy the remaining few days of the year in a cheerful Advent spirit.

Frank