A jet-lag-induced early morning seems like an appropriate time to update ze LJ, no? Been up since 5 am today, thanks to an early night crash last night after another airplane overdose. I arrived at Stanford yesterday at 11:30 am, having left the hostel in Salta approximately 25 hours before, and spent a solid 16-17 of those hours physically on an ( Read more... )

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been thinking a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lately. With the sort of horror stories we hear coming out of Gaza and the horrendous polarization that emerges among people "donating their status" to grotesque statistics on facebook, it seems that an eye for an eye leaves the entire world not only ( Read more... )

The beautiful colors of autumn have finally faded away, and the cold, horizontal light of winter has taken its place. The other day, I exited my house into a crisp, pale yellowish-blue morning, only to have that characteristic tingle of the first day of winter take up permanent lodging in my nose. It's much like a sneeze you fear you might lose, ( Read more... )

After the hullaballoo of the first two weeks of this month, both here and back home, my life here has settled down into a rhythm I find very much to my liking. Life in the Icelandic Community Center at Seestraße 114, as we have come to call it, is quite pleasant - a great deal of baking and music-making, laid-back dinners followed with Icelandic ( Read more... )

We have internet at home now. My joy knows no bounds. Figures I would have to go to school now...

Cheers,
Maria
who will soon be blogging again

A glorious lie-in on the soft mattresses of Hotel Mozart made for a very happy Maria at 9:45 this morning, when we finally rolled out of bed and downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast made me even happier: they serve a full spread of fruit, yoghurt, cereal, juice, fresh bread rolls, cheese, cold cuts, jam, and best of all, Nutella in little spread ( Read more... )

After an entirely atrocious night’s sleep where I drifted in and out of consciousness for about six hours before finally falling unconscious around 4 in the morning, I woke up at quarter to seven to move out of Theresa’s apartment and catch my InterCityExpress or ICE train to Köln / Bonn. All went quite smoothly: Frau Deutsch the receptionist/ ( Read more... )

Lara and I went to her classmate’s 18th birthday party last night, but I got so tired that I decided to head back home around 10 pm. I proceeded to sleep soundly for 11 hours and then some, and crawled out of bed at 10 am this morning. Lara and I had a late breakfast, really more of a brunch, and then decided to brave the somewhat temperamental ( Read more... )

Safe arrival in München was quite welcome this morning after 20 hours in transit. The journey over was uneventful for me, though not for the 70 or so people who didn't get seats on the flight from San Francisco to Washington DC (there was a surprise plane change for some reason, resulting in a massive overbooking of the flight.) Other highlights ( Read more... )

My plans for the next year or so are also beginning to firm up. At present, I'm planning on a schedule somewhat approximating the following ( Read more... )