Nr 42

I seem to have picked up a habit of visiting World Wonders in torrential downpours... I am writing this in a KLM plane that is returning me from a business trip to Bristol, which I used as an opportunity to visit Stonehenge, my 42nd Wonder of the World (at Nr 78 according to Hillman). And like Delphi three weeks ago, it was absolutely pissing it down when we tried to make our way around the monument. Unlike Delphi, though, it was also absolutely FREEZING! Who knew a trip to England in the second half of June would be accompanied with 11 degrees and quasi-hail blowing across the planes... Anyway, no problem: I saw the henge (which according to Wikipedia (and my colleague Adam) is NOT actually a henge, although the Stonehenge people were not particularly forthcoming with that information in their audiotour. Admittedly, I did not actually listen to the audiotour as I was incredibly cold and wet...) so that counts! I also managed to visit Bristol, which I had never seen before and I must say it is quite pleasant.




In other news, we have booked a trip to a friend's wedding in Niagara, Ontario in August! We will fly into NYC and make our way through NY State to then tick off another Wonder (the Falls) and go to her wedding. Afterwards, we drive back to NYC, spend a weekend there and return to Berlin. It is going to be fabulous! In other "other news", I just had a paper accepted (conditional on a few very minor changes) in the Journal of Peace Research!!!! This is a top-5 journal in Political Science, so I am very excited about this, as you can imagine... Even more excitement is happening on the job front: I will return to Frankfurt this week for a physical examination and after passing that hurdle, a final decision will be made about my potential new job... Right now, it seems about 90% certain I will get it, but just to be sure, I am going to be keeping the suspense a bit longer: Suffice it to say that it is going to be in a country far, far away!

Tschüßi,
OJ

PS Potential job in Kathmandu: moving steadily ahead... Will be undergoing a medical exam real soon and then it only requires the consent of one more person...

Loving all these 3-day weekends!

This week, Bart & Tineke came to visit us: we had a lot of fun, visiting biergartens and enjoying the weather... The World Cultures' Carnaval also took place this weekend, so we took the opportunity to see the parade and all that: good times were had! Last weekend, Jorryt and Lilian came over (not pregnant, for a change), and we visited biergartens and had a jolly good time!

That also included finishing the Berliner Mauerweg! We did it, the whole 160 kms... I should organize a bunch of photos at some point, but let's just say it is absolutely worth doing it, because you get to see some parts of Berlin that you would never randomly encounter... :-)

I also finally had the opportunity to do a Berliner Unterwelten Tour in one of the WW2 bunkers. A really interesting tour inside an old gas tower, later converted to a bunker, then converted to an old people's home, a hotel, a homeless' shelter et cetera. Fascinating stuff... That was with my colleagues, with whom we had our annual retreat (accept that there was no budget, so we couldnt actually retreat anywhere to and ended up staying in Berlin).

And as for the latest news: I had a job interview and it went really well. I have to decide whether I really want it and then they are going to decide whether to offer it to me... Exciting times, but also difficult times because the job's location isn't particularly convenient for Fedor and for the probability of him finding a job... It's in Kathmandu, Nepal... Stay tuned and I will keep you updated!

Tschüßi,
OJ

Athens photos!

As promised, here are a few photos...






Oh, and in answer to Esther's recent question: I have a job interview on Tuesday. The interview is in Germany, but the job brings me about 6500km closer to where you are!
Tschüßi,
OJ