back in the states now...wish i had more time over in europe...i miss it so much.

friday: woke up early and had breakfast in the city. then visited the old jewish cemetery, which is the oldest one in europe, dating back to the 15th century i believe. it's a small space and is essentially layers and layers of graves. today, the tombstones that exist have been brought up from each layer over the hundreds of years. i then took a bus (for only 68 Kc!) out to the town of Terezin (about an hour away), which was a former Jewish Ghetto during the war. It's a town of about 5,000...and at one point, conditions were so bad that they squeezed as many as 58,000 Jews in there. It kind of spooked me out that people still live there...which makes sense...but it's strange knowing the history of it and all the pain and suffering that went on. Like many other towns, Terezin was pretty much a public relations hoax on the part of the Nazis, twice fooling the International Red Cross into thinking that it was a Jewish refuge. More disturbing was the Lesser Fortress, or the prison that existed down the street from the town. That's no longer in use and it was completely creepy to walk through the former prison cells and isolation chambers.

Got back into the city that evening and celebrated my birthday by having an exquisite French dinner at a place called Saint-Jacques. There was this violin and piano duo...these 2 guys who were just hilarious. They did everything from Vivaldi to Elvis. Then went out to a club on the Charles River where we hung out with a group of guys from London in Prague for a stag party..lots and lots of fun. I love how international it was...meeting people from everywhere. Fabulous birthday.

on Saturday, I finally met up with Sara and saw her perform, which I haven't seen in years. Coincidentally, she was performing at the same place as Peter and Klara's wedding reception, the Lichtenstein Palace. Her parents were also in the city so I got to chat with them also. And later that day, Wil and I began our long drive back to Germany. At one point, he even let me drive because he was so tired---how crazy that was, especially not knowing all the various road signs in Europe...but it was in the middle of the night with fewer cars on the road. Still, it was insane considering the speed of all the cars. Sunday morning, I flew back...it was a long and exhausting flight...kind of annoying, but I made it back all right. Logan Airport was a nightmare. The Luthansa flight arrived 2 hours later, which made me miss my United connection to Seattle. Because we were coming into the U.S., I had to take out my suitcase for customs...but because I had missed my connection ,I couldn't re-check it back in, even though my bag was technically checked in through Seattle. So then I had to drag it all the way to the United terminal and wait in line with everyone..not just transferring passengers..but everyone. I did that for one hour...to find out that they need to rebook me on American just get back to Seattle that day...so then I had to carry my suitcase to another terminal (the entire airport is under construction...so I had to walk along the street...you can't get anywhere except by walking outside)...and I waited in line again at American where I finally checked my bags in and got my boarding pass.

Back at work, team is moving to another floor. Waiting for the movers right now---oh! they just arrived! now I can go out to lunch...I'm taking my team out to Dixie's Bar-B-Q where they serve their famous "The Man" sauce, which is ridiculously spicy.

Oh, and Fred's back in town now--wahoo! Like, permanently...what a strange thought....and it's Gary's birthday..must call him...and Julia's coming to town!!!!