Back in the School Saddle

I'm keeping my word to myself to write a bit on my blog every week. I haven't done exciting episode two of the Europe experience yet because I've spent all my minutes and all my brain cells this week trying to fill out a brilliant application for grad school at BYU. I'm going back for a second master's in Musicology (if accepted), and I'll hopefully be starting this fall. Then I'll be starting a third master's in Library Science a year from fall. Now you say, "What, are you utterly insane? Three master's? That's mental!

Well, to answer you, I've never denied being a bit insane....but nonetheless....there is absolute method to my madness (the doctorate is also in the near future). First in five words--I want a good job! If I can't get a professor position at BYU, then I'll become a library department head or something. One must have options.... :) Plus, I love learning. By the way, my younger brother Tom was just hired by BYU as a German professor, and I'm very proud of him. But listen to this: he's never even been to Germany! A little odd, isn't that? Wow, they must be really hard up.....no, I jest....Tom is utterly brilliant.

In a couple days I can take a siesta from my boring academic writing, and I can do another interesting travel blog, or write about one of my cute little boys.....until then, ciao.

Europe in 27 Days

I just returned from a fabulous, fun and educational trip to Europe. I will probably write a few blogs about it, and here is the first. My friend Shinji Inagi took 1,400 pictures while we were in Germany, so know lack of pictures! In France and England, I took exactly zero pictures. Can I say stupid? I will never make that mistake again! I guess that means I'll have to go back...
So here are a few of Shinji's pictures. We were on a tour led by Doug Bush, to play the famous, notable pipe organs in Germany. But I'll try not to bore you with too many organ pictures. On the trip we hit North Germany (Hamburg, Luebeck, Luneburg, etc), Central Germany (Leipzig, Eisenach, Arnstadt, Dresden, Freiberg), and we finished in Prague. So on with a few entertaining European photos:

Would you like to know the name of one of the loveliest candy shops in the world? NIEDEREGGER. To get there, just take a short trip over the Pond, land at the Berlin airport, and take a bus to the the lovely North German city of Luebeck. There you will find the best Marzipan shop in the world, along with stunning chocolate creations you never imagined...In Leubeck you will breathe the healthy ocean air, and you can burn off your Niederegger calories by walking through the beautiful historic old city. Luebeck was an unexpected treasure. I loved it! And it's the land of my ancestors as well, which made it extra special.

Now this is me at the famous Stellwagen Organ in the St. Jakobi church in Luebeck. This is one of my favorite organs in Germany. I'll say no more...

This is Doug Bush doing what he does best: manual labor.* He is slowly pulling these ropes in order to inflate and deflate the bellows in this little 16th-century Italian organ. As you can see, the professor is concentrating very hard. This is not an easy job--it's even harder than playing the instrument. If Doug starts practicing now, he might be able to land a job as a bellow-boy when he retires from his position as professor of organ at BYU. *(BTW, in case you didn't catch on, I occasionally use a bit of dry humor).

What does one eat in Germany?

Well, let's just say that Vegetarianism is not big. But large sticks of meat on the other hand...echt Deutsch. I asked my little nephew Joseph what type of food was in the picture. First he said "worms". Then he said "chicken". ???? But seriously, next time you're in Germany, you've got to try the Wurst with ketchup and Curry powder. A high culinary experience. It's featured in the picture below--

On this trip, we all developed the interesting habit of taking pictures of our food before eating it. Hmmm. (?) I think it all started with Jane Dye.