Oh, I'm a bad boy

I heartily apologize to the two whole people who will every come across this blog. I have been a bad boy and not updated. Blame Facebook, really. I suppose I just know that I have an audience there, and I don't know if I have one here. And besides, it's not as though I wrote about my trip much. I just posted some pics, and that was that. In that vein, i will post some pictures here, in the hopes that they, like most pictures, will tell the thousand words each that they are supposed to...

To summarize, I had a great time, and of course it was too short. What was great was that my German clicked in just about right away. I only had to look up a couple of words, and dove right into conversation with the rental car girl, restaurant servers, and grocery clerks.

If you ever get the chance to go to Germany, you should do it. What a great country!

Tschüß!

Gforce in Europe returns!

Back in the saddle again, with updates from my travels in Europe. I have an old blog of my 2007 trip to Germany, France, and Austria: http://ruschman.com/europeblog.htm, but I thought I'd begin a new one for my updates from this and future trips.

So, here's the beginning of the 2009-10 travel blogging: Bottom line: heading to Deutschland once again for a week. Staying for the bulk of my trip in Koblenz, at Stelli and Jaco's place, which he helped them move into and paint this time two years ago. Their daughter just turned four, so we are bringing over a little stu

ffed Hello Kitty toy for her.

Wife and I are sad that we won't see them this time around, as they are both on holiday at Gran Canare. But, they were kind enough to offer up their place, so we will have to thank them somehow and visit them another time!

Part of this blog post is to help me procrastinate just a little bit more before I finish packing and cleaning. Well, some laundry's in, and I do have to wait for that, so...

The big sadness of the trip will be when I have to go home in a week, but Linhy stays for four more. She got a gig singing with Helmut Rilling for an extended tour and recording project: pieces that she just sang at the Oregon Bach Festival. Awesome for her--but I will be lonely. We both have webcams now, though--that will help immensely, and did when she was in Eugene earlier this summer.

I'll have a LOT of work to do when I get back though--it will be just a few days before Cantus' rehearsals start. Last season was particularly trying for the organization (which went through needed restructuring), but the future of the group is more exciting and potentially greater than any other period in the group's history, or at least in the five years that I've been a member. I'm very excited to get things going in our "back to its roots", artist-led Cantus.

I will be bringing along my little portable keyboard, so's that I can proactice on the plane with headphones. Wish me luck!

Till next time:

gforce