The Economy Continues to Decline as Blog Posts Become Less Frequent

Yeah, sorry guys, I guess I don't blog this blog thing as much anymore. It's back to real life for me, having a job, going to school.
That's no joke about the economy either, I'm working as many hours as is humanly possible to try and make some money, thus I have less time for this nonsense no one cares about.
But enough metablog, how about some blog? Today's pictures are from Witten, V's sleepy, industrial hometown. They're big on iron production there I think. Or mining. One of those dangerous things.
I went there to meet her parents and friends, see the place she grew up, etc etc. Also we were on our way to Amsterdam and it's kind of half way between there and Tuebingen.
Meeting her parents went better than expected. Better than meeting any girlfriend's parents ever has gone actually. An especially impressive feat considering they don't speak any English. But food speaks louder than words, just check out this home-cooked-all-vegetarian-mealstravaganza (and this was a lunch!).
So what's Witten got? Well, a lot of power lines for one.
A lot of them.
And other industrial looking stuff, you know.
Witten's one of those towns that's got a 'thing' going for it, like Berlin has bears. Instead of brightly painted festive animals it's got fat businessmen.
This was once a brightly colored fountain, when it stopped working they painted it grey so it would look more like a statue. I guess that's kind of a good way to sum up Witten as a town.
Not that I didn't like, it had a comforting humanity and utilitarianism to it that is sometimes not found in German towns. Next stop Amsterdam.
Also, check out V's blog for her picture report of us going to a Gaza protest in downtown Orlando.

It just wouldn't be moving day without me dramatically injuring myself

Todays pictures are from my trip to Wiesbaden and Niedernhausen where I attended and presented at the EB-ACA conference.

..So here I am, back in Orlando (well, Winter Park to be exact). Spent all day looking for and transporting free furniture from Craigslist (that website is AMAZING++).

Here's my injury story: I was trying to roll a bed through a parkling lot and saw a speedbump coming that I thought those little bed-wheels might be able to clear if I got up enough speed. Well, the thing stopped dead instead and my leg went right into the metal frame. This might sound funny to you but I would have been surprised if it hadn't happened. In fact the only reason I wasn't more seriously injured is because I've done things like this so many times before. Build up a resistance, you know? Not that it doesn't hurt like hell. It really does.
Life in the states has been difficult to adjust to but I am appreciating the little things that make America so American more and more these days. And the things I used to hate about the states I can now categorize as interesting cultural differences.
Living in another country changes you, I think, even if it's only for a few months.
Anyway, tomorrow it's back to work, in a few days it's back to school. A new type of adventure is going to begin (it's an adventure called surviving the monotony of real life) and I'm ready, if not quite excited.
Fear not though, I still got lots of stuff to show you guys from Europe-times.
And I saw an Alligator the other day so tune in for that in about 3 months.