Home, then home. Where is home???

Back on the plane. Always on the plane. You know that movie with George Clooney where he travels around the country firing people for a living, where he becomes like the 3^rd “most traveled” customer for some fictional airline? That’s how I feel. Well, obviously I’m not traveling that much - and I’m just slightly less handsome than George - but sometimes it feels like it. It wasn’t that long ago that flying across the Atlantic was a really big deal for me – something I only did every five years or so. Now I’ve done the round trip to Germany and back four times since July. Kind of crazy.

I feel like I’ve sort of perfected the art of long-distance air travel. I’ve actually learned to really enjoy it. For starters, I bought one of those expensive pair of noise canceling headphones – Sony to be specific. Life saver! Movies and music have never been the same. Which leads to my second survival skill – music. OK, not a revolutionary idea, but with my new headphones I’ve found that I can kill a couple hours easy just by listening to complete albums of some of my favorite music. When do you ever do that? Just sit there and listen to a full album? It’s great. Another skill, check a bag. Again, not revolutionary, but in the past I used to think I was so clever to not check a bag and to whisk out the door at the end of my trip, bypassing the baggage claim. Nope. Not anymore. Having that bulky bag checked eliminates a lot of hassle with time spent in the airport both pre-boarding and during a layover. Now I’m lean and mean and can slip easily onto any bar stool, even in the most crowded of airport bars. Finally, and for me the most important new travel skill, upgrade to an exit row. I’m 6 foot 3. I love being tall. Love it. Except for when it comes to flying. Then it sucks. But, I’ve discovered for just around $100-$200 I can upgrade to an exit row seat. Life changing. No more squirming and wriggling around in a normal seat. I can totally stretch out my long, skinny legs. For me, it feels like I’m traveling in first class.

So... Winter break...

Time back home was great. Super relaxing and fun. And it was a nice mix of friend time, family time and chill time. The first night back in Minnesota Tricia and I attended our friends’, Janet and Mike’s, annual winter solstice party. It was super fun being back for this, and to see friends I hadn’t seen since the summer. I did crash, however, around 8:00 from the jet lag.

Christmas itself was really good, as well. We spent Christmas Eve at my sister’s place doing our Scandinavian dinner of lutefisk, lefse and meatballs. This is an amazing tradition in my family in which we spend the afternoon preparing the meal together, following recipes that go back several generations.

I think we perfected the lefse this year thanks to some official lefse tools Maria and David borrowed from friends. Casey was the roller, Santi was the flipper. Perfect flat, bubbly goodness was the result.

Christmas Day was spent with Tricia’s family, at her childhood farmhouse. The tradition over the years has become French toast, egg bake and other nice breakfast goodies followed by a gift opening in the living room. It was, as always, a nice morning, but unfortunately we were missing a few people. Cousin Ryan is in Paris for the year, Sammie left that day to see Michael out on the east coast, and Steve Fredlund was sick. So, we definitely missed those who weren’t there, but still enjoyed the time together.

Some of the highlights of the rest of my break were seeing a bunch of movies – I think “Knives Out” was the favorite of those I saw - , spending time with the kids, a fun New Year’s Eve of comedy, food and beer with the Bakers, hanging out with Tricia, getting together with friends for coffee, drinking lots of coffee at home, and going to Spy House and Black Walnut for even more coffee.

But now it’s back to Germany and back to work. I’m looking forward to being back, but I’m feeling like it’s going to be another transition of once again getting my head wrapped around this other life I’m living. It’s so weird bouncing back and forth between my two “lives.” Not complaining. I’m still super glad I took on this adventure, it’s just a lot of time adjusting my brain to whatever reality I’m living at the moment. I’ll have a couple days to rest before starting back to work on Tuesday. Then I’m hopeful for a good couple of months of teaching, and on the weekends some opportunities for outdoor winter recreation, downhill and cross-country skiing to be exact. Time for winter in Bavaria. AND... Tricia is coming to Germany in a couple of weeks! Yeah!!! So excited for that! Can't wait to show her around and have her dip briefly into this new life with me.

Oh, by the way, I’m publishing this post from Dublin. I’m off the plane – obviously – and have a 7+ hour layover, so I took a bus into the city. Strolled first through St. Stephan’s Green, and now I’m enjoying an almond croissant and a cappuccino. Planning to visit the tourism office after this and then maybe just do some kind of self-guided walking tour before grabbing a cliché lunch of fish and chips and a Guinness. Then back to Munich. It will be a long day. I hope I don’t crash!