Jean and Tom finally got to take a trip to Europe, thanks to Jean's role as a Local Coordinator with CIEE, the exchange student program.  Jean spent a weekend at their conference in Munich, while Tom went to Kitzbuhel, Austria for some well deserved skiing.  We then headed off to Vienna, Olomouc CZ, Prague, and Berlin.  Highlights included:

• Meeting up with Paul and his business partners who are trying to get the solar technology funded and started in Munich and/or Dresden
• Skiing - in the Alps!
• Many old churches
• Stepping off the train in Olomouc to see Ludvik standing right there
• Warm hospitality of the Hajeks
• Tours of Olomouc and Prague that you simply couldn't buy
• Meeting Malte's parents
• The Reichstag at night
• Real snow

Lessons learned:

• Skiing can sometimes lead to wrist fractures
• 10 minutes with the phone triage nurse beats going to a hospital in a foreign country
• You can still ski with a broken wrist!
• We packed way too much suff.
• OK, a little snow is great, but 12 straight days of cold weather gets a little annoying during a vacation.
• The Czech word for both "winter" and "cold" is "zima"
• While it sucks to get a 4:30 AM phone call that your son has been in an accident, learning everyone's OK kinda cancels that out.

See the pix in the Gallery .

Thanks to CIEE, the Hajek's, the Voelkoi's, and especially the Meme!

Look us up on Facebook! The whole family has jumped in - though who knows how long it will hold our attention. I guess it depends on when the next new, shiny thing comes down the pike. For now you can search for us on Facebook by email (tom, ian, or ellen at periodic-tabloid.com; find Jean with luckyjean at gmail.com).

The photo album still gets updated from time to time, so from time to time you might want to check that out.

                                                                                        -- Jean

But how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to do just that. Bahrain is a beautiful tourist destination and home to the most amazing, modern architecture I have ever seen. Majeed screened for us a DVD about Bahrain, and he showed Ian and me his long robe for festive occasions. It's wicked cool. And Tom's learning about how to prepare halal food.

Of course, learning goes both ways: Majeed learned how to sail yesterday. It was decent weather for sailing. Check out the pictures.

Someday I will finish processing and uploading the vacation pictures … but today is not that day. 

- Jean

Anyhow, I uploaded a few more pictures; just go to the last couple pages of the album for the new ones.

Stay cool --

                                    -- Jean

We hiked, sailed, performed a solo, played paintball, napped, hiked some more, walked on beaches of two oceans, saw a bear, hiked some more, visited friends and family ... and I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting.

We also said goodbye to Ludvík. He left Portland for NYC and on to the Czech Republic on July 18th. He went back home taller, heavier, and with a lot more hair. We miss him a lot; good thing we've got e-mail and chat.

I have a zillion pictures, and it's going to take a while to go through them, resize them, and load them up. Here is a start: Fort Knox in Maine.

Stay cool --

                                                Jean

Here are a couple screencaps with arrows so you can see Ian.

 -- Jean

I can't believe our vacation starts on Weds. We finally sat down and mapped out where everyone from our family is going when this summer, and you can now officially declare us to be CRAZY!  Need evidence?  Check this out http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114106351805788001854.00044fbe0bcf959561526&ll=42.682435,-92.724609&spn=33.890538,76.992188&z=4

(OK, you're right, that also proves we're geeks....)  If you see we're gonna be in your neck of the woods and we haven't planned to meet up yet, by all means drop us a line so we can hook up.

 Gotta go go go....

Tom

*

 
The Clover Hill High School Band teamed up with the Navy band to give a concert. First the band played, then the Navy band, and then both together for an enthusiastic rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Go see Ellen in her band dress.

 
*

 
Exchange students and host families attended a farewell party at a stunning private home situated on the top of a hill overlooking a river.

The owners' hospitality was as big and grand as the house. Over twenty teenagers and their host families jumping in the pool, hamburgers and hot dogs and pot luck, talking and mingling and music -- even a Nerf rocket fight. Everyone had a lovely time, and many of the kids said goodbye. I got fewer pictures than I should have, but they're uploaded for you to look at anyhow.

* 

Finally, some pictures of Ian from his Senior Assembly. Held in the high school gym, it served as a warm-up to the real thing for the grads. I got to practice taking pictures from a bad vantage point in terrible lighting. The results aren't fabulous, but at least it's proof that Ian was there. Mercifully short, the ceremony gave teachers an opportunity to recognize students for scholarship in specific classes. The principal gave awards for attendance. Ian got an award for his work in Japanese class. This week, he got to teach Japanese class during senior take-over day, so I guess now we'll have to call him Mr. Anderson. 

The weather's heating up, so stay cool, people --

-- Jean

Click here to download the 5 MB .wmv file.

Off to Atlanta at 10 AM on Sunday for the community service conference.  Sailing has been going well this year; I came in 4 out of 12 on the last race day, pretty good for me.  Guess I'll have to pull a Tonya Harding on one of the top guys so I can get a trophy....

We will be in AZ for during June, and ME during July.  If you want to hook up, send us an email and we'll send you more specific plans.

Tom

I found and uploaded:

• Pictures from Ian's seventeenth birthday.
• Thanksgiving 2006 snapshots. Dad, Carol, Lori and Dave joined us from out of state, along with Bill and Debora.
• Fuzzy shots from an old palm-pilot of Ellen's first time at band camp.
• A couple pictures from the week Tomoko, an exchange student from Japan, stayed with us.
• Some wacky candid photos of Ian added to his miscellaneous file.

Take care, everyone --

                                    -- Jean