The Lasts

 our last Silvester

Today is our last full day in Dresden. Tomorrow we'll turn over our keys and drive to Frankfurt, and on Thursday we'll fly back to America. I've cried so much the last few days that I think I've literally run out of tears. Strangely, I think the last time I cried so much was when we first got here, and fear and loneliness and homesickness put me in a rough place for a few weeks. If only I could've known then how much my heart would break when the time came to leave. Here are just a few of the "lasts" from our final week in Dresden.

Our last walk around the neighborhood

Our last party with Jake's group

 

 Our last brush with German bureaucracy

One last sneaky photo of wild German hair

 Our last stroll down Prager Straße

 Our last walk through the Altstadt

 Our last walk home from church

 

Our last snow

Jethro's last visit to the train station (his favorite place in the world)

Our last bus ride

 Our last tram ride

  

And finally, our last farewells to friends

 

 

Zu unseren Freunde hier in Dresden, ich möchte euch danken. Danke für eure Freundschaft und Geduld. Danke für alles, was ihr für uns gemacht habt. Wir werden euch ganz stark vermissen, und wir werden oft an euch denken. Gott segne euch.



JEM

Frohes Fest

My last German Christmas has come and gone. I weep bitterly.

We made several visits to the Striezelmarkt this year. But Jethro and I had to pay it one last visit on its last day of operation. We meandered, bought a little Räuchermann, and I let Jethro go for a spin on a pretty terrifying merry-go-round that looked like it had been welded together in a junkyard using only found objects.



Then came the time came for us to go. (READ: I needed to use the little girls' room and didn't want to PAY FOR IT ... turns out there are some aspects of life in Germany that I won't miss). But despite my full bladder, I found leaving the sounds of German Christmas carols and the smells of Glühwein and crepes and roasting bratwurst behind me to be difficult.

Fortunately we'll be bringing a few small pieces of Christmas in Dresden back to America with us to help us remember the four lovely Christmases we spent here.

I think we had a skiff of snow on one of those Christmases, but otherwise our Christmases here have been pretty mild. This year was certainly our snowiest Dresden Christmas.

And while we're looking at our balcony, I need to mention something that is not related to Christmas.

We have a ton of pigeons in our neighborhood, and they seem to be particularly fond of our building thanks to the old woman on the third floor who insists on feeding them. We haven't had too many problems with them, but a couple of months ago Jake cleaned our windows. And apparently he did a pretty good job because later that day this large smudge appeared on our back door:

If you examine it closely, it's pretty clear that a pigeon slammed headfirst, with full wing extension, into our backdoor.

You can even make out the little beak. He or she apparently wasn't too seriously injured because there was no unconscious bird on our balcony or nearby.

And so I feel OK about finding the whole thing hysterically funny. We never washed the mark off, and every time we open the curtains we have a good laugh at the bird's expense.

And on that note, I hope you all had a great Christmas. I leave you now with a scene from our less-than-Biblically-accurate rendition of the Nativity.

JEM

P.S. Those other FIELDTRIP!s I was talking about earlier are still coming. For reals.

Herr Dr. Jacob James Michaelson

I am pleased to report that Jake's doctoral defense yesterday was fantastic. But you shouldn't take my word for it, since I understood about 1 minute of the 3-hour ordeal. Take the word of his honorable committee, composed of assorted muckety-mucks from the fields of computer science and biology, who awarded Jake summa cum laude honors, the highest possible distinction a Ph.D. can receive.

 

 Needless to say, the mood at our house has pretty good for the last 24 hours.  

 

I just want to thank everyone who was there to support Jake, especially considering most of them probably put their Christmas travel plans on hold in order to attend. His group and colleagues presented him with the most thoughtful gifts afterward, and Jake told them, "If I were physically capable of crying, I would cry right now." You guys are so great.

And a public congratulations to my Jake. I couldn't be prouder of you, and I can't imagine a better 8-year anniversary gift.

Mrs. Dr. JJM

(isn't that how it works?)

Therapy Session

Jasmine E. Michaelson: (barges in) Sorry to barge in like this.
American Dresdner: (jerks awake from nap on couch) No, Mr. Hasselhoff! You're a married man!
JEM: Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. That sounds like it was a good dream.
AD: (clears throat awkwardly)
JEM: Whoa, AD. Look at this place! Where is your desk?
AD: It's still there. Just look behind the pizza boxes.
JEM: And look at you! I don't mean to be a jerk, but you look like you've gained, like, 20 pounds (9.07 kilograms for our friends on the metric system). And you've got a little something on your chin there.
AD: (wipes potato chip crumbs off face with sleeve) Well, as long as you don't mean to be a jerk.
JEM: When was the last time you were out?
AD: Stop pretending like you're here to check up on my well-being. If you cared about that you would've stuck your head in here once or twice in the last MONTH to make sure I hadn't slipped into a coma.
JEM: I'm sorry. Things have been crazy.
AD: Oh yeah, right. You're half-way out the door, aren't you? Off to sunny San Diego where you'll be American Americaner and where will that leave me, huh?
JEM: That's not true. I mean, we are leaving Germany really soon but I'm not half-way out the door. I still have so many things left that I want to post on this blog that I'm sort of overwhelmed by it. And you're right about me not coming in to check on you. I needed someone to talk to.
AD: (groans, rolls eyes, and pushes pile of dirty laundry off the couch onto the floor) Fine. Sit.
JEM: (sits and bursts into tears) You see, it snowed.
AD: That's been known to happen in Germany in mid-December.
JEM: I know, but I just wasn't ready for it. (Dabs tears with handkerchief.) I kept thinking that I'd be able to do some of my favorite Dresden things just one more time before we left, like go to the zoo or ride my bike with Jethro through Großer Garten, or play with Jethro on the tire swings in our neighborhood, things like that. But then these mountains of snow came and basically said, "OK, time's up." And now we're pretty much stuck at home because all the snow has put public transit on the fritz and getting our beastly kinderwagen through the snow is a real b---- and a half.
AD: Watch the language, children and in-laws read this blog.
JEM: Oh, that's right. Sorry children and in-laws. But we did a lot of great stuff before the snow came and I'm going to tell you about it soon. The next few nights are wide open for me because Jake has his defense on Monday and so he'll be spending every waking moment glaring at his laptop with his headphones on while incessantly stroking his beard. I expect that by Monday the beard will have been rubbed off his face entirely.
AD: Gross.
JEM: Anyway, my point is, I'll be back tomorrow for the first in a series of three FIELDTRIP!s. So change out of your sweatpants, AD! And for crying out loud clip your toenails! We're going back to work!
AD: I'll clip my toenails, but not for you.
JEM: Blog re-activity here we come!

My Husband is 30 or How We Met the Alps

Happy super-late birthday to my bear-robot husband. Last month turned 30 years old. Before I talk about our fabulous weekend in AUSTRIA to celebrate, allow me to take a moment for a toast, in haiku form:

Handsome scientist

Implants seeds of love and joy

In my heart: Success

Jake finished writing his dissertation at the end of September, having written and compiled most of it (unbelievably) in a month. His defense is scheduled for our 8th wedding anniversary in December, which we presume is a good omen for the defense — and a bad omen for our anniversary, which Jake will most likely spend (pre-defense) puking and (post-defense) in a coma.

He has worked so hard these last few years, and in particular the last year. It's a gross understatement on my part to say that I'm proud of him. To say that I'm in awe of him is probably more appropriate. As the person closest to him, you'd think I'd have some sort of behind-the-scenes insight into how he's capable of all the things he does, but I'm more amazed and bewildered by him with every passing year. I'm just delighted to ride on his coattails through all of it, and to have such a fantastic view while doing so. (Implication: He has a really nice can.)

But enough with the the talk of my hot scientist lover. I know that's not what you paid to see. (Or is it?) I'll assume/hope you'd rather see pictures of gorgeous Innsbruck. But first a shot of the tasty, traditional Austrian Sachertort provided by our hosts.

Jake's new age was represented by the candles on the cake in binary, which our hosts, longtime friends Ben and Missy, knew to be Jake's love language. True friends, indeed.

 

 My Ames is true.

Now let's talk about the Alps.

I grew up in Idaho and then I lived in Utah, so I'm pretty used to mountains. I'm not that easily impressed by them. That said, the Alps BLEW MY MIND.

The pictures we came home with don't do them justice, so allow me to wax poetical for a moment —

On either side the city of Innsbruck is flanked by sheer walls of rock that jut up out of nowhere. There are no foothills to speak of to provide any warning. They're suddenly just there, shooting up into the sky higher and steeper than you would ever think possible. Standing in the city almost feels like standing in a tunnel. Jake and I were shocked to see commercial airplanes taking off and landing from the city. I wouldn't doubt if the Innsbruck airport were one of the most dreaded for airline pilots the world over. 

I, of course, knew that people skied the Alps, not people like me, but actual human people. But after seeing the ski lodges perched on tiny precipices apparently miles from the level ground where sane people stand and chair lifts that seemed to take almost completely vertical routes that disappeared into the clouds (not fog, mind you, I'm quite sure that at that height they must be considered clouds), I really cannot fathom this. No less remarkable are the medieval castles and fortresses dotting the mountains only slightly closer to Earth. Kudos to peasant labor.

 

 

Innsbruck itself is a beautiful city.

  

And it also has some beautiful residents.

 

Well, technically they live just outside Innsbruck, but whatever.

 

But unfortunately this beautiful place is plagued by sudden powerful gusts of wind ...

Missy and Ben took us up to see Achensee, Austria's largest lake, which is located high enough among the Alps that the car trip required several ear popping episodes on my part.

Apparently while Missy had our camera at the lake those violent winds picked up again ...

But, as it is with any visit we have with these guys, the best part was just hanging around and catching up. Jethro had a particularly good time and was heard to say as we pulled away, "I love Missy."

Watch your back, Ben.

And thus, dear Ameses, till the winds of life reunite us again ...

Merry Christmas from the Michamesons

... may we cherish this pseudo-J. Crew catalog photo of all of us with this nice yellow park bench.

We love you guys. Thanks for all the good times.

JEM