Happy Holidays!

Good morning, all! Remember me? I'm the guy with the green and gray scarf in the picture below. I used to frequently write entries for this blog until finals got so close that they took over my world. Well, I survived my exams (meaning I literally survived - who knows if I passed the classes...) and I am excited to be writing to you once again. I owe Brenda a big "thank you" for taking on the blog for the last few weeks. She's the best.

My last exam was on Friday, and on Saturday I hopped on a plane and flew to Germany. It is, of course, great to be with Brenda and to finally be able to focus all of my attention on getting into the Christmas spirit. The weather in Germany is doing its part for the holidays. This morning Brenda and I were excited to see that it had snowed in the night. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first snow they've had in Frankfurt this fall. I don't know how long it will stick around (its supposed to get up to 40 today), but we'll enjoy it while it's here.

The view from our kitchen window this morning.

Brenda is at rehearsal right now for her next opera La Calisto. The first performance is this Friday. I will be at the performance and will give you a full report next week. Pictures of the production should be appearing on the Oper Frankfurt website soon. After they've been posted you will be able to see them by clicking the link above.

Brenda in her costume for La Calisto.

After taking my exams, I finally feel like I'm in law school. I believe that the exams were the last step in a four-month-long hazing process. This belief was only strengthened by something one of my professors said. He said that the primary purpose behind administering exams to law students isn't to test their knowledge of the material, but rather to find where to put them on the curve. This approach became very clear during my last exam. I read some of the questions and didn't even understand what they were asking, much less what the answer was. It was then that I realized that studying had been a silly use of my time. I could have been baking Christmas cookies and listening to Bing Crosby and been just as prepared. A fellow student of mine echoed a similar sentiment shortly after our last exam ended. As we were all packing up our stuff he shouted something like, "That was the hardest exam I've ever taken!" except he added in some other blog-inappropriate words to emphasize his point.

But now the semester is over and the Christmas merriment has begun. Brenda and I took a trip to the Christmas market yesterday and had some Kartoffelpuffer, Raclette, and a glass of apple Glühwein. It looks like we'll be heading over there again today. The Christmas market closes on Thursday so we're down to our last few chances to enjoy it until next year.

Brenda and I at the Christmas market yesterday.

Well, it's probably time for me to wrap this up. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I will talk to you next week!