Relearning to relax

After the intensity of the topics we discussed over the past week, the fellowship leaders took us to a resort in Virginia for a couple days to relax. It's a campus full of cottages, a pool, a gym, tennis courts, bikes and other amenities. There is a course of paths that circles out through rolling fields by a couple of lakes.

I did some running and a lot of sitting by the pool. We had epic volley ball and poker games, the latter of which ironically I was winning until the very end.

The great thing about about putting people from two cultures with two different languages together is that you get this sort of constant language exchange. We would explain words like "wacky," "wimp" and "hussy" while they warned against saying "Nacht" (night) without the notorious German guttural pronunciation, since it can sound a lot like nakt (nacked). It's sort of amazing that 20 strangers can come together like this and become friends in such a short time. You develop a certain fondness for many of them, knowing that you might ever see some of them again.

Lesson learned: In poker, you really do have to know when to fold them.

Sightseeing

We didn't have a lot of time to sight see, but I managed to see the White House, the Washington Monument, the World Ward II memorial and a half dozen statues and fountains. I just didn't do it in the traditional way: I ran during the couple hour breaks we had. We did get to go out one night for dinner and to get a taste of Washington D.C. night life.

Lesson learned: Food just tastes better on the water by a fountain.

A little elbow rubbing

In the past couple of days, we had coffee with the deputy secretary treasurer, met with the senator of Louisiana in the Capitol, and Henry Kissinger made a cameo at a dinner party we attended at the Germany Ambassador's house. I'm learning fast that the organization that oversees this program has come clout. It's a bit humbling. I can't help but wonder how I ended up with this fellowship, which is sending me to Berlin to work at a newspaper there. I'll also send back stories to my home paper.


I arrived in Washington D.C. on Tuesday for an orientation. There are 20 of us — 10 Americans going to Germany and 10 Germans going all over the United States. This orientation was our chance to meet each other, as well as to listen to speakers on a variety of topics, from the election campaign to transatlantic relations to the state of the economy. We had some great dialogue about some really heavy issues.

The irony that Obama was in Berlin while we were all in D.C. wasn't lost on us, especially since just about every speaker brought it up.

Lesson learned: It's a crazy time to be an American.

Taking off

There is something very strange about locking your apartment up before you leave for more than two months. Something strange, and maddening, since you are pretty sure you did something stupid like leave the air conditioning on. (Yes, I think I did.)

Now I'm sitting in the Sacramento airport listening to elevator music. There are lines stringing around the corner at the Burger King. Starbucks is equally popular. It's 5:30 a.m., so I'm a little punch drunk. That and excited. That and a little sad.

James deserves "Prince Charming of the Year Award" for getting up at 2:30 a.m. to drive me here. But as promised, in about five minutes, I will start brainstorming ways to repay him. So far, throwing him a parade with elephants and monkeys is topping the list. Maybe I should brainstorm when I'm not so tired.

I'm sorry to all those who I didn't get to see before I left. I'm going to try to keep this blog relatively up to date, particularly while I'm in Germany. Stay tuned and in touch.

Lesson learned: James drives my car better than I do.

Finale

I spent my last weekend in Sonora before my trip doing something both All-American and signature California.

On Friday night, Sean and his wife Vanessa had a barbecue as a housewarming party. The couple moved here a couple months ago and we hadn't managed to make it to their place yet. Saturday afternoon, they led a parade of us to go winetasting.

I was glad to be able to fit something fun in between packing and running errands.

Lesson learned: I love fruit salad.

Biting in

I have to confess, I haven't had sushi since I went to Japan a year and a half ago. Nothing against it, but there have been a few things stopping me.

There are really three reasons:
1. I couldn't imagine that sushi in America could compare to melt-in-your-mouth seafood that I had there;
2. Despite how delicious it was, I did end up getting a bit sick from it, which will always slow you down on diving in again;
3. There were no sushi restaurants in the town I live.

The last one helped me avoid the dilemma of being forced to eat sushi by my poor, naive American friends who didn't have the dumb luck of having a rotary club pay their way to try the filet mignon of raw fish. And it also kept me from having to confront my fears, which was probably the greatest of the three deterrents. But fairly recently, a restaurant opened up and ruined my cover.

On Saturday night, a few friends and I went to this new place, with me secretly planning to order something cooked and Chinese on the menu. When we got there, however, I was really impressed. From the outside, the restaurant looks like one of those chintzy places tucked in a shopping center. But the fingerprinted glass doors swing open to a pretty elegant and huge dining room. Our waiter's enthusiasm for the wildest and most artistic of sushi creations was a bit catching. And he delivered an array of plates filled with really great stuff. It made me remember why I like raw fish in the first place.

Lesson learned: My sushi fast is over.

Getting high

Before I go to the big city for the rest of the summer, I had to get in a camping trip. A group of coworkers and I headed up into the mountains for such an escape. Our itinerary of events ended up including: catching a lizard, cooking steaks the size of my head on a barbecue about the size of a laptop, cheep beer, a big fire for which the woman found the firewood for and smores.

We had quite the spread for breakfast as well, but we realized we had made a grave mistake. No one had anything to make coffee with. The result, in our desperation for caffeine, was to rig up paper towels over the tops of coffee cups with hair ties. I'll just tell you right now, I doesn't work that well. We were able to coax enough water through for a half cup of luke warm coffee each, which was enough to motivate us for our hike.


We ended up hiking to a really beautiful lake. It required several creek crossings, and I slipped with my shoes on during the first one, of course. It was really nice on the way up, so we took a detour to a water fall. On the way down, it started raining, but just the warm kind — enough to rinse off the 90 degree temperatures we have been enduring in lower elevations.

Lesson learned: I need new tennis shoes. And I could use another camping trip.

Beginning the countdown

In two weeks from today, I will be leaving to travel the world. Actually, it's really just to fly across the country three times, then to Germany, but it kind of feels like the world.

It's just starting to set in that I will be gone for two and a half months. For those of you who don't know, I got accepted for a fellowship in Berlin, where I will work at a newspaper. Before that, I am going to an orientation in Washington, D.C., where I will meet the other fellows and learn about ... stuff? Yeah, I'm not sure, but I know it ends with a two-night stay at some resort in Virginia with a pool, so that part sounds good to me. Then I am going back to Montana for my sister's wedding (Yay!).

The day after the wedding, I fly to Seattle for a night, then to Germany from there.

I have a list of about 439 things I need to do before I go, which is a bit overwhelming, but this is always how it is before I travel and it always seems to work out.

Lessons learned: Two weeks!

Heat waving

It is a cool 80 degrees in my apartment right now. I say cool, because it's 105 outside. My friend Steve and I went to play tennis tonight at about 7 p.m., and even then, it was like playing in a sauna. Needless to say, my forehand was a little slow through the thick air.

Lessons learned: A tennis racket doesn't make a good fan.

Wilting

The flowers on my front porch are dying.

One by one, they're shriveling up. There are enough left that I can fool the people from below into believing all is well, but the sad truth is, they are dying. It's my fault. I can't seem to water them often enough. It's like they want to be watered ever day or something. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, the ones out of my door are thriving beautifully. But they are in closer proximity to a garden hose, so I'm more likely to spray them down in passing.

Oh well, I'm leaving in two weeks, they are bound to die anyway. My attitude is a bad sign about my green thumb, I know.

Lessons learned: I wouldn't make a good landscaper.

Independence day

I spent my Fourth at a barbecue with my friend Sarah, her family and some other mutual friends of ours.

We did all the traditional Forth of July things, like play games, eat hot dogs and hamburgers and have three desserts. The only thing missing were fireworks, sadly.

Before that, we played soccer in the yard. None of us had really come prepared for the all-out battle that ensued between the girls and the boys' teams, so we had to play in flip flops. The grass was a little too prickly to go it bare foot. The girls were demolishing the boys, until they got a few more players so we didn't outnumber them two to one. In the end, we tied.

The Fourth of July miracle was that I made a goal and two assists. Sarah's cousin also should get mention for his gazelle-like leap to head butt the ball that had just traveled almost the length of the field, after it had been head-butted twice already.

Lessons learned: I play better in flip flops than I did for an intramural college team.

River therapy

Last weekend a group of coworkers and I floated a section of a river we live by in those huge, black inter-tubes you get from tire shops. It was fantastic.

Lying in the sun on something buoyant with a drink in my hand was just what I needed to forget the crazy week beforehand. The water was freezing, but works wonders for those with back problems. By the end, though, I took to kneeling on all fours on my tube to keep the least surface area of my skin from touching the water.

My favorite part was watching Katy paddle with a beer in her hand. She seemed to forget that the top of her bottle was open.

On a side note, I think I got my first poison oak. Just a dime-sized patch on my knee. As poison oak goes, it wasn't bad.

Lessons learned: I'm going to do that again.