Greetings once more dear readers! After giving you (and myself) a break in the life of Justin, I have decided once more to take up the old blog, and give it the technical university try at attempting to write on a semi-regular basis. I have a bit more free time (theortically) this semester, so I hope that I will be able to set aside a bit of time now to update you on my wanderings and random thoughts in my life.

So, what have I done since May? A lot actually. Here is a brief update on what has been happening:

1. Finished up classes which went alright except that I had two papers to write, drastically after the semester ended. I had one due in the middle of August and the other October 31st. The latter paper is quite important actually, based upon an International Symposium that we hosted here at the university on World Heritage Education and Capacity Building, and hopefully will be published in a book containing articles like mine.

2. Managed to finally explore the greater Cottbus area with my Dutch friend Sam on our bikes for a few days in June. We didn't get too lost on our three day excursion, but we certainly got really sore and over heated. It was pretty grueling, averaging about 50 kilometers (35 miles) a day. Oh yeah, I have just been reminded by a bitter third party, that I also managed to lose a frisbee.

3. I spent about two months at Daniela's house over the summer, which was nice to relax and save a bit of money, but a bit stressful at times since you would be surprised at how little there is to do in a town, I mean village, of 200 inhabitants. Even I was getting excited when a car went through the "center". Oh yeah, it got that bad. But I still managed to get out a little bit, as Daniela and I went to visit our American friend Kate who spent the summer with her boyfriend Tobias in Ulm (south of Germany), which was great fun. I also went hiking in the mountains around Daniela's on a famous trail called Der Reinsteig. I was gone for six days, covering on average of 20 kilometers (15 miles) a day with a 45 pound backpack. I walked from Daniela's all the way to Eisenach, a beautiful town. There were a lot of adventures in this, but maybe if questioned, will provide details later on.

4. My parents came out here a month ago, and first came to Horba and met Daniela's parents and grandparents. It went over much better than Daniela and I thought it would, not that we thought it would go bad, just that we were worried about the language and a whole lot of whatnot. So we were there for the weekend, went to Weimar, and then were off to Cottbus for the week. My Dad got sick, so Daniela and I and my Mom only went to Berlin for a day, and all of us went around the Spreewald (Sorbish minority area around Cottbus) for a boat tour on the canals, and to Dresden with a personal tour by Kate who wrote a book about the town. Then The parents and I went to Poland to visit some step-relatives. Holy crap. I think that I will have to devote an entire day to conveying the events that transpired at this wedding. Let me just leave you with this: A lot of food, a lot of dancing, a lot of singing, a lot of vodka and moonshine, and a lot of fun. After this, we flew back to the west of Germany and found my Grandfathers grave, something we never thought we would see. It was great to find the spot, though there was no headstone, it was a moving experience. Then we went on to Cologne where we were deeply disapointed, and then to Frankfort, which was surprisingly nice.

5. Classes started up again a couple of weeks ago, and it was a little hairy in the beginning to get my schedule worked out. It seems to be OK now, and surprisingly sparse. I am only taking four classes now, three of which I have to take (almost nothing compared to the 12 classes I took this time last year). But, I am hardly just sitting around. I also have a job with the language center on campus and am helping out with English classes as well as some private things I have on the side. Also, I am helping Kate with French, and she is helping me with German, and on my own I am learning Irish Gaelic, in preparation for my internship I am planning on having in Ireland in March.

SO, I hope that whet's your appetite for more to come, and I promise to update more often than ever few months!