October 8, 2002

Now that we are traveling every weekend, the fall semester is racing by for us Strasbourgers. Each week is subdivided into two 3 and a half day sections—one for travel and one for study—that seem shorter than the Diamondbacks postseason.

Last Thursday night, after only five train exchanges, 7 hours, and one “diplomatic breakdown” between an overzealous

German railroad employee and myself, I was finally reunited with my parents in the sleepy mountain town of Füssen, Germany. Along the way, I shared public transportation with dozens of lederhosen-clad locals who were in very festive spirits (spirits being a very appropriate word) returning home from Munich’s Oktoberfest celebrations, the very same festivities that most of my classmates were attending that weekend. It did not fail to occur to me that my parents’ visit just happened to straddle the two weekends of Oktoberfest, but it is not my place to make any judgments regarding their motives.