Where has the time Gone????

Where have the last few months gone???

It’s been a few months since my last posting, and to my surprise, the last posting was when my parents came to visit. I can’t believe that was 2 months ago.

Where has the time gone?

Salt Lake City, Utah
10-13 August 2006
To recap the last few months for those of you whom I don’t get to speak to on a regular basis, it has been busy. About 1 week after my parents departed from Bonn, I went to Salt Lake City, Utah for a meeting regarding Classification. What is Classification, you may ask? Classification is specific to paralympic sport in which athletes are classified into groups according to their ability (or disability – depending on who you are talking to). Just like gender and weight classes in wrestling, paralympic athletes compete against other athletes with similar abilities such as them. For example, visually impaired athletes compete against other visually impaired athletes and so on. It sounds like a good idea, but it’s actually a giant mess as every sport has their own classification system. And, when you first look at the systems, it is completely illogical in its format and how it is administered.

So, the IPC has spearheaded the creating of a Classification Code which is a set of guiding principles that all Paralympic sports must follow regarding classification. Similar in structure to the World Anti-Doping Code (which governs the other half of my job), it is has International Standards for specific areas of the Classificaiton process such as Athlete Evaluation, Protests and Appeals, Paralympic Games and Classifier Training and Certification.

It is quite the project and is coming along quiet nicely….hopefully it will be implemented by Beijing in 2008.

Back to Salt Lake City – It was a very productive meeting. Being that it was my first time in Salt Lake, I was very excited to view the scenery that encompassed the city. It is gorgeous. I think it was just about a year ago that I knew that there was actually a lake in the city…the Salt Lake which is very salty. Unfortunately, I did not get to do much “touristy” stuff while I was there, but the weather was beautiful, the mountains were beautiful and you couldn’t have asked for more perfect sunsets.

Colorado Springs, Colorado
13-16 August 2006
After Salt Lake, I took a detour to Colorado Springs for 2 days before heading back to Germany. It was great to see the “old gang” and catch up on everything I had missed over the last 8 months since I had seen them last.

Next stop: The Netherlands

Terror in the Sky

It's amazing how the world can change in a matter of 9 hours while you are flying on a plane to the US.

On Thursday, I flew from Frankfurt to Salt Lake City for a meeting through the weekend. As we were landing in Cincinati, the pilot proceeded to tell the passengers about the new security measures that were being put in place at the airports. Most passengers were a little confused as they were not sure what was going on. But, security measures were in full-force once we stepped out of Customs and into the airport. It even became a little more odd when we were told that we had to stop on the run-way before we got to the gate to let US Customs marshals on the plane.

In my carry-on luggage I had 2 bottles of wine and I always carry some toiletries with me on long flights so that I can "freshen" up a bit like brushing my teeth and putting on some deoderant. But, when we picked up our luggage and carried it through customs, we were told that we had to put all "liquids and gels" , including toothpaste, deoderant, chapstick, lip gloss, face wash, shampoos, and anything considered a liquid, and put it in our check-in bag or throw it away. It was amazing how much stuff was being thrown away. I drank my bottle of water because I wanted to keep the bottle for future use. I didn't see this, but I can imagine some people broke open their bottles of champagne and drank them on the spot at the airports.

Security at the airport as we know it will probably be forever changed. I'll be suprised if we can take anything on the plane as a carry-on again.

I don't have a TV in Germany so I suppose I get kind of immune to not seeing the effects that terrorism can cause to a society. It's a bit scary watching all of the news shows about who was arrested, what was going to happen, and how fast it would have happened.

I'm safe and sound in Salt Lake City - this is a beautiful place. I've never been here before. I'm headed to Colorado Springs for 2 days on Sunday night to visit friends and then heading back to Germany on Wednesday. Quick trip to the US - but I'm sure it will be a good one.

All my best,
-Betsy

Departure Day

Rise and shine! We stayed up late last night packing not only my parents’ bags, but I sent home a lot of things as well. We made it to the bus stop with all of our bags and headed to the airport in between Cologne and Bonn. We sat and had juice and coffee in the airport and reminisced about all that had occurred on their ten-day visit with me. Here’s a few things they learned:
1. Betsy is a great tour guide!









2. Germans are more fit than Americans – all that bike riding and walking to buses and trains!









3. We can exist with ice in the summer.
4. Flower boxes on the front of stores and homes are so inviting!









5. Germans know how to recycle and have much less waste than Americans!
6. The devastation in Germany during World War II was much more widespread than we thought!
7. Walking the streets of Munich showed much history, but there are no reminders anywhere of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party.
8. Schnitzel is so good! Love that spätzle (thick noodles)!
9. A giant pretzel curbs hunger!









10. Radler is “lecker” (yummy). It’s beer and lemonade!
11. Traveling in Europe gives you the chance to hear so many different languages!
12. You can find an old church on every other street in Germany!
13. Using “euros” is relatively simple.
14. Mom is the current gin rummy champ…we played so many games on the trains!
15. Hats off to the very clean rest rooms all over Germany. Sometimes you have to pay, but it’s worth it! (Mom kept spending her souvenir money on restrooms!)
16. Sausage in Germany is much different than sausage in the U.S.A. Where’s the brats?












17. Can’t beat the wonderful gelato! One scoop for 60 euros….lecker!









18. Haribo’s is the most wonderful candy store in the world!









19. Useful words/phrases: danka, bitte, sprechen sie English?
20. What a great experience for my parents! My mom and dad say they just might do Europe again!

The Romantic Rhein

Ahhh! A good nights sleep! After breakfast, we visited the shops and enjoyed the Rothenburg sites for a few more hours before we headed back to Bonn on the train. We reluctantly left this quaint little town.

Over the course of this trip, the weather has gone from one extreme to the other. The first few days my parents were here it was extremely hot and sunny. These past few days have been chilly (almost on the cold side) with some rain – which I can tell them is typical Germany weather.

We arrived back to Bonn early in the evening (August 2)and after some moments of relaxing, we went to dinner up the street from my house at “ZAP” with my neighbors, Mark and Verena. I was very glad that they were able to meet my mom and dad as they have been so very kind to me and really helped me to settle into life in Bonn.

You might remember that I have a bowling alley of sorts in my basement – Kegel Bahn. After dinner, Mark, Verena, and I introduced my mom and dad to Kegel and played a few games in my basement. Kegel is always a fun way to end an evening filled with food, beer, family, and friends.



After getting a good nights sleep, the last day of my parent’s trip we headed down the river to my favorite little town on the Rhein known as Bacharach. Itself once a medieval town, the castle, wall and church are practically in ruins, but it is very nice to walk around the town along the Rhein.

After enjoying a nice lunch in the Posthof courtyard and then my favorite ice cream - Riesling flavored Gelato, we took a boat cruise back up the Rhein towards Bonn, enjoying the view of the castles that watch over the river.

Rothenburg, Germany

It was a noisy night. The charming clock tower rang every hour and you can’t imagine how loud cars sound on cobble roads. We vowed to keep the small TV on the next night!

We enjoyed a European breakfast (ham, cheese, yogurt, bread, cereal) in the bakery and made plans for another self-guided walking tour, led by the awesome tour guide – ME!















Our first stop was the Medieval Crime & Punishment museum. Torturing by tickling and iron masks for women who talked too much were a few of the items that captured our attention.

We then made our way to the Rathaus (City Hall) and climbed to the top of the Town Hall Tower. This remarkable pieced of architecture is over 700 years old (and it feels like it’s 700 hundred years old when you are climbing the small wooden steps) and has no foundation of its own as it sits directly on top of another building. We were fools and climbed the extremely narrow and steep steps to the top of the tower and squeezed through a very small hole in the top to a magnificent view of the town. We stood in the place where former sentries watched over Rothenburg. After climbing back down, we decided that the site was worth the scary climb.

The next stop on my tour was Kathe Wohlfahrt Weihnachtsdorf (Christmas village) to purchase a few ornaments and learn about the history of many of our Christmas traditions, such as ornaments, Santa Clause, and Christmas cards.

We then spent some time in St. Jakob’s Church, which is famous for an altar that contains a relic – a drop of Christ’s blood. The altar is a gorgeous wood sculpture of the Last Supper.

A little further along in our walking tour we stopped for lunch. It was cold outside, so I ordered Goulash Soup. My dad ordered what he thought to be chicken but was really fish (Pollack isn’t Poultry and he didn’t ask for the translation) and my mom ordered a Sausage Salad which turned out to be strips of cheese and bologna.

The Old Rothenburg Craftsman’s House showed us how a crafter and his family lived in the 1200’s. There were 11 rooms with original tools and furnishings. From this house it is easy to see how much smaller and shorter people were back in the medieval days. Days were short and so were ceilings and beds.

Stopping into small shops, sampling Rothenburg’s famed “Schneeballe” (coated balls of pastry strips) and other bakery goods, and searching for souvenirs filled the rest of our day.

A late dinner was at a traditional Franconian restaurant, Gasthaus Glocke. We each ordered something different and ate EVERYTHING! My dad enjoyed his “Light” beer while my mom and I thoroughly enjoyed the wine sampling basket of 5 different wines each that were brought to us in small baskets. We enjoyed the wine so much, that I bought a bottle.

The great day was topped off with ice cream sundaes at a cute little café we had visited earlier in the trip here. We went back to our room and fell asleep with the TV on, hoping to drown out some of the outside noise.