guten tag.

Well, hello there, finally. The past few weeks I have been outofmymind busy. I had the privilege of being sent on a two-week school field trip to Germany (yes, you heard right) but this meant that grades had to be done early, tutoring sessions and appointments had to be crammed in, and final projects had to be prepared and explained before my departure. So, phew. Despite the panic attack that ensued beforehand, and the constant stream of correspondence I had to keep during my time abroad, the trip was exciting and fulfilling, as every new adventure should be.

While we were in Germany, the students and I stayed with host families and I lucked out by having the most wonderful host family one could hope for. Christina and Holger, and their two blond babies, were the most generous, entertaining, gracious hosts you can imagine. I feel truly blessed to have met them and to have been the lucky recipient of their hospitality. Most evenings, despite having spent longs days sitting in conferences or exploring local cities, I stayed up till unholy hours simply because I could not get enough of the conversation.

The field trip was scheduled as part of a global conference that one of our student organizations takes part in every year and, as of this year, I am the lucky supervisor who gets to escort the diligent students overseas. All year we have been working on research tasks to present at this year's conference, and it was such a thrill to watch the students finally show off all their hard work. While we were there on "business," rather than pleasure, and the conferences took up large portions of our trip, we were given day tours of the nearby cities of Hamburg and Münster and also got time to spend with our host families. Though the responsibility of chaperoning eight teenagers across the Atlantic is a serious one, and though I will admit my patience wore thin on more than one occasion, everyone had a great time and all that prep work beforehand was worth it. Summer adventure #1 - accomplished! Now on to #2, finding my baby in the midwest.