The Christmas tree has gone up in Roemer Platz ("the Romans' Square" - Frankfurt is an old town.) The tree is an American gift, hence the Stars and Stripes.
Our next diary will be a collection of Christmas pictures so stay tuned.
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Catching Up, Life
December 6, 2003
Dear Friends and Families,
Our last diary told about the few trips we've managed in the last couple months. Here we'll explain why we've been too busy to tour.
I (John) came here to work with the German part of our company as they prepared a bid for a big project in Finland. The idea was that the Germans would win in Finland, the Americans would be able to copy the design and introduce it to the States for not-too-much-money, and John and marianne could stay in Frankfurt for years and years. Good plan.
However, in late October, the Board of Directors of our Finnish client had other ideas. They identified another design as their preferred choice. Oops. We lost.
Well, sorta oops. Their choice turned out to be a design offered by a different office of our own company! "We" won, in the broader sense of "we", but now I had to find out if this other office had work for me. To make a long story short, the good news is they have work, the bad news is that I have to be gone from home for most of every week. It's still too early to tell if we'll need to move, but that's always possible too.
This new schedule rearranges our daily lives too. I can no longer go to German school at night. That's a shame both because I need to make much more progress in the language and also because we made many friends at the Goethe Institute.
Marianne's work is going well. Her kids have accepted her better this year and that makes all the difference in the world. Conquering Middle School Army Brats has to be a satisfying accomplishment.
We will be going to the States for a couple of weeks at Christmas. I'll go to Maryland to see Bim, Geoff and their families and Marianne will go out to California to see Gabby and the various families out there. After Christmas, we'll get together again in Colorado to see Brian, Jen, and Richard. It all sounds wonderful but very, very hectic. We'll fly back on New Year's Day and have a few days to rest before we restart work. We amphibologies to everyone we will not be able to see.
Well, that's about it. Stay in touch and we'll tell you if we need to be tracked down in Bavaria, Finland or ???
John and marianne
ps: A few photos from our normal life.
| This was our last school party. We still miss all our fellow students and we plan to stay in touch -- but "plans" are hard to stick to. | |
| This has been my home in Erlangen for a couple weeks. It's definitely "Old World" but it is also very pleasant and, two floors down, I have a nice German restaurant. | |
The Christmas tree has gone up in Roemer Platz ("the Romans' Square" - Frankfurt is an old town.) The tree is an American gift, hence the Stars and Stripes.
Our next diary will be a collection of Christmas pictures so stay tuned. |
|
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