I'm Not Dead...

Take two... I already wrote a couple paragraphs of this post, but it wasn't saved.

I can't believe it's my sixth day in Germany and I haven't written a single real blog post. If it weren't for a few Facebook posts, people might assume I have dropped off the face of the earth. I'm still here, but I have been super busy and having I'm having a great time. I'm now on the train to the Hoffenheim 1899 Bundesliga match with Shalke 04, so I have time to write.

Itinerary Overview:

After taking a Sunday bus to O'Hare, we made it through the rediculous security line and boarded the flight to Amsterdam. I tried to sleep on the flight, and did a little, but I was in the back row of the plane in a seat that didn't recline. It was pretty uncomfortable. The landing was so smoothe, though, I didn't actually realize we were on the ground until the plane stopped. We landed in Stuttgart Monday morning and took a train to the main station, where our hotel was located. We walked around the city center and got some lunch before or first visit that afternoon.

Tuesday morning we went to a museum (more later) before making a day trip to Ludwigsburg. It was rainy, but well worth the trip. Wednesday morning we had a difficult time connecting with our charter bus on the busy street in front of the hotel, and we assumed all of the locals were getting a kick out of watching us.

The bus took us first to a nice company visit at Würth Group, then on to the Medieval city of Schwäbisch Hall. It is gorgeous and we had a way-too-short walking tour of the historic city. That evening we met our colleagues at Hochschule Heilbronn Schwäbisch Hall campus, as well as the friends of my Kelley colleague Jeanette. We went to the lovely home of Helga Gunst for homemade German food (delicious and filling!), good conversation, wine, and a lot of laughter.

Thursday was full with three company visits and a long walk down a big hill back to the city center. While everyone else went to dinner, I took advantage of some quiet time to myself and had an authentic German sauna experience at the hotel. After a quick, light workout I went to the hotel bar to catch up on email. (Intention was to blog, but I didn't get to it!)

Friday morning we had another business visit, followed by lunch with our German colleagues and an afternoon of presentations by our U.S. and German students in their combined teams. It was the academic culmination of the trip, and the end result of a big experiment which ended up going really well. Last night my colleagues Jeanette, Clark and I met with other German friends in a German food restaurant for more great conversation and socializing. When the rain stopped we went out to the annual local Kuchen und Brunnenfest and had an amazing time with lots of laughs.

This morning I managed to enjoy 15 minutes in the salt baths at the hotel before breakfast and meeting students to walk to the train station. We're now only three minutes away from the stadium. The game starts in 2 1/2 hours! It's cool and overcast, but so far not raining.

More later!