December 1996

Dear everyone,

Yes, both Sharon and I are now 50, and she looks 30 and I feel like 60, but at least we're still alive and kicking and having a wonderful time in Europe.  As usual, extensive travel has been the rule in our lives, but this past year has seen us take on more activity as we dubbed it the "Year of the Ski."  We have continued to find our work at the International School of Prague to be rewarding, but don't think for a minute we wouldn't chuck it all if we ever won the lottery.  Our plan is to work for another 6.5 years at which point we will have enough in our retirement accounts to call it quits.  Of course, it isn't such a bright idea to plan too much as we have learned that the nature of the universe is to squash our puny mortal plans.

As mentioned above, we took up skiing with a vengeance, even bought our own downhill skis, and by the end of the season, had picked up pairs of cross country skis as well.  We put them all to the test in Austria several times, and even spent a week in Obertauern on spring break to try spring skiing, which we found to be not to our liking.  Almost every weekend was spent on the slopes as well, here in the Czech Republic and also in nearby Germany.  We even took the sixth grade students on a week long ski trip!  After all that, did we improve?  Well, a bit, but whether we can negotiate the difficult slopes in safety is not the point; we DID have fun, and that's what it's all about.  Besides, winter in Central Europe can be pretty bleak without a cold weather diversion.

Our summer was spent visiting the folks in NJ and Florida, and then we took off for Colorado, half on business, half on pleasure, and we took up wildflower identification in the Rocky Mountains, reacquainting ourselves with that region of the U.S., and also getting a chance to compare the Rockies to the Alps with which we have become so intimately involved.  So far the Alps are winning.  At the end of July, we headed back to Europe, started work again, but also took a long weekend off to climb in the Alps near Hintersee, Germany, a spectacular walk, ending in a mountain hut with splendid food (and beer!) and a glacier.  Speaking of beer, we finally made it to Munich's Oktoberfest, fought off the crowds to garner ourselves seats in one of the gigantic beer halls that look more permanent than Mt. Rushmore but are actually put up each year, and sat around listening to music while we guzzled liters of Augustiner beer, ate wurst and chicken, and got a chance to ponder how come there are so many Germans left if they lost the War!

In October, we took our best vacation yet.  By surfing the Internet, I came up with a beautiful villa for rent near the village of Colle di Val D'Elsa in Tuscany, Italy.  With another couple in tow, we drove there in about 12 hours, breaking the journey in Munich, and spent the best part of a week viewing the most gorgeous countryside, the quaintest hilltop villages, and drinking the best red chianti wine this side of heaven.  We managed to visit Florence as well, and we did the obligatory pilgrimages to Siena and Pisa, but most of our time was spent exploring the smaller towns, with their protective walls and towers -- and their excellent restaurants and wine.  We ate in quite a bit too since our villa was so comfy and secure feeling, and we purchased quite a bit of wine to take back with us -- not enough, it turns out, as we have almost finished our supply already.  The drive back through the Brenner Pass and into Austria, with a stop overnight in Kitzbuhel, was just like icing on a carrot cake, the perfect ending to a perfect vacation.  This one deserves a re-run.

And so, here we are, a half century behind us, and perhaps 30 more years in front of us if we are lucky, and we really can't complain.  We will be moving to a newly built school in February, and I have been given the task of developing a middle school program for the 6th through 8th graders while Sharon will be an English/Social Studies teacher in grade 6.  We have moved into a new house here, more modern than our old one, and without the crazy room layout that drove us nuts for so long.  We'll be back to the U.S. for Christmas in NJ and Florida and will spend a week in Cancun with friends before returning.  Our February ski break will be in Kirchberg, Austria, this year, and at Easter time, we have rented a villa in the countryside of Provence, France, and will take the time to smell the flowers and feast on the sunlight that so enchanted Van Gogh.  And so it goes.