Freakishly Happy

In a few hours we will begin our long journey to München to celebrate Octoberfest German style. Although many claim that the once great festival is now expensive, crowded and touristy; how can I stay in Germany for almost a year and not go to these kind of things.

In order to offset the expense, we have arranged for quite an interesting day. We will leave Freiburg tomorrow morning at 5:42 in the morning to arrive in München around noon, switching trains only twice. Once there, we will stay until 5:44 the Sunday morning and take another three trains back to Freiburg to arrive around a quarter after noon. This is essentially going there for the 'day', and not staying since every hotel and hostel is absolutely booked for the festival. Hopefully, we will be able to sleep quite a bit on the trains there and back. I have been pulling some late nighters burning the midnight candles (no oil) so I should be able to adjust to the schedule, and Joni can sleep anywhere.

Monday is reunification day, so no class for Joni, and we'll have plenty of time to recover. Expect pictures of our adventure when we return.

After quite a struggle I have decided to postpone the final defense of my dissertation to the spring semester. This is due to a lot of overwhelming issues not entirely to do with the dissertation itself, from employment to student loan status. The benefits I would receive by finishing it early do not compare with the consequences I would have to deal with. Therefore, look for a lot less stressed John with a lot more posting! Yeah!