End of Year Stress Out

According to the American Christmas song...

 





It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
With the kids jingle belling
And everyone telling you "Be of good cheer"
It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
It's the hap -happiest season of all
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings
When friends come to call
It's the hap - happiest season of all..

For me, it is generally the most stressful time of the year, this one being no exception. Our university decided that November was the best time to change over our registration system from one program to another. Of course, this created a shambles for students, but for instructors, it took weeks to solve sign-in problems. Once that was resolved, there was no place to submit semester grades. When I questioned it, I was told it may be implemented by the middle to late December. Yikes! We are leaving December 16th. Although I could enter the grades remotely, I cannot print them out and sign them from South America. Fortunately, I like to putter with technology and found the pathway to grade entry on my own. I informed the IT guru who then immediately sent the information out to the entire faculty. One stress issue resolved. 

Grades are in, grade books are signed. I will not see the halls of the university again until January 16th, the day after we return home. Then it will only be for half a day for thesis defense exams, but then I am off again until the first week of February. 

University instructors pace life by semesters. Fall semester is over, there is a long Christmas break. Spring semester is completed; it is time for a long summer vacation. 

I generally buy an annual transportation pass, but it has in years past only gone on sale from the end of December until the first week of January. One of my former students has been my pass purchaser, but he will be out of the country as well. With just a bag of hope, Ron went to the transportation office to check again. Surprise! They were willing to sell it to him. Stress factor number 2 zapped.

The last of the list is the packing. According to reports, in many parts of Ecuador, you can experience all four seasons in one day. The temps can go from the high 90s to lower than 40. Layering is the key to our packing clothes. I am a list person, so I have an extensive packing list that runs the gamut from my new diabetic meds  and Accu-Chek, which premiered on this list to the rechargeable batteries for my camera as well as a reading light. I always worry about forgetting something essential like the verifications that we have had a Yellow Fever vaccine which is required for some parts of Ecuador. 

The greatest stressor of all was that our Internet kept going out for hours at a time for the last week plus. Finally, I called the company who arranged for a technician to come tomorrow, Saturday. We went to have a coffee with another friend and on the way home, the company called to say the technical problems have been resolved. When I got home, they had been. 

Last night, we went to Govinda's vegetarian restaurant with one friend for a holiday cheer good-bye. I had the most amazing creamed pumpkin and broccoli with paprika dish with Bulgar. I have to find a recipe. My blood level was under 6.0 both last night and this morning. Gotta love that dish!

So I don't know if I will get a chance to write again before we leave Sunday morning on a 6:30 am flight. We fly from here to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam direct to Quito. I will as usual blog the entire time away, but the posting will depend on Internet access. All of our hotels claim to have WiFi, but we will see what the reality is once we are on the ground. 

Happy holidays to who celebrate Hanukka. I know I am late as it started on the 8th. For others happy holidays as a preliminary greeting, but I hope to say it again closer to the day and from South America.  

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Festive Autumn Windows

Our coleus finally gave out with the sudden cold temperatures. Ron did his window decorating for the fall. After Thanksgiving, the winter penguins will make they way out to grace the balcony walkway until we return in mid-January.

Only six more weeks until we leave? Good grief, time evaporates unless I am grading essays.

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Movie Slurpies

One part about living abroad that I find most unappealing is the holiday season. I used to love the holidays and forty-five boxes of decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are sitting in storage. They have been patiently waiting to be rescued again with the adoringly loving reverberations that emerge from my inner child as I unpack them. There are reasons for not having them here. Multiple reasons as a matter of fact: 1). The cost of shipping, 2). No where to store them, 3). No one to show them off to. Yes, number three is the most pathetic, yet true. It is Ron and I period, zip, end of the list. 

The majority of friends we have made over the years have returned from whence they came. Very few Hungarians are amongst our list of friends due to schedules, different lifestyles, and the list goes on. Hence, holidays are not berry merry, especially Christmas.

Feeling blue at this time of year is not only the pending holiday, but the temperatures outside. This has already been a a particularly cold December that rushed in on the heels of a moderate November. With a feeling that my inner child has been snatched by a Child Protective Services agency, I have tried to gobble on Christmas movies like a child who has been set free in a toy store with an American Express Platinum card in some stranger's name. I am not certain if they are a positive aid or a negative encumbrance, but at least for 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours at a time, I feel the holiday spirit. Here is my list.

Getting away for the holidays paves the way for getting through some of the winter while also white washing those days of Christmas youth when I thought holiday magic was everlasting.

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Spring Celebrations

I am going to hop in the shower, but before I do, I just wanted to wish everyone who celebrates it a Happy Easter. May the Easter Bunny bring you a big basket filled with mouth watering goodies. 

And it would not be an American Easter greeting without including Peeps.

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Skipping Christmas

Pardon for skipping on Christmas greetings, but the wilderness does not decorate, so I have lost track. Hotel decor has been from laughable to please stop trying. Our last hotel in Kenya was playing non-stop Christmas carols all day yesterday. There is something unnerving hearing Elvis sing about a blue Christmas when in Africa, or I am dreaming of a white Christmas. Well if I were, I would have stayed home.

So this Indian run, Chinese constructed, Tanzanian hotel gets poor marks also for sound quality. We are on the ground floor. In the bathroom, above the sink is a permanently open window with screening. Everyone walking by laughing, talking, yelling, comes filtering in. Keeping the bathroom door closed does not help since the room door is flimsy at best and not flush, so sounds vibrate it. For once and this may be a historic event to put on the calendar, I slept soundly and Ron was disturbed by the noise. Three cheers.

Anwar was ready for us by 8:30 and so were the animals. It was a fantabulous day of viewing. We found a lake of hippos, counting forty before we lost count of the rest and those coming downstream to join them. There was another leopard spotting in tree with its fresh kill in storage in the tree trunks waiting for chow time. A little leopard turtle crossed the street in front of us. Lions were everywhere. We found some in the kopjes (pronounced copies) rocks nursing young or just relaxing in shade. Kopjes are technically called inselbergs, ancient granite rocks that have cracked with erosion from sun, wind, and rain. They provide water and shelter for plant and animal life, especially important during the dry season on the plain. Other lions were on the ground under bushes.

According to Anwar, hundreds of thousands of zebras and wildebeests were spread across the plains up to the roadside. During migration time, 1.5 million of them cross the river in search of feeding grounds. This is the largest animal migration in the world. The best times for viewing is June to December. Their return migration is May and June. Needless to say, the migration causes a high percentage of deaths from trampling, drowning, or getting ravaged by crocodiles as they cross the waters. Watching hundreds of wildebeests line up to cross the plain was a sight I will not soon forget. Still thousands were spread across the plain as far as the eye could see.

Wildebeests share the same grazing area as the zebras. Wildebeests bite off the tougher grasses and swallow. They have stomachs like a cow, so they are able to ruminate the food later to chew and digest it. Zebras eat the tender grasses and chew before swallowing. Like the wildebeests, there were thousands of zebras interspersed. There were a group of six zebras all lined up with their backs to us. My first thoughts were they were having a best butt beauty pagent or they were asking "Do stripes make my ass look bigger?" Zebras are so funny. They seem to like to play this game of "Get me if you can". They will stay so close to the road or even cross it until you are very near them and then they take off like a lion is after them. Some of the less intelligent wait for us to pass them and then get spooked. "Oh, I should have run. Okay, let me do it now." Wildebeests have the sense to run as soon as you close in on them. Then they stop and turn around to look at you. "Are you chasing me yet?"

Stopping at the Serengeti Tour Center, we followed the metal wildebeest signs and footprints in cement to various levels, each offering education information about the park. It was entertaining, educational, and well put together. As we left, the sky became dark suddenly and it poured rain, the first time during our trip. Temperatures dropped from the mid-80s to about the 60s. All of the ruts in the road flooded immediately, causing our jeep to slip, slide and at some points spin like the pointer on a wheel of fortune. Anwar had it all under control, but we were concerned we would get stuck in mud that we would not be able to escape from. By the time we reached our lunch spot, our white jeep was totally muddy brown.

Tonight's stop over is the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, run by the same Indian group as last night's hotel. It sits on the rim of a crater created by volcanic eruption. Tomorrow, we will venture down to view the wildlife as well as see the soda lake, which I don't know yet, what it is. Supposedly, only one day is allowed in the crater itself to keep it from being overwhelmed with tourism. The only lodges are up on the rim, none in the crater itself. Regardless, the vistas from the hotel were breathtaking, until the cloud coverage came in. Then it rained again obliterating everything.

Ron has been handing out Hungarian Christmas candies to staff member, who seem to really appreciate it. They do have some trees with lights, but only balls of cotton for decoration. At dinner, the dessert was a Royal Plum cake and Christmas pudding, but the Brits in line ahead of us disparaged both attempts. We tried both without complaints. African music and dance were tonight's entertainment. Same, same, but different than before.

Have to get to bed so Santa Claus will find me. I do hope he found that note I pinned to the door with my forwarding address.

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Christmas Time in Vienna

We are flying Swiss Air from Vienna to Zurich, Zurich to Nairobi. Our habit when flying out of Vienna is to go the day before, stay over and taxi to the airport. This time, we especially needed to do it as our flight is at 7:00 am, meaning an airport arrival at 5:00 am is necessary.

Pension Hotel Wild is our place of choice for location, convenience, and cost. Being the season for holiday merriment, we are able to "do" the Christmas markets. We have long given up on the City Hall market. It is filled with commercial products, mostly imported from Asian countries, nothing typically Austrian. It is worth seeing for the decorations, but from afar is just as lovely. The mobs of people make it joyless trying to get anywhere near the booths.

The one thing I do hate about this one night in Vienna at this time of year is the cold. It is about 20 degrees colder here than when we left Budapest. Winter time is hibernation time for me. I despise cold weather and think bears have the right idea. If I could avoid ever going out in this unseemly weather, I would do so at all costs. It is beyond my imagination how people can enjoy winter sports.

So,  after checking into the hotel, we set off to troll around the Christmas market closest to the hotel. Just as crowded, we quickly succumbed to the hot mulled wine to warm our freezing hands. Within minutes, the wine was as cold as we were.

With a day pass for transportation, it made sense to ride the trams to see the holiday lights and displays. The trams have heated seats! Yahoo!! Our tradition to have dinner at the Willendorf, a delightfully relaxed restaurant where we never seem to dislike a meal and the service is always excellent. It was an early night for 3:30 am comes around very early and the taxi will do so at 4:30.

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Boldolg Szűlettesnapot

We celebrated a guest’s birthday on Sunday. It was a grand occasion for us to have a guest here for their birthday. This is the first time in our 2 year B and B history. His picture is not here to protect his identity. : )

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Hungarian Immigration Nightmares Again

Ron received an e-mail almost in the evening from the agency who charges us dearly for assisting us with our permits. Of course, it arrives on a Friday evening and states that since our 5 yr. permits are not ready, he has to reapply for an annual one. He has this shopping list of things that he needs to gather for his appointment on Tuesday, the 18th. Of course, some of these things need to be collected from agencies that are closed Good Friday and Easter Monday. One of the new requirements has to be counter-signed by our Hungarian attorney who is out of town for the holiday.

I have never seen him get as mad as he was at the rep at the agency, today. I am not quite sure why we pay so much money to them when we do all of the running around getting the forms and things that we need. Now Tuesday morning, he will be running to two agencies to get the last pieces of paper before going to his appointment at 2:00 PM. He told one of my students, "At the moment, I hate Hungary." I am sure the US makes it just as difficult to others too. It is always a chilling eye opener when we have to go through it.

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