Christmas letter 2007

to all our relatives and friends!

It’s that time of year again, when we realize how blessed we have been to spend some time with some of you, or exchange emails, phone calls or Facebook messages with others. It’s been a whirlwind of a year again; we are thankful to be in good health and spirits and hope the same of you. We hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights of this year.

2007 was definitely Susi’s year. Her dream of spending 6 months in Germany came true. On January 22, she and I flew to Frankfurt, right after she finished her midterm exams at Champlain Valley Union High School (CVU). The administrative team at CVU was great at helping me organize the academic part, get credit for her courses in Germany, translate the grades, and make sure she was able to graduate this year. The administrative team at the St. Willibrord-Gymnasium in Bitburg, my old high school, was equally helpful in getting Susi set up with 12^th grade courses in math, German, English, French, social studies, art, gym, religious studies, and an achievement course (similar to our AP courses) in biology. It was tough leaving Susi behind and returning to the U.S. alone, but Susi was in the best hands with my girlfriend Gertrud, her husband Willi, and their sons Christian and Sebastian, who quickly “adopted” her as a live-in “sister”. We are very grateful to them for their excellent care. The first weeks were hard, and Susi found consolation in long walks across the fields surrounding the village, visiting our dear family friend and neighbor Frau Hoffmann, my cousin Toni and his wife Gerti, and visiting Oma and Opa’s grave. The summer-like weather in Germany allowed Susi to get a great tan. Thanks to YahooMessenger and the phone we talked almost daily, and seeing each other on our two Web cams was such a treat! After the initial culture shock, Susi quickly grew into her new life in Germany; she loved her classes and made lifelong friendships among her classmates, all captured on Facebook and the German equivalent Partyweb. She also took advantage of every travel opportunity she could, taking the ICE fast train from Cologne to Munich to see my sister Susi, husband Gert, and her cousins Jessica and Alicia for Easter. With my sister’s family she traveled to Vienna for a few days, then took the train back to Bitburg-Erdorf. A few days later it was time to fly to London with her “brother” Christian and his cousins Andrea and Michael to stay with Gertrud’s sister-in-law Verena and her husband Helmut, who went out of their way to show the “gang of 4” a good time, including trips to Cambridge and Oxford, King’s College, Buckingham Palace, Kensington, Harrod’s, and an oyster bar, among others! While in London, Susi also got to meet Reza’s cousins Mehdi, Masoud, and Shahram and their families, who now live in the U.K. A couple of days at home and then off to Mediterranean France (Montpellier) for a week with her class! In May the whole family took the train to Munich to celebrate Alicia’s 1st Holy Communion. Then there was a trip to Trier for a rock concert, not to mention the many weekend dances in various villages and at the favorite hangout, Kayüte—same hangout, same name after 40 years!

On July 3 I flew back to Frankfurt and drove to Bitburg. Staying with girlfriend Gertrud and her family, I got to see my favorite festival—the European Folklore Festival in Bitburg, which started with the neighbor countries of Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France and now hails folklore dance presentations from all over the world. It was great to experience it in the company of friends and old classmates like Peter, whom I hadn’t seen in almost 40 years. Gertrud and I also took off on our own one afternoon, visiting the Reichsburg on the Mosel--Ithe picture of the castle hangs in my office at Saint Michael's College! On July 10 I took Susi back to Frankfurt for her flight back home the next day. While Susi was back home, getting ready to take her driver’s test and working for the Kanazawa (Japanese) program at Saint Michael’s College, I was driving around half of Germany, visiting relatives and friends—cousins Irmgard and Mathilde in Dudeldorf, my cousin Horst and his family in Raunheim, my aunts and cousins in Bubenheim, Gross-Winternheim, and Gau-Algesheim, my girlfriends Astrid in Mainz and Cheyda in Stuttgart, and finally my sister and her family in Freising, Bavaria, where we met cousin Fleur after swimming and paddling in the Ammersee.

Back home in Williston we had a big party for Susi, and on August 15 we drove a loaded van to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania for Susi’s pre-orientation wilderness adventure, followed by Commencement, and the First Years’ Walk through the town of Gettysburg to listen to the Gettysburg Address in the very place where Abraham Lincoln first gave it. It was a moving experience. While Susi was on her backpacking trip in the Shenandoah National Park, Reza and I spent some time in Annapolis, Maryland, and since the weather wasn’t good for kayaking, we met up with old friends Barbara and Paul in Washington, DC. Leaving Susi in Gettysburg was harder than we thought and the trip home was rather somber. However, Susi’s many cell phone calls to us to straighten out her course schedule made the transition a bit easier. We couldn’t wait till October 6, when we drove down to Gettysburg again to visit Susi for 3 glorious, sunshine-filled and warm days. On the return trip we visited Marc and Dana vanderHeyden (our favorite presidential couple and dear friends) in Rhinebeck, New York. The next time we saw Susi was at Thanksgiving, when I picked her up in Manchester, New Hampshire, after a rather grueling 5 ½-hour drive on snow and ice and a 180 degree turn on the highway. We had lots to be thankful for, especially how well Susi’s stay in Germany and her college selection had turned out. After being admitted to Hamilton and Colby College among others, Susi chose Gettysburg College, where she immediately felt comfortable. We are very proud of her as she continues to do well in her courses, especially chemistry and biology, in hopes of going to medical school one day.
Convocation: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4981496827921816155&hl=en

At Saint Michael’s College Reza continues to chair the Economics Department. In March, Reza’s brother Ali Reza and his family were finally able to emigrate to Halifax, Canada, after trying to leave Iran for so many years Unfortunately we have not been able to see them yet—but may happen in 2008. I just finished teaching another business course, alongside teaching my courses in English as a Second Language and teaching online. In March, I presented at the TESOL Conference in Seattle, staying with my old girlfriend Gail from Denver. Then in April, I traveled to Bogota, Colombia, where I gave a plenary and two teacher training workshops on technology in ESL. I was hosted by St. Michael’s alumna and good friend Clara Galvis, academic director of Gimnasio Vermont, an impressive bilingual 12-grade elementary and high school in Bogota. Former graduate student Sam, coordinator at the Centro Colombo Americano, was instrumental in getting all of the technology to work, especially in the middle of a 4-hour blackout in all of Colombia during the technology conference.

And now it’s time for Christmas. Finally our trip to the sunny beaches of Kauai and Hawaii is ahead of us—we can’t wait! May God bless us all with peace, health, and happiness in 2008.