XII: Is that a Light I See at the End of this Tunnel?

It's nearly over. Thirteen long weeks spent in South West Germany are finally coming to an end.

I can't say that all of it has been wonderful; nor can I say that all of it has been terrible. As the Coen brothers wrote in Raising Arizona, "There ain't no pancake so thin that it ain't got two sides." Here, then, are my lists of Things to Remember and Things I Can't Wait to Forget.

Things to Remember

• Baked goods, especially the breads and the pastries
• Luxembourg
• Vienna
• Buddy Bears
• Sarah at the Rezeption desk at the hotel
• Late nite television commercials
• The Imbiss Inn for pretty good hamburgers
• Aral's mini-deli
• $4 movies
• DVDs: Band of Brothers, Deadwood seasons 1 & 2, and the whole Black Adder series
• The fine people who bust their humps every day so network connectivity stays viable

Things I Can't Wait to Forget

• USO bus tours buses, not the tour part, the horrible ride to (and from) the location
• EURO exchange rate
• ATM fees!
• No passport stamps!!
• The fuel ration card
• Autobahns
• Hertz Rent-a-Car

Thanks to everyone who read any of these blogs, thanks to everyone who posted a comments, thanks for the emails and well-wishes. I don't know if I'll continue to blog in the future, this was originally designed as a way to keep in touch with everyone in one fell swoop from 4,000 miles, oops sorry, 6.500 kilometers, away. (I am still in Europe after all.) And that decimal separating the thousands from the hundreds in 6.500 is not a mistake, Europe and America differ in their numbering schemes when it comes to separators and decimal points.

For now, Auf Wiedersehn!