I'm back!

But too tired to write more than a few lines now... But I wanted to say I'M BACK! :)

Trip was good, but more details to follow some other day. The actual flights worked out pretty well too. Over breakfast two weeks ago Aaron promised he would upgrade me on my way out, but of course when it came down to it he was missing in action. Thankfully I have learned not to count on him, so I had a backup and was upgraded anyway :)

The return today didn't go nearly as smooth. There are two flights from Frankfurt to Chicago on Lufthansa, and both were oversold. The first one was oversold by nearly 40 people, and required me getting out of bed at 4am. The second was only oversold by 10 people, but was one of the last flights of the day to the US. A so-called "Trash Collector". You can never count on those flights, because they could fill up last minute with people who missed their connections throughout the day. My suspicions were true, and 5 minutes before departure the flight was done and full, and paying passengers were still standing at the gate with no seats left. I snuck over to the gate agent to tell her that I am an ID passenger (=employee) and that I would take a "jump" seat if I would get one. Jump seats are the seats the crew usually sits on (the ones that fold down) and airlines are sometimes able to give them to their employees at the captains sole discretion. Sometimes they allow it, sometimes they don't. Today they did, although I work for Air France and not Lufthansa, they put me on a jump seat :) This was my first jump flight in my 6 year airline history. What a way to go out on my last flight.... I must say it was still a really nice flight thought. The flight attendants were great, and even made me a hot water bottle (literally) during the flight to keep warm, and kept bringing me hot tea (it was freezing on the plane).

Unfortunately, my bag did not make it. Supposedly it will be delivered tomorrow. We shall see...

Anyway... I'm glad to be home :)

Annabelle

She's leaving me for Fort Lauderdale in 6 short weeks :( She is one of the few who decided to take the company relocation package and is moving the beginning of September. And she's not the only one headed to Florida - Aaron was just named Station Manager in Orlando, so he's outta here soon too. I'll miss them both...

I'm sure I'll post more about this later, as the reality of Annabelle leaving sets in. I'll have to share some classic Annabelle/Christine moments before she leaves. We certainly had very few dull moments during our time together :)

For now, here's a picture of the two of us....

Nach Hause...

I'm off to Germany tomorrow for a week for my cousin Simone's wedding.
Will try to post while I'm there and maybe put up pics, but I'm not taking my laptop, so I'm not sure how easy that will be.

Have a great week everyone :)

Human Rights and Justice in Guantanamo

I first read the story of Murat Kurnaz last October in a German magazine. I was outraged about it then, and am still now!

Murat Kurnaz is a Turkish Citizen who was born and raised in Germany. His father was a "Guest Worker" in Germany, which is the reason he was not granted German citizenship, but rather indefinite legal residency. At the age of 19, in late 2001, he was in the process of getting German citizenship and was engaged to be married in a few months. Before starting this new life, he wanted to travel to Pakistan to learn more about his faith - Islam.

While traveling he was captured and turned over to US authorities as a terrorist suspect. He was shortly held in Afghanistan and later transfered to Guantanamo. The story gets more complicated from there, so I will at this point refer to this article for further information. There are many others out there if you google his name, this is just one of many that I read.

What outrages me about this story is that he was classified as an enemy combatant after only a short review and no substancial evidence. Clearly it was wrong and he was later ordered released. Later turned out to be a total of 4 years and 8 months. He was held by the US without any rights, for the most part without legal representation, without the involvement of the German or Turkish Governments, and - worst of all - without any human rights. The kind of torture that he describes from Guantanamo (and from German soldiers while in Afghanistan) is sick. And his story isn't the only one that confirms this. Many others who have been released explain the same conditions. Many of the people that are being held there were captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and turned over to the US by warlords for bounties, and have absolutely no ties to terrorism. Yes, they were bought by the US for an average of $5,000.

Some people are questioning if the tales from Guantanamo are true. WHY is nobody REALLY questioning what's going on there? Why are foreign governments staying out of it? After the release of Murat Kurnaz, Germany initially said he can't return to Germany because his resident alien permit had expired since he didn't renew it on time. They reconsidered after all the attention that was given to the case. Amnesty International and the United Nations have asked for the closing of the Guantanamo prison, but why isn't the rest of the world standing behind this? The few former detainees that have tried to take this to court in the US had their cases thrown out because it would jeopardize US security. Yes, the people that are involved in terrorism should be detained and pay for their crimes. But what about the others? There have been many suicide attempts (some successful) of detainees who have been held in Guantanamo for years, and who have yet to be charged for ANY crime. Many of them are known to be innocent, but continue to be held. When you start reading through some of the stories, it's unbelievable why they are being held. In most cases there is no reason at all, or one that can be easily cleared up by a little investigation (for example in one case it was a mistranslation between the arabic word for tire vs. airplane).

I encourage you to read some of the articles out there. Here's another one. But there are hundreds, not just about Murat Kurnaz, but about others too. They are all very interesting and give you lots of things to think about. Not just about the Bush Administration, but also about life in general and being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Riding

I was just watching the Tour de France - which is weird because I don't usually watch it. Maybe I have a new found connection to it because I went last year and it was so much fun! These guys are just amazing! (well... maybe not THESE guys below)

I've been meaning to check if the Tour would go through Carcassonne again this year, where Matt and I saw the finish of one of the stages last year. This year it is coming through there again, and I think it might actually be going down the road where we were staying too (outside of the city in the beautiful countryside). It doesn't finish in Carcassonne, but it goes through on the way to the Pyrenees. It'll be during stage 14 this sunday. It's gorgeous there and we had a GREAT time there last year! Making dreams come true and all... So it could be really fun to watch... See where we were riding around (on horses and not bikes), etc. Good times... I love seeing places I've visited on TV :)

Today

My horoscope today said:
"You can take on a lot more risk right now in your life, but before you book a flight for a gambling vacation in Las Vegas or decide to take up skydiving, listen up: the universe wants you to avoid anything that involves too much physical risk or fiscal risk. The only risk you should be investigating is emotionally oriented. In other words, it's time for you to put your heart out there. Let yourself be a little bit more vulnerable than you're used to. It will pay off."
HA! I'm the queen of putting my heart out there and letting myself be vulnerable. I'm not sure I could be any more vulnerable and out there if I tried. But.... we'll see if this is right....

Anyway... I had a job interview today and I think it went really well :) I should find out in a few weeks. And to make things even better, I have another interview with another company next week. Woohoo!! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Or as we Germans would say... Press your thumbs for me ;)

Great Week!

Aside from missing out on reconnecting with a long-lost friend, I had a great week!! I got to ride my new bike to work, I'm reading a really good book, I did my first official 5K run this week, I activated Karma by doing all kinds of nice and thoughtful things for people, and best of all, I have two job interviews in the next ten days!! Woohooo!! I also figured out a few more options for Grad School, which will be awesome if they work out :) Very exciting!
The weekend sounds promising too... starting out with a 17 mile run tomorrow morning at 6am.
Better get to bed then... Good night!

Carlos Matesanz - where are you?

I saw an old friend on the street yesterday, and I'm so mad at myself right now because I hesitated.

This guy and I used to work together at the Lakehouse at Eastern Michigan University from 1997-98 (greatest job ever!!). He was from Spain and eventually went back home to Madrid. One day in 1999 I got a call from him that he was planning on coming back to Michigan and I offered that he could stay with me until he find an apartment. He ended up staying on my couch for about a month before he found his own place and moved out. Shortly after, I moved back to Germany and we lost touch.

A few years later I was in Madrid and tried to call him and his brother (who also worked with us), but their number was no longer valid. I had given up on ever seeing them again...
Until yesterday. I was walking to Corner Bakery by Northwestern Hospital with Stef, and we walked by a guy that looked familiar. It took me about five seconds to put two and two together and recognize Carlos! I stopped and turned around to look again, but he was just crossing the street and walking towards Michigan Ave. And I hesitated to run after him because I wasn't sure that it was him. But as I watched him walk away, I recognized the walk too, and I KNOW it was him. But it was too late... he was already at the corner of Michigan, and... well... there were a million people.

I missed him. Damn it! I find a long lost friend and he walks RIGHT by me, and I don't react? I'm soo mad! I activated my undercover Spanish citizen finder to see if maybe he could activate his sources and come up with anything. I also emailed our Alumni Person at the Rec/IM at EMU, but the only record she had was a positive write up in his personnel file. Not very helpful.

So... Carlos Matesanz... if you're out there somewhere, if you happen to accidently come across my blog, or if you're reading this right now and you know Carlos, email me! :)

New Bike!

I decided to look at the fact that my bike got stolen in a positive way and decided to use this time to upgrade to something better!! I knew Pablo's friend Melissa was selling her bike, but I wanted to look around a bit to see what else is out there.

This is the one that got away: The 2003 Bianchi Vigorelli. *sigh*

I hesitated too long because although it felt fine too me, some people who didn't actually see me on it questioned if it would fit. By the time I checked out a few other bikes, got properly sized at a store, and made up my mind, it was of course already sold. But things happen for a reason, so I went with Melissa's instead. It doesn't have the same cool factor as the Bianchi and it cost a little more than I wanted to spend, but I'm told it'll be a good first bike for me. And it is still a cool bike! :)

So... this is my new bike: The 2005 Trek 1000.

Going to pick it up tonight after work... :)

Fireworks

As a kid, I was sooo afraid of fireworks! In Germany we generally only had fireworks on New Years Eve, and I remember one NYE when my parents and their friends were all in the back yard shooting off fireworks, and me and my neighbor were at the front door too afraid to move... in any direction, but especially towards the back yard.

Those days are looong gone! I think my real love for fireworks started somewhere on a beach in Newburyport, Mass, on what may have been the most romantic first date ever. Except, it wasn't really classified as a first date. It wasn't the greatest first date I'd ever been on - that happened much later - but it was still pretty memorable. I couldn't have melted faster... All I need to say is there was a beach with no people (except obviously two of us) and fireworks immediately in front of us. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was totally arranged. But it wasn't... To this day I don't know why there were fireworks, and who the target audience should have been. There wasn't anyone else around!

Ever since then, or probably even before, I have LOVED fireworks. I saw the Boston Fireworks two years in a row, and the first year was absolutely amazing! We ended up finding one little patch of grass in between a million people (literally) and it turned out to be the most perfect spot! The fireworks were being launched right in front of us, and it felt like they were coming right at us each time. It was like the show was just for us.

Since I've moved to Chicago, I've attempted to see the Navy Pier fireworks many times but never quite made it. I wanted to go tonight, but nobody else wanted to go. Since I was pretty tired from running around all day, that was actually fine with me. I considered going by myself for a while, but ended up staying home. At around 9pm took a little walk through my neighborhood. I certainly got my fix of fireworks there!! They were all around! I wish I had a roof deck to watch it from, but seeing them from the street was still pretty cool :) I'm back inside my place now and it's still going on. It actually sounds like a war out there.... kinda scary. Still, love fireworks!

Pablo told me yesterday about this Fireworks competition in San Sebastian, Spain. That's just awesome!! I've added it to the mental list of 'things to do before I die'. Thanks Pablo!!

The Taste

Becky and I went to the Taste yesterday, and it was so much fun!! So much more fun than last year. Becky was really hung over and didn't get moving until the afternoon, but I made her pull herself together :)

Yes, there were tons of people there, and remembering my experience from last year and the effort it took to go, I didn't want to go this year at first. But I'm so glad I changed my mind and went!

We had great food (the greatest Potstickers I've ever had), then rode the Ferris Wheel (YES!!) and finally sat by the Harbour and watched the boats go by for a while. Ahhh... that's what a Chicago summer is supposed to be like.