A journal of The Weekend

Initially, this here was not intended for publication, but since quite a few people I told about this seemed interested in it, I put it up. Be reminded, however, that this is really an onyl very, very slightly edited version as it is written in my book. It starts rather slow with packing and preparations for the weekend, but should pick up from there on. At least to me the weekend seemed rather frantic - in a good way.

Now I would really like to get feedback on that piece here, so be so kind to make my inbox explode.

Thanks for listening.

Please don't hold me responsible for any errors here. I'm not really awake yet, while typing :)

First, I have to pack, though. Packing is such a bother.

The alumni weekend came much faster than I expected. First, it was long, long away, and then, all of a sudden, I'm sitting here, packing for it.

cocos and musa are in the garden. cocos looks indifferent as usual, but musa started to get brown leafs in the last few days. I'm curious if it survives the days I'll be away. I hope so. And I hope, it'll be watered by the people still in the house.

My father is supposed to be here in 15 minutes to get me to the train station. But for get I'd have to get up and get ready. Rather exhausting with these temperatures.

And then there is this comfortable-uncomfortable low feeling of excitedness. Both from going somehwere and from what the weekend will bring and what it will be like to see all the people again and live within the community for a couple of days again. I am excited - and not used to it.

By now, the setting sun looks good. Over the day, I wasn't that sympathetic to that glowing gas ball.

Reservations for seats are a topic on their own. I intened to use the one I had, but as I came in the wagon, a few people were already arguing on which windows to open when, if at all. Not an option with these temperatures. A nice, small compartment in the next wagon suddenly seemed to be only the more inviting to me.

And then all hell breaks loose. Deep, loud dog barking and a very definitely majorly annoyed cat in the next compartment. The cat was male, a rather heavy tiger. Beautiful animal. And he kept the dog on distance, rather effectively at that. But calling this thing "dog" is rather an understatement. Black calf would better describe it. For a dog this animal is not too bad, but he didn't want to be friends with the cat. The irony of it is that both had reserved seats in the same compartment. The pity of it that the feeder person of the cat was an annoying older lady with too much make-up, high hair and a golden dress. She also started to argue about the right to a reserved seat and didn't want to leave. I wouldn't even think of starting an argument in that heat. The dog people left soon afterwards. And all this in the first 10 minutes, long before the train even took off.

And why do I now have a couple freshly falen in love in my compartment? Not fair, this.

I have to get up, my behind doesn't like the long sitting. Also a tea would be a fine thing right now, to calm down my stomach a bit. A piece of chocolate shouldn't really cause such a full feeling.

I don't know, perhaps I'm more excited about hte coming weekend than I want to admit to myself. Or I'm not really sure what expects me. But I do have, or am supposed to have, a roof over my head and know how to come back. Everything in between is undefined. But that is the interesting thing here and I don't really have any second thoughts that it wouldn't be a good weekend anyway. But the feeling is still here. I haven't seen most of them for a year now. How will it all work out?

Also sitting on my bench is a nervous, older guy with lots and lots of luggage, getting up every other minute to ask random people on where the train to Paris departs from. The answer is always the same, but I was surprised by the number of train personnel speaking French.

Now it is rather quiet and my eyes start to hurt. Brilliant. But I can't really complain, it's neither a 3 hour wait in Bischofshofen in the middle of the night, nor a 6 hour wait in Strasbourg. Only, that I now really intend to stay for a few days in the latter town.

At long last I continued the Prague travel report in the last hour. It has to get finished. Let's see how much I can get done. A bench on a train station just is uncomparably more un-comfortable than one of these fauteuils they have in Austrian train wagons.

A minute ago the CityNightLine was announced to come in, but from the many people here no-one seems to get up to get that one. That's a bit unsettling. My train comes from Vienna and is bound to be rather filled. I'm happy that I reserved a seat. However, the train only has 3 wagons (and 2 additional ones with beds). That could be packed.

Next stop: Strasbourg, in about 5.75 hours. Good Night.

Due to that constant flow of words from that lady I didn't get around to finish the Prague travel report...

This is Kehl now, and then there is Strasbourg immediately afterwards. 2 stops with tram A in the direction of Illkirch, it's supposed to be according to my city map. The Citadines hotel in Strasbourg has 105 rooms, it shouldn't be possible to miss.

I could lay down now, but then I'll fall asleep and will sleep for too long. But if I don't lay down I'll be dead all day long. I think I'll lay down anyway.

And the Citadines can be missed, the entrance is rather unspectacular.

Back in the hotel, after a good, cold shower, it's already getting hot again. But we will leave for the campus in an hour or so. This makes me rather excited.

Now we are off to campus for registration and a reception dinner.

I started a list to see who is here and it ended up as being a list of who stays where and how to contact them, so we could all go out at night again and suddenly I was in charge of organising it all, which I liked, even if it surprised me. It makes you feel valued and accepted. Actually, quite a few people gave feedback on what I did with the mailing list and web-pages. I'm really happy that it's liked what I do. It seem to mean something to people.

By now there are 20 people of SSP'02 here, which is a fifth of the group. That's pretty impressive.

Since I got to organise people I had to get them to some beer at night, which we were, and which was the usual ISU mess and confusion. So I don't complain. But I think in the end most of us did get together in one place at some time anyway, which is really good. And it feels good to know that you yourself initiated it and kind of pulled it off. I like that feeling.

Just sitting at these beer-garden court afterwards with all the people was really feeling strange and odd and back into ISU-verse all over again. A very good feeling, really. It felt like no time has passed since last year at all.

Simon in the other bed in the room is asleep by now, lightly snoring. I hope it doesn't get any worse. Outside it was hot and sweltering all day, but it's starting to rain a bit now, so hopefully it'll cool down a bit. The room itself is rather fine, but still too hot and no air draft. I will try to get to sleep anyway now...

Today's weather is much better: cloudy, cool, freshly rained. Perfect.

I'm on the hunt for a croissant and tea. Let's see how far I get without speaking the language.

Okay, the ordering seemed to have worked.

This here is a random cafe on Place Kleber, a really beautiful old town center. I like that city, it feels good. However, I don't know if it is too good for building up the bonding between SSP-people since there are too many places to run off to at night. On the other hand the city-center isn't large enough that you wouldn't run into each other repeatedly anyway. I'll ask a few SSP'03 people perhaps...

On another table there are two other ISU people. I think they are from this year's SSP. They are on their own, while we in Pomona always met either at the pool or Los Olivos. There seemed to be much more contact within the group, but that is only my impression right now. Will see how that really is in this city. Also I keep hearing that our year was special, which I would like to believe. But every year will be special in one kind or another, I guess.

I seem to have aquired some knotted muscles in my neck. This is annoying. I hope it gets better over the day.

I think I'll head off to campus now, am dieing to see all the people again, they are fun. But, must not forget to sort out the money issues for the apartment with Isabelle and Simon. Knowing them, it won't be a problem, though.

I like the auditoriums here: network access at all seats. They are even switched on and working. Also it feels totally strange to be at ISU and not having to do anything other than meeting people and listening in on random talks. Let's see how lunch is, then.

Later today there will be the robot competition and I was already talking to people doint it this year (the goal is a bit different: there are only touch sensors and you have to actually collect samples. Also they only had 24 hours for development - which in my opinion is too little time). I went in there saying, "I'm just an alumn, don't mind me." And it was fine. That's what I like about ISU: you can really just walk up and start talking to everyone. It's not like a usual campus where people just walk by and you'd need an excuse to start talking to them, here you can just simply start. I think this is fantastic. Yes, it does feel like being back in the family. I'm finding myself smiling inwardly and outwardly all the time.

Nadia, who is TA this year, just wandered in asking people for lunch. It's a simple thing, but it adds to the feeling.

Today I'm wearing the CAISU t-shirt which I didn't realise how much it would be since you get talked to by the Canadians and I very nearly got to know hwat they are planning for Culture Night today. I was too honest, though, and told them that I'm just fake.

I will try to find myself a broing lecture tomorrow to write down stuff. Hopefully I'll wake up early enough to meet with Alicia at 9 for breakfast and go and find the Canadian red-head explosion for her presentation at 1115 or whatever time it is.

No, there is no chance I could describe today now when already half alseep.

What a day...

Yesterday it was so full of feelings and stuff that happened that several people, me included, kept asking if this really only was the second day. It felt like much more time had passed already.

There was the robot contest, which was different from ours. The introduction was a bit long-winded and the rules a bit different to what they were last year. Tehy had to negotiate their way through a field of obstacles and got points for every single one re-acted to. After that, gem-stones had to be picked up. Different was also that they only had 24 hours to prepare the robot and write the code and also only had bumpers on front as sensors, which is really limiting. But they did well and one group in particular succeeded to collect gem-stones.

Being here, within the universe, is a very intense experience again. I am feeling so comfortable and confident to be in the group. You don't feel the social pressure to perform all the time, you can just be. And this feels so mentally relaxing and rewarding, but is only possible because of all the common history.

Not it is day 2, as I said, but I can't get over it, it's so fantastic, that I have to mention it over and over again, and it is like we never left. Time moves faster (or slower) here than "outside", it's the way ISU works, it's the way we like it.

This morning was spent in town trying to get hold of resources for the masquerade tonight. We didn't find what we were looking for but with a combination of French, English and German the plans changed. Let's see how it works out.

Sitting in the Space Education Theme Day, it's fun to see Nadia hosting sessions, EdC, João, Geri giving talks.

Rocket Launch is supposed to be in 40 minutes. Looking forward to it. I remember last year where it was kind of a huge party on the playgrounds with the men, or let's say, boys, playing with that inbelievably fast RC car, while waiting for the rockets to be launched.

I now nearly forgot to mention Culture Night yesterday, which was entertaining in a special way again. The Australians turned the world upside down of course, Belarus is a beautiful country I'd like to visit, Greece I do know very well anyway, Russia and Belarus singing folk songs together, Nigeria showing the country as well. And then there was Canada, including the canoe of course. They are crazy, as usual, but that is expected anyway. I like that. Ah, not to forget Joe Canada.

A good idea was the food reception afterwards which ended in me having Australian pancakes with maple sirup, Canadian beer, Russian vodka, Belorussian caviar on dark bread, Greek retsina and ouzo. Yes, we did have Strasbourgian beer afterwarsd as well. After we found any. Trust Isabelle, she knows where to find it late at night.

Oh dear, 20 pages hand-written text here already. Interesting. Up to now, this experiment seem to be working out.

Very nearly, we had a lunch meeting, Carla, EdC, and me. No, in reality we were just sitting on a table together for lunch and I kept hearing that people really care about my mailing list and the web pages on my server, which is very, very good to hear. I love feedback, especially positive one. Makes me feel all fuzzy and warm inside.

As we were talking, the idea was to expand the ISU pages to include a dynamic SSP'02 database where everyone can update personal information. That idea was there before, I did some preliminary scripts already some time ago, but EdC's suggestion was to include the option to enter additional personal information and also add a Contact Directory that's dynamically created in pdf for everyone who wants to download it. Shouldn't be too difficult to implement, I do have to sort out privacy issues first, though, and how to handle log-in. EdC or Carla have to keep kicking me, going it, of course...

The ISU building has two nice, grassy terraces on top of the lower parts of the building. They aren't that green anymore this year, but it's still good to sit here, outside, in the shadow. Or just fall over and sleep, as some of the students here seem to like.

The last entry with real content was from the almost-lunch-meeting and I do have problems now remembering what happened afterwards. Oh, yes, of course: day of rocket launches, which mostly rather miserably failed this year. But, as Sven was already pointing out in an email---

interrupt: David showed up. He can't make it to dinner tonight, unfortunately. But sitting on the grass and talking is nice. He told me that these terraces are very deliberately, but without anyone actually saying anything, used as a place to escape the hectic for a while and hang out and calm down and have a smoke or two.

The train I'm going tot ake is actually called "Orient Express". It's of course not the traditional one, which is operated with the restored old wagons and costs a fortune to go from Paris to Venice - and I will at some point do that despite. This is a modern version just called that way and runs along part of the old route from Paris to Istanbul, but ends in Vienna. I'm still thrilled.

Also I'm filled, but this is a story for later. First I have to calm down a bit.

And at that night was Space Masquerade. Again, Sven already said most of the important stuff. For me, I rather enjoyed the audio-visuals, which seemed to work better than in the lectures. Although after choosing the best costume, many people left quickly to catch the last tram into downtown. This was a pit because the party at that point just seemed to be taking off. Also there were free drinks. Thanks ISU.

I think the place in front of the building is really a good one to have a party. I do like the building anyway. It's spacious and open. Talmon told me that hte openness makes the use of an announcement system unnecessary, if you have a loud voice.

I also think we did have a last beer in down afterwards, also I'm not so sure about that anymore.

Yesterday started with the brunch at FEC, where all the students live. I could give Lisa her skirt back, that I had borrowed for the masquerade. For us "outsiders" brunch didn't seem too special, but the "locals" kept pointing out that they usually only got cereals and baguettes. Also the restaurant for lunch and dinner was the better one of the two on campus. Now the alumni left, the people still at ISU are back to the old and apparently crappy restaurant.

Back to yesterday: some of us did parabolics and other flight stunts, but I went for the trip to chateua Koenigsbourg, which for me at least (and I assume for several others as well) was really impressive since it's not everday that you see a medieval castle completely rebuilt in the 1900s into what it was 300 years earlier.

I am fascinated by the middle ages and castles and how they are built and perch on top of pointy hills like this one, so this was exactly the right thing to do.

At night, back in Strasbourg, several people arranged to meet in front of the cathedral (which is the standard meeting point anyway, so acquiring random ISU people there is easy) to watch the sound and light show on the cathedral.

It really started to rain soon afterwards and waiting in the arcades it was kind of collectively decided not to go to Talmon's place again, which is really close and a cozy room.

In the end, after the rain let up a bit yesterday, mostly everyone made it to Citadines; Simon, Hazel and Edi had already left and EdC relocated onto the floor in my apartment. At some point Talmon and Alicia showed up as well. We had too much fun, though, as we were shouted at to be quiet. Well, it was quiet fun afterwards.

In the morning EdC had to leave early, but I nearly overslept for breakfast at Place Kleber nevertheless. Isabelle, Carla, Talmon, me, Alicia and her mom had a good breakfast in the same cafe I had croissant and tea on the first day. The air was fresh, clean, nice and cool and it was a sunny day again.

Alicia thanksfully helped me to get my nail polish off which I had put on for the masquerade. I wanted to go to ISU afterwards, but Talmon didn't let me so I helped seeing Alicia and her mom off at the train station. They were going to Germany to visit a friend. That resulted in me missing Isabelle at ISU, but she spotted me in the tram while waiting for her bus to the airport at the Baggersee station. I'm sorry we couldn't say good-bye properly, but I'm sure we'll meet again anyway. Travelling around Europe is just so much simpler these days with crash space everywhere. I tried to make sure that people know that there'll always be space for ISU folks in Graz, schedule permitting. I do hope I succeeded.

Also Carla and João left for Italy and we had to wave good-bye to them as well of course.

By the time I got to ISU it was 2pm. Talmon got me to have lunch before, which was good.

With the alumni mostly gone and only SSP people around the place seems to quiet and wide. It really had a spacious feeling that you could see during the weekend already. Now it's just the more apparent.

Then, sitting in one of the computer labs with Talmon, trying --- and failing miserably --- to catch up on email, my mind clicked back to Pomona and I felt like being there again - or still - whatever It was as if I'd never had left. Okay, it was not the Black Lab, but still. Rather eerie. I enjoyed it immensely.

I sent that little bit (bittle lit?) evil email saying that I was still on campus, which prompted Nadia to look in which lab I was. I felt really loved and accepted at that moment; that someone would actually come looking for me. I'm not really used to that, so that os one more reason for me to completely relax in the ISU family.

The next best thing was the shower I could take at Talmon's place, which I'm really grateful for, since the day has once again been one of these hot and humid ones.

Then again, the next Best Thing happened with the creperie, Nadia was taking us to for dinner. It was named Mili, which is the nick-name of my former girl-friend.

Good food was had, good wine was drunken, and soon it was time to say a last good-bye to people in front of the cathedral, where once again ISUers were meeting. This time for a MSS farewell dinner.

As for random occurrances, there was another one: Serina, the Hawaiian girl who'll be doing MSS'04 soon, went by and walked me to the train station. Already it felt like she'd been part of the family for some time as well, although she was only in Strasbourg early to find a room.

Well, I got my luggage from Citadines at 10 to 9 (which is supposed to have a receptionist present until 9pm on weekdays. I was a bit scpetic about that, but it worked out okay), took the tram to the train station which is really beautifully lit at night, waited for the train which was on time, found two free seats to write and sleep and here I am now.

The Weekend is over, I'm on my way home with lots of memories which I know will be fond ones. I start smiling evertime I think of it.

Coming here was well worth the money, well, no, priceless in fact --- in the good way. It was good for the community to come together again, good for the ISU spirit, good for the people, and espeically good for me personally at that point in my life as it put things into perspective and had me decide to really now look for decent, interesting, challenging work out there, instead of only half-heartedly stating the intention and not following through on it. I have two applications running right now. I'll have to wait first how they work out, though.

So, thanks to the family for being (there). It means a lot to me.

Well, it's 2330 and I think I'll try to sleep now and not to miss Salzburg at 0444 where I have to change into the train to Graz. Did I mention that I like trains?

However, falling asleep is unfortunate as I woul dhave liked to watch the sun rise, which is beautiful when slowly going over the Alps in a train.

I never before wrote or said anything about this, but I just realised that I always felt that way. It's good to have something you feel at home in geopraphically and physically.

Hmmm, staring at low, dark, slow moving clouds in a grey sky. Looks very green here, must have been rained quite a bit. Which is really good.

A hot tea would go really nice with breakfast now. I hope the bistro comes along soon.