Quick update

Evidently I've gotten quite lazy.

Friday night I ran another 5000m on the track. Again, the men and women were combined because there were only 4 women and also because Stephanie was chasing a national class time and needed some competition. I wound up running alone and finishing in 19:46 with some really even splits, a 51-sec improvement over last time. To give an idea of how much of a time trial this was, Stephanie ran 17:51, the woman in second ran 18:46, and the fourth place woman ran 20:51. Another woman dropped out. This Saturday I'll race another 1500m and hopefully hit a PR.

We did make the trip to Kaiserslautern. FIFA had set up a couple big screens in town squares and there were thousands of people without match tickets who gathered to watch. Afterward the area turned into sort of an outdoor dance club. It was really cool to see everyone in their patriotic outfits dancing together.

Eventually the dance party wound down so Meredith and I wandered around to seek out a bar or club that would stay open late. After a couple failed attempts, a trip to Subway and some falafel we wound up sleeping on the floor of the train station with a couple hundred other soccer bums. There were so many people it was hard to find floor space!

This is my final week of teaching so I've been saying goodbye to my students. Some of them still think I am from England. A lot thought I would return next year. I've given them my address, so it will be interesting to see which ones actually follow through with writing me (in French).

My parents arrive next week!