Back Home

Wow, so I'm actually back in NY, spending some last moments with my laptop, uploading and copying pictures.

It's great to be home to see Ken, the cats, the DVR (I cannot lie), my favorite foods and my tea assortment, my books and my own bed with my own pillow. My shower that actually closes all the way and a shower head that doesn't fall on me. It was pretty harsh though coming back. Zaid gave me a ride to 42nd Street from where I took the A train to go home.

I almost dropped my laptop when I heard the first car honking and got a whiff of air that smelled like urin when I walked down the subway stairs. On the train, as I was trying to take off my bag, a big guy took the seat I had aimed for, and another one was leaning against the pole so that I had a hard time holding on. Good old New York. On the other end of the car a father was yelling at his child, b.... this and f... that. Yes, I'm home again.

When I woke up this morning I took a mental walk out of the Meierhof towards the lake. I sat on the bench and looked over the lake, up the Untersberg and across the other mountains of the Alps. I walked over to breakfast. I wonder what the castle is like now, without us there, all quiet and more magical even.

I took out our e-mail list and transferred some of my blogs to the BMCC blog page. I looked over our welcome letter to the alumni of the program. I looked over other people's blogs. I chatted with Jamie and I watched some law & order. It's good to be back.

I think a big part of why the seminar was so amazing was that we were treated with so much respect. There was the honor system in the Bierstube. There was all the meals and coffee breaks we got, we were almost treated like celebrities. It was like celebrities cruises, just in Salzburg in a castle. It was perfect. We had so much freedom and at the same time so many responsibilities.

It was such a good environment. I'll miss that. I'll miss so much of it. It still seems so close, almost as if I can really just walk out the door and I'll be back there. That'll change soon, but that's OK. All the intellectual stuff will be with me forever.