I am writing this blog post from a small village in Hungary. Not kidding, this is the view from my hotel room:

ImageI am working here because Mike is working here. He’s currently at a plant in Papa, Hungary and I am in a nearby town waiting for him to be done for the day so we can head to Budapest. I don’t even know the name of the town exactly. Vezprem? Either way, this is quite the adventure. Mike has been here for over 2 weeks now, working in Germany. He’s starting his last week here working in Hungary, so I joined him to travel here over the weekend. I fly home tomorrow, and he flies home Thursday. It’s a quick trip, and not exactly timed perfectly, what with the semester starting last week officially, but sometimes a get-away is needed. And every vacation I have taken in the last 4 years hasn’t exactly been work-free, hence the reason why I am lesson planning in a remote Hungarian village.

Yep, this vacation is really the end of my summer. On Thursday I meet 50 new TE401 students, and next Tuesday I meet the 5th graders I’ll be working with for my dissertation study as well as meeting with my committee to talk about what I finished this summer. I’m about to get a lot busier, so just about the only time I have left to myself is an 8-hr plane ride.