Soon I leave for the airport, and thence to Amsterdam; and,if KLM functions more efficiently this time than it did on the way here, thence to Chicago in very short order. A few days on the ground, followed by Salt Lake City,followed by…no travel. Idouble checked my Palm Pilot to be sure of this when I realized it:as of a week from tomorrow, I have no business travel scheduled until December 27. APSA is in Chicago this year, so no need for a plane ticket or a hotel reservation for that. I`ve tried to be disciplined about saying no to additional commitments in these final twelve months before my folder goes in; but I haven`t gone six months without conference or research or talk travel since…um…probably my second year of grad school, 1995-6. Something will probably come up, but for right now,that`s an astonishingly long clear patch even to have on my schedule.
Had a great evening and night in Berlin, which is the teensiest bit livelier and more exciting than charming little Potsdam. The remnant of the Wall that I saw was surprisingly anti-climactic, partly because it was such a small and isolated stretch, partly because the former East Berlin has turned into such a virbant city all around it. The mrmorial to those killed trying to cross the Wall was, to me, more affecting than the Wall itself.
I`d also never heard (probably becuase I wasn`t paying attention) how extraordinary Berlin`s architecture is– the modern and commercial, the monumental and arts-oriented, and the monumental-modern fusion at the Reichstag. The skyscrapers here are some of the most impressive modern and postmodern buildings I`ve ever seen, and it all hangs together amazingly well considering the palimpset-like history of what got built when.
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