fulbrightermara's posterous

Invitation to view Mara's Picasa Web Album - Lake Martin boat tour

You are invited to view Mara's photo album: Lake Martin boat tour
Lake Martin boat tour
Oct 28, 2010
by Mara

Message from Mara:
A tour of Lake Martin near St. Martinville, Louisiana.
http://www.city-data.com/articles/Lake-Martin-Breaux-Bridge-LA.html
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ein Ausflug/an excursion

Great day trips within an hour of San Antonio.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/BoerneComfortBlanco#

Boerne, Texas
http://www.visitboerne.org/About+Boerne/default.aspx

Comfort, Texas (the Germans wanted to call it Gemuetlichkeit but realized that it would be too difficult to pronounce so they settled for Comfort.
http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasHillCountryTowns/ComfortTexas/ComfortTexas.htm

Blanco, Texas
http://www.blancotex.com/

Back in the USA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mara Anderson <Mara.Anderson@millersville.edu>
Date: Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Subject: FW: Back in the USA
To: "mara.mranders@gmail.com" <mara.mranders@gmail.com>

________________________________________
From: Mara Anderson [mara.mranders@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:23 PM
To: Mara Anderson
Subject: Back in the USA

I returned from my Fulbright semester in Latvia (http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/LeavingRezeknesAugstskolu#) in June but haven't posted anything since I returned.  I am currently in San Antonio Texas where Gerry is working at the Defense Language Institute.  I considered also applying for a job at DLI but then remembered that I had retired from teaching!  I arrived home from Latvia on June 29 and on June 30 my godson from Latvia who had spent a year as a Rotary Exchange student in Junction Texas came to visit on his way back to Latvia.  We visited Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital. (http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/HarrisburgNewYorkCity#)   We spent July 4 in Washington DC (I have pictures somewhere but can't find them at the moment - I hope I haven't lost them) and then took him to New York City (http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/NewYorkCity?authkey=Gv1sRgCN60otb9uMie-gE#) before he flew home from Newark. Shortly after he left Gerry and I packed up for the road trip to Texas. (I have to find these pictures) It was a great trip! I spent three weeks in Texas and then flew back to Pennsylvania because I had to start my foreign language student teacher supervision for Millersville University.  I flew out to Texas again for the Labor Day weekend.  Up until recently there was a direct flight from Philadelphia to San Antonio.  Since that flight no longer exists I flew from Baltimore this time.  We spent Thanksgiving with Gerry's mentor and family.  On Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest shopping day, black because the stores make money as opposed to red when they loose money) instead of shopping we experienced a bit of German in Texas.  We went to Fredericksburg (http://www.fredericksburg-texas.com) which is one of the many German settlements in Texas (http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/FredericksburgTexas#)

to see the Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid) which had been brought here from Germany.  We didn't stay for the lighting which was to take place that evening.  We learned a little about the history of the area from the guide at the Verienskirche, which is now a museum.  We ate at the Altdorf Restaurant.  The town seems to be a mecca for tourists and shopping - many small shops.  We found a great music store and talked to the violin maker who was a graduate of the Chicago School of Violin Making.  We came back to San Antonio in time to go downtown to the riverwalk parade which marks the beginning of the holiday season.  Too many people ... we couldn't get very close to the river.  We managed to find a spot on a bridge and after a wait of about an hour saw the lights go on.  We didn't wait to see the parade of boats on the river. On Saturday we spent some time in the city and then visited two of the San Antonio missions
 (http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/SanAntonioMissions?feat=email#)  http://www.nps.gov/SAAN/index.htm
We ended up at the Pig Stand a well-known restaurant for brunch.(http://www.maryannspigstand.com<http://www.maryannspigstand.com/>)

That was November.... yes, i started this way back then but today it is January 14, 2010 (Happy New Year to all!) and my resolution for today is to get this sent off. I've been working on two computers and realize that some of the pictures are on the other computer.  I will not take the time to find them now but instead send what I have.  I will post the missing pictures when I find them.

Ligo and Jani (midsummer)greetings to all Latvians

I haven't kept up with my posterous postings but I have uploaded my pictures to picasa so now I'm going to do what will probably be my last posterous posting for a few weeks and add those pictures.  Thursday, June 25, will be my last day in Rezekne.  A car and driver have been arranged to take me to Ikskile which is about 3 hours from Rezekne.  I'll spend one night there with relatives.  The next day I'll go to Riga where I'll spend the time until my Lufthansa flight Riga-Frankfurt- Dulles on June 29.  This experience has been very good.  Fulbright provides such wonderful programs.  I've been fortunate to participate in two - this Fulbright scholar program and the Fulbright Japan program.  I encourage you to take a look at the website and take advantage of this opportunity if  you are eligible or pass it on to someone else. http://www.iie.org/Template.cfm?section=Fulbright1
Before I needed to start seriously thinking about packing up to leave Latvia I took a trip to Kiel, Germany to visit two women I had met at a conference in Rezekne. I left Rezekne on election day (local and EU elections)  http://picasaweb.google.com/mara.mranders/ElectionDay#   I hadn't been to Germany for about 6 years so it was good to be back again.  It was very interesting to spend time in Kiel and other parts of Schleswig-Holstein since most of my time in Germany has been spent further south.  I love Kiel.  I was so fortunate to have such gracious and generous hosts there - Annelore and Uta. My Kiel pictures are not organized well enough to post yet but I will do that soon. I think that the pictures I am posting here have explanations with them or at least brief captions so I probably don't have to say more here. 
I thought that being in Latvia for 6 months would give me an opportunity to see and do everything on my to-do list but unfortunately that was not to be.  I was here to work, to teach and that I did and feel good about the results.  The things not done will just have to wait for the next trip.  I arrived with heavy suitcases full of books and other teaching materials in addition to the 4 boxes I had sent through the US Embassy diplomatic pouch.  I thought that going home would be easier but here I am in the midst of trying to figure out how to pack everything.  I'm trying to get everything together during Latvians' biggest festive celebration - Ligo and Jani (see midsummer celebration explanation below on Latvian Institute site).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Trying to catch up...

It is getting harder and harder for me to keep up with posts here.  I have tried to keep up with the uploading of pictures so I will simply post links to the pictures. Most of them include some sort of explanation - at least a caption.  Since the last time I wrote the semester has ended and I have survived the evaluation process. There have been several events in Rezekne, including a visit by the President of Latvia.  The past two days have been excursion days for me.  I have seen many beautiful and important places in the Latgale and Vidzeme regions.