A Year In Review

Angelika The end of the year is always a time to take a moment and look back. For me, setting up a new calendar and clearing out the address book has a symbolic character. So, on December 31st, I sat down and transferred birthdays and addresses into the new calendar, not only to create order but also to quietly reflect on the year 1998. In doing so, I thought of all of you who visited us in 1998, or those who tirelessly wrote to us, called us, and maintained contact despite the distance.

I was also able to transfer many new email addresses, and more and more American addresses are filling up my calendar, a sign that we have been living here for quite some time and that casual acquaintances have turned into friendships. The sight of all those addresses that I still have in my address book, to which many newsletters or birthday greetings were sent, but from which no response came all year, made me sad. Nothing is forever, a fact that I find hard to accept, and so I couldn't bring myself to delete these addresses from my address book. The hardest part was not being able to transfer the address of Michael's friend Jani from his student days. Jani died in 1998 while gliding, and seeing his address brought up images of Jani dancing at our pre-wedding party and sitting blissfully with us at the table as one of the last guests. Always in a good mood, always ready with an endless story. Nothing is forever...

365 days are behind us and 365 are ahead of us. 1998 was a good, adventurous year for us. With excitement and curiosity, we plunge into the next one. We hope to see many familiar faces again in 1999.

I'll leave you with that for now, take care!

Angelika and Michael