Here's what Knoxville's all about

And you thought Knoxville was just about mountains, crazy football fans, and hillbillies! Well, check out this recent New York Times article on how to spend 36 nice hours here. Granted, my big city bias initially made me silently wonder how one, as a tourist, could honestly spend a whole weekend here and not get bored. And though it sounds like most of the 36 hours were spent eating and the article makes Knoxville sound slightly bigger and more exciting than it really is (honestly, guys), it's a great piece that shows just how much there is to do and see here (and how many cool restaurants there are). So: Thank you, New York Times! I know what places I'll be checking out this summer...

first harvest/ erste Ernte

We returned to a yard full of sweet herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Naturally, we are very happy about this and feel encouraged to grow more of our own vegetables in the future. The radishes were ready to harvest, so were the strawberries and the herbs. In the meantime, our little lavender from last year has grown into a full-size adult lavender blooming in every direction and we've got zucchini, egg plant, parsnip, squash, onions, cantaloupe, tomatoes, raspberries, and hopefully soon also potatoes on the way.

back home

Sorry for the late post - we made it back home alright very (!) early Friday morning. We spent another great day in Mexico City on Wednesday. On Thursday we had breakfast and left for the airport, from where we took off to Houston, then Tampa, then Nashville (where we got at 11.30 pm local time) and driving to Knoxville. We finally pulled into our driveway at 2.30 am. House and garden were still standing and in good health (from what we could tell). Ben and Elly, our dear neighbors, took excellent care of both and we are very, very thankful for that. Now we've arrived, unpacked, done laundry, and caught up with friends. Tomorrow the life of teaching and being taught starts again (then again...I guess we really teach and are taught a little something every day, regardless of profession). All philosophy aside - I start teaching in the truest sense of the word tomorrow and Patrick has two days before he heads out to read this year's AP US History essays in Louisville for a week (and some monetary compensation, yes).

And because the working life has not yet started entirely, below are some more pics of Mexico City - a city, we conclude, that's vastly underrated. People try to make you believe it is a huge, ugly, dangerous, polluted place. While the first and last are true, the other two we think need to be qualified. We walked around the city day and night and took the metro - all of which were perfectly fine. As for ugly - it is loud and that's ugly somtimes, but the city itself certainly has a lot (!) to offer and we can only recommend you check it out when you're headed to Mexico.

Mexico City, one last time