Sort of! I'm waiting for two students from one of my classes to submit their final paper. These are due to later than 4.5 hours from now. I've been to the final meetings at work and will be leaving for Central Europe tomorrow. I need to make a list yet this evening of things that need to be done when I get home -- nit picky things such as making sure that all agendas and minutes are on the S Drive for the committee for which I'm a chair, syllabi all in the right places on our electronic drives, and the ideas for revising the fall courses that need to take place. I found out today I'm picking up a new course next spring semester that I've not taught before so some preparation needs to be done for that. And good news, one course that will need revision because a new textbook is coming out will not be taught until Summer 2012. However, I will have to revise another course to a new textbook for Spring 2012 as well as develop a whole new course that I'll teach in Spring 2012. So the odd moments of summer and then officially in Fall Semester will keep me busy.
I got the final program for the International Week at the University of Pecs. I will look forward to going back "home" and seeing what has changed in the last 10 months in Pecs -- or finding the food treats I'm looking forward to that I can only get in Hungary or elsewhere in Central Europe. I need to double check the suitcase and make sure all the cords are there for electronics and add the cosmetics and first aid supplies. The shuttle comes to get me for the airport at 11:45 tomorrow.
I keep learning more too about what I'll be doing in Poland while I'm there in May teaching English.
No pictures from outdoors in Minnesota lately because the weather has been ugly! Pouring cold rain, which doesn't ring my bells to go walking and do photographs. However, the weather began to clear this afternoon so I took a walk to see how things look now that the river is being to recede. Officially, the river level is now at what would be called the Action Stage if the flood was advancing. There is no word for this when the river is receding -- the Inaction Stage sounds funny!
The picnic shelter across on Harriett Island has been under water most of the month. The flood began March 24 and it's now April 28 so this has been a long flood season.
One can see from the dark marks at the bottom of the tree trunks that the river continues to fall. The dark area is wood that has emerged and has not yet had a chance to dry. A lot of branches are marked with the yellow caution banners. I don't know why and it will be interesting to see if anything has changed when I get home.
Trails are still under water. The above is a view of the trail above only from the opposite direction.
I noticed a duck that has decided that the river is calm enough to start a nest. I wasn't sure there truly was something on this pier so I whistled and it moved, so it is a live critter! In addition to mallard ducks, I saw also a pair of Canada Geese (I don't know what the Canadians call these birds, probably something different, just as one can't buy French fries in France!), barn swallows, and couple of very fat robins. We used to say that if the robins were fat that meant they had wintered elsewhere and now had migrated back. However, now the bird experts say so many people feed birds in the winter that many robins no longer leave and eat quite well all winter.
Here is a close up of the grain elevator that has been shown in the web cam pictures. This building has been on the Historic Register since 1931 and the grain elevator was in operation until 1980. More about this sometime later this summer when I can get inside to take some photos.
And finally a glimpse of spring flowers. There are very few spring flowers around the area where I live. The majority of the landscape here is native plants, prairie flowers that normally flower in June, July, and August. Also this year spring is delayed by at least two weeks. I'm ready for some new views of the spring in Central Europe.
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