The Catlins and Cloughs

Greetings ye few, yet faithful. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of events and during this hectic time we have failed to update our blog. We will try to be much better about this, and I feel that as we are now almost 5 months in to living in Europe, our schedules have become somewhat more routine, and therefore hopefully we can be a bit more organized about sharing our many experiences.

In an effort to be certain all events are covered, the most recent events will be shared before the big sha-bang of the two-week visit from my favorite mother and father in the world, Charmen and Larry.

After my parents left on Sunday (the 30th) morning, I packed my bags for my first business trip on behalf of Baylor, serving as a representative at a recruitment fair (or "College Night," as they are usually referred to). This was not my first recruitment fair, but it was the first time for me to attend a fair solely on my own. The event was in Brussels on Monday night, and I felt oh-so-professional taking the train to Brussels, staying in my business-like hotel and then heading to the venue later that evening to set-up for the fair. It was the perfect event to serve as my first fair, as it was a smaller crowd and mostly Americans (ex-pats and military families). I absolutely loved every minute of talking to the parents and high school students and sharing about my alma matter and can't wait to do it again and again. After the fair, I attended a reception, held for the presenters, and met several other people from all over the States and Europe and it amazed me how many people are in the growing field of international student recruitment in higher education.

The next day, I spent the overcast and dreary morning walking all around Brussels and was able to see the Grand Place, Mannekin Pis, Avenue Louise and much more. Although I was so grateful to travel somewhere completely new, one thing was for sure, traveling and sight-seeing by yourself isn't nearly as fun. I was glad to return home to Wiesbaden on Tuesday night and have a week to rest and recuperate before the next set of fairs (3) during the week of October 15th. It's great to feel truly professional again!

Now back to the fabulous two-week visit from the Catlins. After our back-to-back trips to Sweden and Ireland, we returned home again for one day to tidy up the apartment and welcome the fabulous Charm to our home on Saturday, September 15th.