I’m very sorry for the bathroom picture but I just had to share this great idea practiced at my favorite coffee-shop in St.Louis.

Imagine a person running in for a cup of coffee early in the morning on her way to work. She’s sleepy, maybe worried about the day ahead, going over everything she needs to do on that day in her head. And then she rushes into the bathroom and sees her own reflection in the mirror with the words “Good Person” superimposed on her image. “Yes,” she suddenly remembers, “I am a good person.”

I find this to be very uplifting.

Once again, sorry for the toilet imagery on the blog.

Right after I unpacked on my return from Europe, I had to pack another suitcase because we are off on a romantic getaway to celebrate N’s birthday. I can’t tell you what the final destination of the trip is because it’s a surprise for N, and I don’t want him to wander onto the blog and discover it ahead of time.

But I’ll post photos of the secret final destination tomorrow.

On the negative side, my favorite restaurant in St. Louis has closed. It turned out to be too hard to maintain in the difficult economic times. The irony is that it closed down the same weekend when its very talented chef won a prestigious cooking award. Our trip starts and ends in St. Louis, and I hoped to visit this great restaurant as a final stop on the journey. Unfortunately, St.Louis didn’t manage to preserve this chic and expensive restaurant.

I know have a second blog. It’s a blog where I will conduct my summer online course. The course starts on May 23, and already students have started registering and leaving comments on the course blog. (The university enjoined me from making the blog open to the general public which is why the students have to register).

As I sit with two blogs open in my browser and commenting on both of them, I keep fearing that I will get confused and will forget which is which. The last thing I need is to regale my students with a few “vile freakazoids” in the course of teaching.

This will be my very first online teaching experience, and I wonder how it will work out.

Unlike the Londoners, the inhabitants of Berlin work hard to preserve the face of their city, its uniqueness, its beautiful buildings.

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