Friday, November 8, 2013

I Proudly Present: The All New Wanderstrudel

I am not a stable person. Never have been. I mean of course, in the geographical sense of the word as I do like to think of myself of a mentally very stable person (although, I am sure, some of you probably beg to differ... ). My restless lifestyle - every other message I get from a friend starts with "where are you now?" - seems to have caught up with my blog. So get ready for the big news: Wanderstrudel has moved.
I have struggled, I have fought with Blogger, but in the end, I just had to face the facts: The Blogger platform and I are just not meant to be. As it is sometimes with complicated relationships, there was a lot of passion and a lot of fun, but also huge and long fights. And the cut was fast and deep. It hurt, but it just had to be done. More than for my benefit, actually for yours, dear readers. Because mostly, that is what I am concerned about. As intrigued as you are by my writings, and as willing to forgive the poor layout and design, and even the user enmity of the blogger platform, why not make life easier for you? I feel, as a passionate blogger and as someone who spills my life on you without asking you if you even care, I owe that to you! So let's be honest here, Blogger drives me CRAZY, as crazy as the Britney Spears song. Probably even more so. I don't want to bore you with the all the technical details that I have struggled with in the past year (yes, year. I am very persistent and I really wanted to give this platform a chance ... or two ... or three ... or fifty!), suffice it to say that this blog was trapped in the internet stone age. It was just time to move on. Wanderstrudel has now gone 2.0. And it is sooo exciting, just thinking of all the possibilities out there, it makes my socks shake.
I want to thank you all for being so faithful and patient, but we've heard you. You wanted change (deep down inside, so did we), and now you got it!!!
We proudly present, the all new, the all 2.0 WANDERSTRUDEL ON WORDPRESS! Check us out, comment, complain, rant about the new site - because now you can a) do that easily and b) I can even do something about it! And for the ones of you who are very resistant to change and just like old habits, don't worry. Nothing from the good old Wanderstrudel has been lost or tossed away. Think of it as a  make-over. It's the same foundation, but it looks SO much better.
Goodbye Blogger, see y'all on WordPress!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Move on, USA!



Waiting at the check-in line at the airport, I randomly looked at my waiver visa paper in my passport. For some reason, until that very moment I had never bothered to take a closer look at it - other than checking the date to make sure I wasn't leaving the US on the wrong date. So here, at the Cincinnati airport, it is staring right at me, my waiver visa for: Marinela Potor, from the Federal Republic of Western Germany.
EXCUSE ME??? You GOT to be kidding me! WESTERN Germany??
Almost 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin wall and after almost 25 years of ONE re-united Germany, the US is still caught up in the Cold War? I understand that for a loooong time the US considered anything that went beyond the shade of purple as a huge threat, and Russia and its allies were clearly enemy number 1. This was back in 1967. And in 1982. And probably still in 1988. But this is 2013!!! The world has moved on. So dear USA, it's about time you do it, too!