Roldan, Spain

["Rollin', rollin', rollin'...." (or whatever the official title is to the Rawhide theme song)]

I took an entire week of vacation this summer, which is quite unusual for me (particularly as it did not involve a trip to the United States, which automatically tacks on a couple of days just for travel). I wasn't sure how it would go as I am generally not very good at relaxing, but I really did need some time off. And I needed (really needed) to work on my golf game. So I decided to head to Spain with a friend. Roldan, Spain, in particular, as a friend-of-the-friend had just bought an apartment/condo in a new development centered around a brand new Jack Nicklaus course. What's not to like? Well, more on that later.

One generally flies into Alicante, Spain and then drives an hour or so to get to Roldan. Fine. Only one small (and really quite unbelievable) problem - Lufthansa does not fly there directly from Frankfurt. Horrors! So I decided to dust off my OneWorld membership and fly on Iberia, which involved connecting through Madrid.

Um, let me just say that Iberia was not as, um, punctual as is Lufthansa. I'm not sure if it was special for our flight or if this is a regular occurrence. I had about an hour to make the connection and I had been through Madrid before and it didn't seem like a large airport (again, compared to ORD or FRA or MUC), so it seemed doable. Orrrr.....not.... We were delayed for some unknown reason (they didn't share this information wtih us - or at least not in English or German), so we landed 10 minutes prior to departure. Not so good. So I was hustling through a interminably (no pun intended) long terminal, thinking I had no chance of catching the flight since the doors on a Lufthansa flight would already be closed by this time, I was pretty sure. But no worries - when I got to the gate, they hadn't even STARTED boarding. Whew! We boarded about 30 minutes later and were equally delayed in our arrival to Alicante, but no big deal.

At baggage claim, I was shocked and delighted to see that my bag had made the connection. But I couldn't even find the area where bulky luggage items would be unloaded. Turns out they are put on the regular belt with everything else. Which belt had now stopped with no sign of my clubs. Doh! So I filed a baggage claim, they gave me an internet site and a phone number where I could check the status and off I went.

Shortly after this, I realized that the phone number didn't work. (Yes, I had added the country code.) I kept getting some odd message in Spanish that even I could hear said something to the effective of "number cannot be used." I thought maybe it was like when you call a toll-free number in the US from outside the country and they announce that it's not free outside the US and international charges would apply. But for those circumstances, you just wait and the call (usually) finally goes through. Not so here. I decided I would just wait until we got to the condo and then try the web site for information.

But first we had to find the darn place. The GPS we were using could not find the location where I was supposed to go, assumably because the place was new and the streets weren't in the GPS yet. Hmmmm.... We looked at the materials from condo owner that described the property for more information on how to get there. Nothing. So we tried using our respective (notoriously poor and slow) BlackBerry web browser to find out more information. Nada. Hmmmm.... Well, how big could Roldan be? We could at least point the GPS there and then perhaps it would be obvious. Or....not.... Even with a stop to ask for directions at a gas station. The place seemed to be the best-kept secret around! And then, in the distance, there was a cluster of white buildings near the edge of the hills that looked like it they might possibly be like the white buildings pictured in the materials from friend-of-the-friend. And that's how we finally found the place.

The development was huge, though a couple skeleton structures suggested that perhaps the complex had been developed around the time of the economic crisis and there was perhaps not enough funding to continue. This would also be supported by the lack of any general retail area, such as the "town square - coming soon" that apparently was traveling an awfully long way to get there if the signs were any indication. (It actually reminded me of the Metra Market that was "coming soon" across the street from the condo I bought in Chicago but only materialized over 5 years later after I had already moved to Germany.) The names of the streets that were athletes also was perhaps slightly dated as it still contained Lance Armstrong Way, though I don't know if he was cleared of those charges ultimately. Noticeably, though, there were virtually no cars around. Maybe that's because the summer was over (it was early September), but still....

So, after a quick tour of the place and a review of the materials that had been provided, the gap between expectations and reality became quite clear. A few examples....

Brochure: Air conditioning pre-installed

Reality: Duct work, perhaps, but no functionality. It was over 30 degrees Celsius (in Fahrenheit - "hot" or "too hot to not have A/C") each day I was there.

Brochure: Pool

Reality: Pool with two park benches. No lounge chairs. No shade umbrellas.

Brochure: Flat screen TV

Reality: Did not work

And a few other highlights:

• They were treating for insects two nights, so you couldn't leave windows open. Recall, 30 degrees, no A/C.
• No telephone, no WiFi.
• Maximum of 1 "bar" of cellular coverage while inside
• Apartment was missing a few basics (e.g. salt and pepper (not to be confused with Salt 'n' Pepa), oven mits, baking sheet (imagine trying to bake a frozen pizza without these last two items), dish towels, item for washing dishes, coffee filters, toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags/trash bin -- and the list goes on. In a nutshell, camping in an indoor structure with less airflow than if you were truly camping.

I tried to take a few (okay, a LOT) of deep breaths. It didn't really help. What I really wanted to even try to relax was a place where I could prop up my feet and read a book in the cool/shade. This did not exist.

What quickly became clear, though, was that my idea to use the internet to check the status of my golf clubs was not going to work. So I did what any evil partner would do - begged a peep to help me. Using BlackBerry Messenger, I asked a trusted peep if she was online and, fortunately/unfortunately (since it was a Sunday) she was. I asked her to check the Iberia website and see if there were any other communication means other than the phone number that didn't work or the web site. As it turns out, they had a text message option. So with a text message in a specific format with the lost baggage claim number, I was finally able to contact them. Which didn't necessarily mean that the bags got there in time, but there was contact. Of course, the best part was when someone called me (over 48 hours after my flight had landed in Alicante) saying they could not find the address I had given them on their GPS. Yeah.... But you"re Spanish-speaking! In the end, I had to go to the security guard-shack at the entrance to the development, give them the phone and have them tell this guy where I was really located. Good times.

After I got used to the camping mode, the week got a bit better. Well, that and the very enjoyable golf every day on the course that had only been in operation since January. Really nice. But the true highlight was, on the last day there, when driving back to the complex, I came across a shepherd leading his sheep across the road right in front of the development. Awesome.

21 February 2011 - Visiting the Doctor, Part 3

So with the last posting getting us up-to-speed on my history with the German medical establishment, allow me to continue to more recent events.

About a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a hacking cough. Couldn't get back to sleep. Couldn't stop coughing. Not good. So even I know that this might mean a visit to the doctor was in order. The doctor basically has open office hours in the mornings, so you can just show up without an appointment, which is kind of a crazy idea to me. But that's what I did in this particular instance.

I wasn't quite as surprised this time when, in his office after I had explained my situation, the doctor asked me to pull up my shirt. He listened to my breathing in various spots (which deep breathing caused me to break out into an extemporaneous coughing fit) and then said he didn't want to give me antibiotics at this point. Instead, he gave me a prescription (I use the term loosely - not a controlled substance here in the way we might think in the US) for a "natural" remedy but also ordered some blood to be taken for testing and recommended an "injection" of vitamin C. Now I don't know about you, but the idea of a literal shot in the arm of vitamin C was a new thing and somewhat fascinating. Um, it's not when it amounts to an actual IV (yes, as in intravenous) that makes a hyperactive person like me try to be still for 30+ minutes as stuff is shooting into me and, of course, while I am still coughing like I am sure there is a lung ready to be forcibly ejected.

As the day wore on, I thought I was feeling better and proceeded with a trip to Switzerland later in the day. By that evening, I was quickly loosing energy and the ability to breathe, the latter of which is particularly troubling. I got very little sleep that night between long bouts of unabated coughing. Made it to my client meetings the next day, but that night was even worse. When I returned to Frankfurt the following morning, I went straight to the doctor as things clearly were getting worse, not better.

He told me at this point that it was a good thing they did that bloodwork as it seems I had a "lung infection." Now, if you're like me, hearing that term made me wonder whether gangrene was taking over my lung tissue or something. No, not so much. I guess it equates to "bronchitis" but the term "lung infection" still troubled me. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics, ordered (versus requesting, which clearly had had no impact earlier in the week) me to stay at home not only the rest of that day but also the following day. Grrrr.....

He also told me to go in the following day (Friday) for another (this would be my third) vitamin C IV. I was going to skip, but since I was not allowed to go to work, I figured I might as well go. Um, yeah, after the IV I was preparing to go back home, but the nurse said that I should return to the waiting room. Okay.... When they came back to get me, they said that I was to have an EKG. Ummm.... Seriously? Which they did right there. More of the "take off all your clothes from the waist up" that a year ago might have alarmed me, but which I was getting used to by this time. After that, I was told to come back the next week for a follow-up.

This is when I finally kinda figured out what was going on. While I had forgotten that my heart had an asymptomatic long QT syndrome that could be exacerbated/made symptomatic by antibiotics, he had not. Hence his trying a bunch of natural remedies first. And when it became clear I needed antibiotics, he did an EKG after the antibiotics had been in my system 24 hours and then again after the treatment was over to determine whether the antibiotics were having any adverse impact on my heart. All good. Just might've been nice for him to say this a bit earlier on when all I wanted him to do was give me the German version of NyQuil so I could just sleep through the night. But in the end, I lived to fight another day, so all is good. And he gave me a whole bunch of reports on the bloodwork and EKGs for my own use (and to scan and send to my awesome doc in the US).

15 February 2011 - Visiting the doctor, Part 2

(Perhaps the theme music for E.R., House or even Trapper John, MD)

This is a far overdue posting, which is finally only making it because I want to add part 3 to the saga, which happened today. But much happened in between my trip to the doctor today and the one from the posting of May 2010. So some backfilling is in order....

Last summer, I seemed to be having a consistently high (for me) heart rate. I suspect it was primarily related to stress, but I finally decided to visit the doctor. Given that nothing ever came out of the failed attempt in May, I decided to look for a new doctor. The firm has an arrangement with International SOS which, in addition to being able to find medical care for me when I am in the middle of nowhere and may need to be airlifted out, also can find local healthcare professionals in other countries. So I called them up and asked for a local doctor who was bilingual and whose staff members were bilingual as well. And they delivered.

The new doctor's practice had a nice website that boasted of its "Integrated City Practice" approach, having a cardiologist on-site as well as internists and an accupuncturist, with other specialists within walking distance. The building is an old pre-war house (think brownstone) on Schweizer Straße about 100 meters from the river. You walk in through a big wooden door and follow some signs to the practice on the second floor.

Now, I thought perhaps there would be a sort of modern rehab inside the building, it being a medical practice and all. Not so much. The high ceilings with detailed wood crownwork are still visible with some fascinating lighting fixtures. The windows in the waiting room were tall French doors. Hardwood parquet floors throughout in beautiful patterns. I was taking all of this in, when I was called into the doctor's office. And I do mean the doctor's office. It was a big room with a large desk and two chairs in front of it, and a large couch/seating area in the other half. He invited me to take one of the seats in front of the desk, where I had a nice view of the courtyard out behind through the open windows sans window treatments. So with this in mind, you can imagine how I thought it a bit odd when he unceremoniously asked me to pull up my shirt. Uhhh.... But he was just going to listen to my lungs, my heart and then take my blood pressure. This was when I began to realize how prudish we may have become in the US.

His initial comments were that the heartrate/blood pressure readings I had brought with me were not particularly high, he thought it might make sense to do a few tests just to be sure. First step was to outfit me with a low-tech version of what the May doctor tried - 24-blood pressure monitoring. The lower tech version was a device the size of about two walkie talkies worn in a bag slung across me and with a rubber hose snaking down my sleeve to an arm cuff. Ever 20 minutes, the machine would power up and take my blood pressure. Including during sleep. Not so much fun. It was particularly awkward when I attended a dinner event and during the speech by a banker I started to "buzz" with the blood pressure taking event. Awkward.....

Step two was a full battery of tests, all performed at their office. The procedure rooms, if you will, are really just separate compartments created out of somewhat temporary partitions and some curtains. Not exactly noiseproof, but I guess if the doctor gives you the news that you are dying or have some awful disease while you are in his huge office, perhaps whatever goes on in the procedures room is not a big deal?

The tests were performed one at a time. You waited until you were called, went in for one of the tests, then were returned to the waiting room until your name was called again. The tests, though, were all performed by different people, so this perhaps made more sense. The tests included a breathing test, bloodwork, ultrasound of major organs and a separate ultrasound of the heart. All were directly connected to computers to capture and display the results. And what was perhaps most surprising is that the ultrasounds were performed by my primary care physician and the cardiologist themselves, whereas I would have expected some kind of technician to do those in the US. The prudish American in me was awakened many times, such as when, after he had performed the ultrasound of major organs, my doctor said I could get dressed. Apparently while he was still in the room. No big deal. But honestly, once I got used to it, it is so much smarter than dealing with the paper gowns that we have in the US that are more awkward than helpful most of the time.

The third step was a review of the results. Nutshell, I have a great heart that is responding well to stress. But the doctor's guidance was that I just needed to have less stress in my life and I should at a minimum take a three week vacation. At which point I literally laughed out loud. Which was followed by him making a remark about workaholic Americans.... He then noted that as someone trained in western medicine, he is trained to look for symptoms and causes, but not whole life health so he suggested I consider accupunture to reduce my stress levels and improve my overall health in a systemic manner. Uhh...? More reminders that I wasn't in the US anymore as you know that wouldn't be covered by most health insurance plans. All in all, though, a satisfactory experience. Anyone want to guess what all of these tests cost?

9 January 2011 - Weimar

I had the sudden urge to get out of the house and explore this weekend. As is typical with me, I started with availability of Starwood properties and saw, to my delight, that the Hotel Elephant in Weimar was only €99/night. Deal! For reference purposes, the Hotel Elephant is part of their Luxury Collection and for the most part is either fully booked or up in the €300 range. Yes, I have been stalking it. So anyway, it seemed like an omen and I booked a night. Of course then I had to remember why I wanted to go to Weimar.... Nearly a year ago when a friend and I went to Leipzig (see the 7 March 2010 posting), there was some sort of reference to Weimar, so I assumed there must be something to see, so I bought a train ticket and was off, with no discernible plan.

Weimar is about a 2.5 hour train ride on the IC (Inter City, not to be confused with the higher-speed Inter City Express). I could pick up the train right here at the Südbah

nhof station a couple of blocks from my house, which was an added bonus. I somehow scored a compartment all to myself, so it was quite a pleasant ride. I was a bit disturbed, though, to see what appeared to be quite massive flooding of fields and lowlands, which appears to be the result of the melting of the massive snow that fell on Germany around the holidays. I continued to be amazed both in Weimar with the swollen Ilm River as well as on the way home at the continued high water levels. The picture here is not a great one because the train was going so quickly, but you get the idea with the road disappearing into a giant puddle.

Hotel Elephant is located right on the Marktplatz, so it is in the heart of the old town. I had looked at the hotel's web site and it said that it was about a mile from the train station. I only had a small overnight bag, so when I arrived (without a map), I pretty much just started following people to what I figured must be the main drag of town. With the assistance of my BlackBerry GPS, I made it there in a more or less direct route, to the extent a direct route is ever possible in a small town with twisting, turning streets at not-exactly right angles. I was able to conduct the hotel check-in entirely in German, which always pleases me. Yes, I'm pretty sure they realize I'm not German, but the fact that people don't immediately switch to English always delights me. They gave me a nice suite with a view overlooking the town square. Really nice property if anyone is ever thinking of visiting. I also enjoyed the large and rather heavy brass elephant pendant attached to my old-school key. You know, the type where you leave the key at the front desk when you leave. Love it!

In a nutshell, Weimar has a rich cultural history, hailing as home at one time or another to Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt, among others (Bach being the link I recalled from the Wartburg stop en route to Leipzig). You might also associate Weimar with the Weimar Republic of Germany from 1913-1933, which would not be a misnomer since the republic's constitution was drafted in Weimar since Berlin had a lot of violent demonstrations that caused the National Assembly to consider it (Berlin) not safe for meeting. Hence Weimar. Weimar also was the start of the Bauhaus movement in the late 1910s. Think Walter Gropius and you will be transported to art history as it relates to architecture. It also, unfortunately, has a dark history in that the Buchenwald concentration camp was only about 8 kilometers from Weimar. Weimar was part of East Germany until the fall of the wall.

Weimar today seems to be mostly a tourist destination primarily focused on the intelligentsia who have lived there throughout the years. (For those interested, Liszt's 200th birthday will be celebrated this year!) It is also home to the Onion Festival. Some things I cannot make up. And no, no relation to The Onion.

All in all, it was a delightful old city. I mostly just wandered around. I was particularly intrigued by the ruins of what appears to be a cathedral near the Ilm. The ruins were magnificent. I will have to dig deeper for the rest of the story. But I highly recommend it to others. But I make no promises on either the Onion Festival or the celebration of Liszt's birthday.....

1 January 2011 - Silvester in Frankfurt

Tonight was my first opportunity to celebrate Silvester (New Year's Eve) in Germany. It is a bit different from the parties and other celebrations I have attended in the US, including the ball drop in Times Square in New York in frigid cold weather. Here, or at least in Frankfurt, there is less of a countdown atmosphere and more emphasis on, well, other things.

First, I did a bit of research on why it is called Silvester. I have only come up with a partial answer, which dates back to Pope Sylvester 1 in the 4th century, whose feast day is 31 December. Apparently, the day became associated with New Year's Eve in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was updated and the last day became 31 December. Or something like that. (This does not, of course, explain the different spelling.) That said, however, some of the traditions celebrated by Germans can apparently be traced back to some pagan practices of Germanic tribes that also occurred at the end of the year. If you want some deep history, there is a pretty good summary at http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091231-16425.html.

One of the traditions I have heard about is not quite so old, but is perhaps even more fascinating than some of the pagan traditions. And that is the viewing of a play titled, "Dinner for One." The play is a British play from the 20s and is apparently not very popular in the UK itself, but has become something of a holiday cult elsewhere. It is one of the few clips that is played without German voiceovers, in fact. A black and white version from the early 1960s appears to be the definitive version and it's relatively short (you can view it on YouTube), only about 10 minutes. As far as I can tell, an old woman invites four of her friends to dinner, but apparently they have all died, so her butler plays their parts, including drinking the wine that comes with each course, so he becomes increasingly inebriated. That's pretty much it. Oh, and references to, "same procedure as last year." What is interesting is that this is not only a German classic now. A Norwegian friend said that it is also popular there, though they watch it on 23 December and stole the tradition from the Swedes. Who knew? Anyway, more information on the play if you're now hopelessly intrigued is available at Wikipedia (where else?) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinner_for_one.

Another tradition is fireworks. This dates back to some of the pagan practices and the Teutons freaking out about the sun during the winter and also relates to some pagan practices related to noise. So when my neighbors invited me to dinner (for more than one) and then fireworks at the river, I assumed that the city of Frankfurt had a big fireworks show each year. Not so much. Essentially, it is a free-for-all with people showing up and setting off their fireworks at random. This began a bit before midnight and continued in earnest for a good half hour into the new year. And these were pretty big fireworks, not just sparklers and things like that. I'm not sure where they buy these, but everyone seemed to have them. No regulation whatsoever in the use of said fireworks. We hung back a bit from the river under a tree and were still alarmed at times by what people were doing and how the fireworks were being lit and set off. But it was truly amazing. Something about the randomness and so many people setting off so many fireworks at the same time made for a near continuous "finale" of fireworks.

Of course, no German celebration would be complete without consumption of alcoholic beverages. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but apparently open containers are not an issue here. Sometimes during the summer (especially for things like bachelor parties) you see people wandering around with an entire bottle of wine or prosecco just drinking from it on the streets, and of course consumption of beer from glass bottles. No, not even in a brown paper bag. It takes some getting used to. Tonight was this taken to a higher level, with people really trashed and walking around still drinking and yes, still lighting fireworks. This would be a recipe for disaster and a lot of litigation in the US, but somehow it seems to work here. I should, in all fairness, note that our merry band did bring a bottle of prosecco and some cassis syrup for some New Year's Eve Kir Royale action. But we most assuredly did not drink from the bottle!

A few other minor differences from the US. In the US, there tends to be a bit more sparkling and bling involved, generally and in attire. Um, I was "overblinged" this evening. It is apparently a bit more casual here. Perhaps there are more formal events, though. The other thing that I find extremely charming is the tendency of people to text greetings shortly after the new year. I love this. There is nothing more charming than getting texts from my peeps while standing by the river in the smoke-filled air watching fireworks by drunken strangers. Okay, I guess you have to be there.

Meanwhile, it is past 2:00 AM and people are still setting off fireworks in my neighborhood.

If I haven't said it before, I love Germany. Love it, love it, love it!

5 December 2010 - The Singing Christmas Tree

(O Tannenbaum)

My neighbors and I went to a rather fascinating event last night - The Singing Christmas Tree (see www.singing-christmas-tree.de). This is apparently a long-standing tradition of the German-American Community Choir, which was started back in the early 70s by the U.S. military. The Singing Christmas Tree has been performed on the second weekend of Advent for over 30 years. So it definitely seemed like it was worth a peek.

It was actually quite fascinating. The concert starts in entire darkness with the choir singing "Alleluia" and slowly the Christmas tree lights become visible and then as the lights come up you see that there are also humans in among the tree, as you can see from this picture. But the transformation from darkness to lit Christmas tree to lit tree with beaming faces of singers was really quite striking. It ended in much the same way, with the lights slowly going down as the choir sang "Stille Nacht/Silent Nacht." We were then allowed to take pictures during the encore items. Really an interesting experience.

For those interested, here's the program:

Alleluia

Machet die Tore weit (Psalm 24, 7-10)

A Christmas Celebration (Medley of Silver Bells, The Christmas Song, We Need a Little Christmas)

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Als ich bei meinen Schafen wacht

Der englische Gruß

Sussex Carol

Carol to the King

Rejoice (from Handel's "Messiah")

God Rest Ye merry Gentlemen

Tochter Zion

Yuletide Americana

Sleigh Ride

Let There Be Peace On Earth

A Christmas Medley

Stille Nacht/Silent Night

4 December 2010 - School spirit

("On Wisconsin" as performed by the University of Wisconsin Marching Band)

While this may be a strange thing to post in December when you might expect more things related to the Christmas season here, the topic happened to come up again today, so it is what it is.

For those of us who grew up in the U.S., college football has been a factor in the lives of most of us or our friends and relatives. Whether you went to a school with a successful team or not, if you live in the Midwest, for example, you cannot escape the coverage of Big 10 football. For many, college football is even more exciting than professional football, though of course college football then gives you some of your favorite players to follow in the pros. And then there are the school rivalries, the tailgating, the mascots, the marching bands, the traditions -- all of it creates a great sense of belonging and community. And we show our school spirit through the sweatshirts, of course, as well as all the other trappings available.

So one of the things I noticed early on over here was that people don't wear college sweatshirts. I thought it was just a different preference in fashion. But then I also noticed almost an entire absence of communication about where one went to university. And then I finally realized that Europe, or at least Germany, doesn't really "do" college athletics like we do in the U.S. I suddenly felt very sad for all of the college students.

But every once in a while, the topic surfaces. For example, a few weeks ago I was speaking on the phone with a student who is attending a certain other Big 10 school and who is interested in doing an internship with us in Germany. While not something I would normally cover in a sort of phone interview, I said, "There's something I need to get out of the way before we take this any further. I'm a Badger." Without missing a beat (and thus confirming that she has become quite Americanized), she responded, "We all make our mistakes." But we then went on to talk about the Badgers beating her university at football, and the recent heroic feats of Bucky Badger during their 83-20 victory over Indiana. One of the traditions at Wisconsin is that when the Badgers score, Bucky does one pushup for each point on the Badger scoreboard at that time. So, 7 points after the first touchdown, 10 points if there is a touchdown followed by a field goal, 17 if another touchdown is scored, etc. Now, it's not often that the score is quite so lopsided as 83-20 (though the score against Northwestern last weekend was 70-23) so that was an awful lot of pushups for poor Bucky. And again, consider that this guy is inside a heavy fur suit with a gigantic head while doing this. Well, it turns out that there are actually three individuals who perform as Bucky, but they must share two Bucky suits between them. So for the 83-20 game, each of them had to take their turns in the heavy, sweaty suit doing the pushups. Anyway, our HR representative was there as I went on at length about this and was looking at me like I was speaking an entirely different language, and not just because this was in English. She clearly also must have thought I was a bit "off" mentally, if she had not already suspected that. So the experience made me realize that I sure probably keep my mouth shut over here about Badgers.

So fast forward to today. I was thinking about the Badgers and went online to see if they had published on iTunes an electronic version of the cassette I had years ago called, "The Fifth Quarter" which was various fight songs, et cetera, of the Badgers as performed by the marching band. I didn't find that, but did find an album with most of the classics. Perfect. Downloaded and started getting all pumped up. I was speaking later with a Canadian and mentioned my success in finding the songs, and there was a long, long pause. "Um, didn't you already graduate? What is this, once a Badger, always a Badger?" Um, YEAH!!!! I was shocked. I mean, Canadians are almost like us, right? Or not.... It was a sad realization. But I am still playing the album over and over again.

On Wisconsin!!