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Friday, June 03, 2011

Lulu and Melissa - Strapped Down and Ready for Liftoff to Germany

These two blonde headed umlauts "ich bin ein
Berliners."

As I type this - Lulu and Melissa are strapped in and preparing for liftoff - from Atlanta to Frankfort - Germany. They are guests of the State of Germany and the Goethe Institute. They will be doing consulting - helping German discover a new innovation - school libraries. While the USA seems to be finding every excuse they can to close school libraries - Germany sees the value in having kids get "digital learning." Germany is happy to have these two "lipstick librarians" help push the envelope.

This is the second summer that Germany invited Lulu over. Dr Melissa Johnston - FSU's freshest PhD in library science just a year ago was slugging it out as an elementary school librarian near Atlanta. Now she will using that degree as a newly-hired Assistant Professor in Library Science at the University of Kentucky and will start "professing" there in August. Melissa and her husband - Larry - will be living in a condo in downtown Lexington.

While in Germany - these co-ed's will be visiting the cities of Frankfort - Berlin - and Hamburg. They will be on an organized bicycle tour of several libraries in Berlin. I wonder how many times they will cross over "the wall." After that they will cruise the Rhine River.

Lulu has targeted the Reeperbahn in Hamburg - a red light district where the Beatles cut their teeth in 1962.

In the news - an E Coli outbreak has been frightening the Germans this week. When I asked Melissa whether that scared her - she remarked, "Not at all - it is only attacking people that eat lettuce - tomatoes - and cucumbers. We will stay away from those and stick completely to beer and brats."

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