Home is such a relative term.

I saw someone today who reminded me of someone I haven't seen in at least ten years -- if, of course, the other person looked exactly the same today as they did ten years ago, which is highly unlikely. In any case, it put me in a reminiscing frame of mind, which is never a good thing when you're by yourself and far from home. Don't worry, though, I'm not getting homesick yet. Tomorrow I'm actually getting quite close to my former "home away from home": I'm going out to dinner with the brother of my German host family from high school, Marc, who happens to now live in Stuttgart. I am excited to catch up with him and get the local scoop on life in the city.

Today was an interesting day at work because I had a chance to meet one of Japan's top leaders in life cycle assessment (LCA), who was on a tour of LCA groups all throughout Europe. We sometimes have a strange notion in the U.S. that other countries' research, especially in the East, does not measure up to research conducted in the West, i.e. in the United States. While access to information does vary, given equal opportunity, research conducted in other countries can be just as interesting and robust as research conducted in the U.S., even if our biased instincts tell us otherwise.

Anyway, the work week is over. My plan for the weekend consists of dinner with Marc tomorrow night, trip to the art museum on Sunday to see the Otto Dix exhibit, and grocery shopping somewhere in between. Maybe something else will come up in the meantime, too. I haven't strayed very far from the center of the city yet. I've been thinking about hopping on the subway and getting off at a random station, just to see what's there. You never know what you might find.