Right after my vacations in sunny Greece and after tons of laundry I flew over to Calgary for a long-planned research trip to get my study going.
This week was a special one in Canada. On November 11, Canadians commemorate their veterans and the fallen of all wars. November 11 marks the end of First World War, as the German Empire surrendered on that day. On Monday I took it easy. Another thing I have learned over the years. It is best not to schedule the most important meetings for the morning of the first day. I actually wanted to go shopping between two meetings with friends (Christmas is just around the corner again - no idea how that could have happened...), but the CTrain wasn't running on my line and I don't fancy rail replacement services in Germany. I'll save myself the trouble in Canada. So, I had time to watch the Canadian jets fly over from the window of my room. You can see more about Remembrance Day in Calgary here: https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/remembrance-day-honoured-in-calgary-1.7105466
Tuesday and Wednesday passed with meetings and Christmas shopping, sports in the hotel gym, dinner and more work in front of the PC. The invoices to my clients do not write themselves 😊
On Thursday morning, I had a meeting with a colleague from the University of Calgary and was out and about on campus. It is funny that I am there more often than on the campus of the University of Hamburg, for example.
Interesting new project opportunities could arise from the meeting, as the university is finally planning to do more work on the Holocaust - since I am no longer an adjunct associate professor, work on this topic has almost completely ceased. I am curious to see what will happen next. I will report back as soon as something is ready.
Also, I received a number of emails that day and it looks as if one of my works (it was supposed to be published in March and was simply not finished by the publisher) is now finally ready for publication. I also published a new article on the topic of “federalism” https://brockhaus.de/ecs/julex/article/f%C3%B6deralismus?isSearchResult=true
Addionally on Thursday, the top-class RCAF Centennial Conference began, https://www.ucalgary.ca/news/ucalgary-conference-explores-past-and-future-100-year-old-royal-canadian-air-force
The best-known and most successful representatives of their profession met in the beautiful new education building to discuss 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
In October, THE book on the subject was published by Dr. David Bercuson. For all those interested - or who want to become interested - it is available here:
Since I had the honor and the pleasure of reading it before it was published, I can say with conviction: it is so worth it.
In the evening, there was a lovely banquet to celebrate the conference organizers and the RCAF.
Friday was still packed with conference and dinner. I was full to the brim with coffee due to various coffee meetings that I had also crammed into my already full calendar. Many thanks to Vicki, who managed to get me the books https://www.melaniecarinaschmoll.com/post/resarch-and-meetings-in-calgary so that I could review them briefly between my appointments.
During the address by the Minister for Advance Education, Rajan Sawhaney, from whose website the picture is taken.
And this day also made it clear: further developments are just around the corner and I am very excited to see what the new year will bring.
After returning to the hotel, I packed quickly, checked in online and organized a cab so that I could arrive at the airport on time on Saturday. I flew back to Amsterdam and then on to Hamburg, where I arrived late on Sunday morning, tired but full of new impressions and even more wonderful memories.
Today I received the next piece of good news: the online learning platform where I work as an external senior editor for history was awarded first place in the category “School” of the “German Education Award 2024” by consumers in Germany (https://www.n-tv.de/ratgeber/Der-Deutsche-Bildungs-Award-2024-geht-an--article25359623.html)
I am very happy about the recognition.