There are good people in the world

Read the following email I got from an employee of Continental Airlines:

Dear Mr. Chen;

A couple has written in that they met with a man named Ernie in Boquete recently, and he left a camera in their car. They originally met the man on flight 875 on February 17, sitting next to them on their flight. There were two men with the name Ernest on that flight, so I am writing to both Ernest’s’ to ask if it was you, and if so, may I give them your full name and mailing address so they may return the camera? They would like to send the camera to him, and asked me to assist in locating the correct person.

Guess who just got his lost camera back? Pictures to be posted soon. Thanks to the Robinsons of Olympia, WA for making the effort to get my camera back to me!!

"The Lives of Others"

As a reward to myself for finishing my 79 student reports by noon today, I went to go see the German film The Lives of Others. For me, a movie rarely lives up to its hype, but this one blew my mind. It easily moves into one of my top three movies ever. I can't tell you how well it was written and acted, but more importantly it so displayed in full view the pain and suffering of living in a totalitarian state. Thank whatever higher power that I was lucky enough to be born in 1970 in a democratic country and not behind the Iron Curtain. Talk about winning the life lottery on that front. This film won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

What was really excellent for me is that all those years of high school German is still rattling around in my head. I was able to recognize some of the basic German that I heard and is a testament to the fact that if we learned things as kids, even if we don't use them, they are there and able to be recalled at the drop of a hat.

PS: By the way, to finish up the last post.......we got our candidate!