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DEAN'S QUARTERLY NEWLETTER Vol. 6, No. 2, 12/01/2002

HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS OF AUTUMN 2002:

My mother's heart attack and recovery: This was both a lowlight and a highlight of the past few months, because what started out as very frightening seems to have ended with the most positive of outcomes. My mother has fully recovered from the heart attack she had in September and from the two operations where stints were put into her heart, and she now seems healthier than she has been in years. I went home to Minnesota briefly after her first operation to provide encouragement. After she had her second operation in mid October, my brother believed she looked 10 years younger! She was out and about politicking the day after. She's exercising and eating well, and her cholesterol, which had been upwards of 300 for decades has dropped to an amazingly low 150!!! Her spirits are high and she plans a trip to Arizona for a month this winter. The rest of us are all relieved that things have turned out so positively.

At last!!! The New World and for keeps! After more than a decade pondering and nearly as long attempting, my friends from the Ukraine, Igor and Alla Kosov and their son Michael, immigrated to North America, arriving in Toronto, Canada on October 7th, where they have begun to establish themselves in their new home. I went to Toronto a few days later to welcome them to the New World. A lot has happened since I first met them 16 years ago in the Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. They spent 5 years in Israel, which they had always viewed as a stepping stone to elsewhere, ideally to the United States. Numerous attempts to immigrate to the United States all failed, so okay, Canada is a little colder, but otherwise a quite pleasant second option. They seem quite thrilled to be here. Michael (19) misses his friends, particularly those he made through performing with his ultra-alternative rock band Rejuvenate, but he is pleased to have avoided serving in the Israeli military. Alla, an electrical engineer, has returned briefly to Israel to finish some projects at her former workplace and will return to Toronto before Christmas with the possibility of continuing her work in Canada with the same Israeli firm. Igor has set up their new apartment on the 22nd floor of a high rise with a fabulous view of Toronto and Lake Ontario, and is eyeing the internet for job opportunities in mechanical engineering that look promising. What a fabulous outcome to years of dreaming that had once seemed so far-fetched as to be unimaginable.

Trip to the Balkans -- For 17 days in November, after arriving by flight in Sofia, Bulgaria, I travelled through the southern Balkan countries of Bulgaria, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), plus Greece and Turkey. Albania and Macedonia were new countries for me and brought my total country count up to 104. The others were third visits, and Turkey is always one of my favorites, so it was great to be back. Here are emails I sent from those places including links to photos I took while I was there:

Email from Albania (November 11)
Email from Macedonia (November 14)
Email from Turkey (November 20)

Autumn 2002 movie reviews

COMING UP NEXT QUARTER: Who knows?

Check in and let me know what's up with you.
You can contact me by clicking on this E-mail address: mail@deanoman.com.

Review previous newsletters:

Best wishes to all,

Deano

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