Never Too Old for Adventure Two Octogenarians Abroad

About the Book

This book is an excursion into the thoughts and experiences of two enterprising octogenarians: a German wife and her Texas husband. They return to Europe for one year of home exchanges with various partners in several cities and countries: Austria, France, Germany, and Poland. The correspondences are presented chronologically, paired with cultural insights, memories of the cities and villages as they were decades ago, and the new adventures they embark on with people they encounter and relatives they visit along the way. We promised our U.S. family we would write regular reports of our whereabouts and keep them informed of our activities abroad. We kept our promise over the months, and this notebook is the collection of letters and pictures from our stay overseas. The trip took place from autumn 2007 through autumn 2008.

About the Author

Sigrid Scholtz Novak was born and raised in Silesia at a time when it was part of Germany. She went to school in Breslau and after the war in Jever, North Germany. She studied in London and Paris before coming to America where she continued her education at the Johns Hopkins University, earning the MA in Creative Writing and the Ph.D. in German. She has taught literature and language at Wilson College in Pennsylvania, Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, the Abadan Institute of Technology in Abadan, Iran, the McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and the State University of Ceara in Fortaleza, Brazil. Richey Novak was born and raised in Texas, served in the US Navy, and then studied in the US, Paris (where he met Sigrid at the Sorbonne), Heidelberg, Germany, and Mexico City. He holds the BA and MA in philosophy from Columbia University and the Ph.D. in German from the Johns Hopkins University. He has taught language and philosophy at Wilson College in Pennsylvania, Duke University in North Carolina, the Abadan Institute of Technology in Abadan, Iran, the McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and the State University of Ceara in Fortaleza, Brazil. The couple is retired and lives in Southern California. They are proud parents of two sons, four grandchildren and one great-grandson.