A Relaxing Vacation

It's been a busy 2 weeks since I last posted and it of course involved a little more traveling as well as such much needed and desired rest and relaxation. One of my good friends from LMU, Laura, came to visit me and for the last two weeks we have danced, laughed, and sang our way through Greece and London.

The day after Laura arrived we headed off to Athens! For those of you who don't remember, I LOVE old stuff. And history. And learning about it all! We stayed in a cute little hostel with cheerful staff and friendly travelers from around the world. The first night we arrived we attempted to get ourselves oriented with the area we were in (right below the acropolis!) but because it was dark and we were uncertain of the streets we decided that a little reading and sleep were in order so that we could have a full and productive day around the city.

We met up with several others from our hostel and joined a free walking tour provided by a man who has lived, worked, and studied in Athens for over two years. He is originally from Canada but moved to Athens after studying there and falling in love with the city. I was quite impressed when I heard him speaking in fluent Greek to some of the locals he knew in shops along the tour. He took us up to the front of the Acropolis, past the old market place and temples, past the old Olympic Stadium and back through the city center in all it's (minorly terrifying) glory. For all the bad press that Greece has been getting for problems they're causing with the Eurozone I expected to walk straight into protests and fights but besides a not-too-large group of neo-nazis chanting down the sidewalk there was not much to see in the way of political or social or any other kind of unrest. We didn't stay long because we had been warned by so many others to be careful of the main square and I wanted no part in anything that could have happened while we were there.
Morning of day two involved shopping. Up and down the alleyways and side streets of souvenir shops and sandal stores and hand made leather bags! It was almost overwhelming but we managed to handle it. After stopping at several stores selling hand-made leather sandals we finally decided to try a few pairs on and within minutes had each purchased a pair. They are comfortable, seem durable so far, and are the perfect addition to future summer wardrobes.
After a couple hours of shopping we then headed to the Island of Agistri. I cannot explain how beautiful and perfect our ocean view room was. We arrived to the island having no idea how to get to our hotel and under the assumption that we had over an hour drive to the hotel (thank you google maps for being useless everywhere but America) but it ended up being a less than 10 minute bus ride! The woman who owns the small hotel was unbelievably friendly from giving us her own personal beach towels to making sure we had a water boiler in case we wanted coffee in the morning as well as giving us a jar of fresh home-made jelly. I'm sad to say that Laura has now left and we still forgot to try it but I'll tell you how it is as soon as I do!
We immediately headed down to the beach to soak up some afternoon rays and read some more of our books. I should probably mention that we each took 3 books with us making it seem as though we were carrying around  a small library with us! We thought it was pretty funny and definitely necessary as we each went through over two of them in our time there. After sun we found a restaurant on the beach as well where we had some typical Greek food: Greek Salad, Mousaka- it is kind of like Greek Lasagna and tastes INCREDIBLE- as well as a meat platter of some kind involving kebabs. It was one of the most amazing meals.

Yes, those are eyeballs and legs and the whole bit. GAH!

Side note: on a different night I also ate fresh shrimp that I nearly screamed at when put on our table. Yes, I am now aware that when you order shrimp and you are staying on the ocean you will probably get fresh, whole shrimp. Laura convinced me it was good and after promising I didn't have to suck out the meat through the head or brains or whatever (oh gosh I want to barf just thinking about it) I finally did it!! And boy was it worth it!! Any of you who love fresh seafood should be jealous.

yup! thank you Greece for new cheap reading glasses! 

We were both apparently craving sleep that night because we slept for 12 hours before getting out of bed to find breakfast. We had crepes which, funny enough, was also our first meal in Greece when we arrived in Athens. It was one of the few places still open and taking orders at 10pm when we arrived. Anyways. We ate more Crepes in the past 2 weeks than I probably have in the last year but I have no regrets! We then rented bikes from a kind lady near our hotel. Not only was it only 5euro each for the entire day but she didn't take any names, phone #'s, address, or collateral of any kind. She just handed us over the bikes and said to enjoy our ride! Being that we were only 2 of maybe 5 other tourists on the island I guess she didn't think there was anything to worry about. One of the main reasons we picked this Island as opposed to one of the more touristy and popular islands was because it is very small and has beautiful beaches with few people around where all we could do was lay on the beach and relax. Okay and ride bikes for quite some time as well but you know what I mean.
By the morning of our departure we both had absolutely no desire to leave. We so badly wanted to stay and enjoy the sun and sand but alas it was off to London town.
When we landed we were absolutely SHOCKED at how warm it was. Both of us in our jeans and sweaters were hot and sweaty and although I was happy to see sun it was crazy how different it was from the cold, windy and cloudy London that we left 4 days previously.

not blending. torture for Laura hahah

To my excitement and enjoyment the sun and heat remained for the duration of Laura's stay. Because Laura has already been to London we were able to explore museums and parks and places that I haven't even been to yet. We went shopping and to the movies and sometimes just sat reading our books. We also went to see Mama Mia the musical and it was FANTASTIC! We sang our way through most of the performance and then came home and made our own videos hahah! Needless to say it was a fabulous time. We did manage to accomplish some school work but I won't lie. It wasn't much. It felt so...normal! Sometimes it really didn't feel like we were even in another country.
I think my favorite day was the day we spent in Green Park reading, drinking far too much wine and making new friends (of course you did, Kristin). We practiced our long board technique too which must have been pretty darn entertaining for the hundreds and hundreds of other people also enjoying the sun on such a beautiful day.



Laura will be my last visitor from home for my time here so I'm happy it was such a beautiful time. I am truly blessed by her friendship and by the love of everyone who has helped to make my time here easier and happier. Thank you! And on a very happy note... In just over four weeks I will be reunited with my beautiful country, just in time for fourth of July celebrations! I can't wait!

Love from London,
Krisitn

A Dose of Celebrity

What started off as a hectic but humdrum Monday turned in to a really awesome first time experience! I met up with Chris to do our usual Starbucks studying and of course, being that we both love talking half the time, we started talking about our plans for the evening and he mentioned that he was going to the premiere of Snow White and the Huntsman with one of his friends to see Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart. I of course jumped at the chance to go on such an adventure and preceded to be distracted for the next 2ish hours as we finished up some studying before going. Now some of you may be surprised that in nearly 5 years of living in Los Angeles I have never attended a movie premiere or stalked celebrities. (Okay, there was that one time I hung out with some paparazzi after a Lakers game hoping and hoping to get a glimpse of Zac Efron...but that's a different story for a different time. ) To be honest, it never occurred to me that it was even allowed to show up to such affairs but it makes sense seeing as they are events held in large public places, in this case, Leicester Square. Everything was barricaded off with sections for the paparazzi and areas for fans to stand. We got a really good spot right next to the paparazzi so every celebrity that walked by had to stop in front of us to get their picture taken! A lot of the celebrities I couldn't even name because their from local tv shows or so and so's husband or wife but I took a bunch of pictures anyways because hey! maybe someday I'll be able to say "oh yah, I saw them once at a movie premier. no big deal" hahaha anyways, it was interesting to see how the celebrities handled all the screaming and shouting. For Charlize Theron, the smile never left her face and she was very gracious and friendly with fans, signing autographs etc and also kind to the tonssss of paparazzi that were screaming at her, trying to turn to every angle they wanted. Kristen Stewart however did not seem to handle it as well and I can't really blame her. She reacted the way I would probably act if hundreds of people were shouting at me at once. She looked a little shy yet also a little distressed. The paparazzi kept asking her to turn this way and that to see her beautiful dress and at one point she threw her hands up, shook her head and with a slight stressed out smile said "ugh ohmygosh". Or at least that's what we thought it looked like she said.
I do feel bad for celebrities at times because I can't imagine having to live such a well-guarded life. Big stars can go literally nowhere without protection whether it's from creepy old men or screaming little girls. It must be frustrating to be watched every second of your life and live up to the expectations of SO many different people while still balancing who you want to be. Can't really blame so many celebrities for cracking under that kind of pressure.

Okay, enough of that.  I leave you with a picture of Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart.


Love from London,
Kristin

I Have An Obsession With Spain

My latest adventures have taken me back to the beautiful, exciting, warm, sunny city of Barcelona, Spain and I don't even know how to start explaining the happiness this trip brought to me. For the past 2-3 weeks London has been rainy, cloudy and gray and I have wanted to be anywhere but here, counting down the days until I would touch down in Barcelona and finally feel the warm sun on my face. As the plane slowly descended into the El Prat Airport I saw the city bright with sunshine and my hand automatically reached out to touch the window which was surprisingly warming up as well. I immediately began to smile and for the next 3 1/2 days that smile never left my face!
After disembarking and making my way as quickly as possible through border patrol and customs I literally ran outside the first door I could find even though I had to catch the train in the exact opposite direction to get into the city. I just needed to see- no feel- the sun!
After a few minutes of that I found my way over to the train which was a quick 20 minute ride over to my hostel which I found easily using the directions from their website. Now when I told people I would be staying in a hostel by myself most were very nervous (as was I) but this hostel was not like other hostels I've seen. It was more like a hotel where you shared rooms (okay fine, that's what a hostel is- but it was fancier) and most of the other residents were adults. There were of course some kids about my age but the 5 other people in my room were all 35+ I would say. There was a place to lock up my bag and we had our own bathroom so we didn't have to walk down to a communal bathroom with all our things.

As soon as I figured out the wifi connection I contacted Aubrey's friend, Wences, who came and met up with me to begin the first of three days of touring the city! I can't express enough gratitude to Wences for playing tour guide for 3 full days. I would not have been or seen as many places as I did if it was not for him! When Aubrey first put us in contact and he asked me if there was anything specifically I wanted to see all I said was "the fountain that lights up and plays music!" hahah I didn't even know that this famous fountain was in front of the palace that I should be seeing. Silly Krisitn.
Anyways, Wences has a motorbike so we were able to move our way through the city even faster and more efficiently allowing us to take advantage of the few days I had in the city. He took me to the important squares and plazas, the castle, the palace with the fountain, on two cable car rides, the Gaudi Cathedral, to his home for some homemade dinner, the Gaudi Park, and what I am most excited about....THE BEACH! That is right folks, for the first time in months I had my toes in the sand and although I have returned to London sunburned I am not the least bit upset. I was so unbelievably happy to be back in the water even if it was slightly cold and after getting over my discomfort at the fact that most of the women don't wear bathing suit tops I laid back, closed my eyes and took a nap in the sand!
I don't think even I had quite realized how much I missed the ocean and the sand getting into every single thing I had with me and just the overall peacefulness of being near the sound of the ocean.
The Gaudi Park and Gaudi Cathedral were also absolutely stunning! The park was originally meant to be a city within a city. A place for the rich to live a part from those (quite literally) beneath them. It is set at the top of a hill/street and we climbed all the way to the top and sat to take in the view and enjoy some sun. It was a beautiful walk and even though the lower levels were overflowing with tourists I enjoyed our brief rest at the top where not quite so many people were willing to climb.
And the Cathedral...WOW. Just wow. It was so extraordinarily beautiful I can't even begin to explain to you the wonders of the work that has gone in to this beautiful building that has been in the works for over 100 years! We climbed one of the towers to the top and got some more beautiful pictures of the city as well as pictures of the construction. I'm hoping to go back someday when it is finished and take more pictures in the same places just to have a fun compare and contrast pictures.
Another favorite spot was the castle which until 2 years ago was still used as a military base! Makes sense since it overlooks the sea and city and you can see forever and ever but I sure am glad it is open to the public now. I think it is possibly the biggest castle I have yet been in throughout my trips and it was fun to spend time wandering the outside walls and playing with the old guns etc...we also had some ice cream with our sea view! Perfection.

I could honestly go on forever about the wonderful time I had here. Lots of tapas, lots of Sangria, a bar with live music, making new friends and finally enjoying some rest and relaxation!  Wences was so generous to put up with me for so many days and (if you read this) I hope you come to London or California one of these days so I can play tour guide!

This trip to Barcelona was exactly what my heart and soul needed to get back on track for school work. I suppose I am still a little distracted and have probably looked through all 300+ of my pictures many, many times now but I finally got the sun I was desperately craving and in just a short time I will be on my way to Greece to soak up some more of those glorious rays!

Love from London,
Kristin

I run to be...committed

As I believe I mentioned in a previous post I have been frequenting the gym again! I love working out. I love running. I love being in shape and feeling healthy again! Except for when I am lucky enough to have visitors I go every single day which is more than I've ever been able to go to the gym but with so much free time I figure it's a good way to do something good for myself as well as begin to train. Train for what you might ask? Another Nike Women's Half Marathon!

New Shoes and New iPod

Now for those of you who witnessed me run it last time or heard me talk about it after and promised I would never do that again...well I lied. I have officially registered for another grueling 13 miles up and down the hills of San Francisco. The difference this time is that I have promised myself, my family, and Aubrey (who I am running it with again- this time I want to keep up with her) that I will train. Not only did I not train for the last one but I had been sick for a few days, had a fever the day of, it was raining, I was cold and by the end I could hardly run. I am proud to say that although my time was pretty terrible- I think it was over 2 1/2 hours- I did run all but about 5-10 minutes of it which is probably why I was in so much pain for months after. I learned my lesson and I am more dedicated and excited to be training for this event than ever! I have a new pair of running shoes and an awesome new iPod that my wonderful boyfriend got me that now has updated running mixes on it as well as Nike+! What Nike+ does is track your runs for you. You can tell it how far you want to run or how long you want to run, you hit start and every kilometer you run it updates you how far you have gone! It's really handy because last time I tried "training" I had largely over-estimated how far I was actually running each day. It's not my fault though really, if your training period is in Arizona during the summer you try telling me that 1 block doesn't feel like 1 mile AT LEAST! Anyways. I guess once I am back home this summer I will have to accept that I will be awaking at 4am to run and hike Camelback mountain again. Or maybe I'll just need to stay in California a lot of the summer....I know a few people who would be okay with that. I'm not sure my parents are part of those people though. ;)

So why do I want to run this half marathon? Why do I want to put myself through this again? Because I like a challenge. Because I like showing people how tough I can be. Because I want to be committed to something that I need to work my butt off for! Because I can. Plus, it doesn't hurt that at the end of the race beautiful men in tuxes will be handing me a Tiffany's necklace off a silver platter. Really though, it's for the challenge. hahaha!


Love from London,
Kristin

Laundry

Laundry. How I loathe doing laundry. So much so that at home I don't bother doing it more than once a month. I guess it's a good thing I'm lucky enough to have enough clothes for that to even be possible. To all my American friends....take a minute right now and appreciate your washer and dryer. I'm serious! Do it.

There is nothing like being able to throw a whole load of laundry in at once and then putting it in to a dryer that also fits all those clothes. Doing laundry out here is much more complicated than that. After my first few weeks out here I soon realized that doing laundry only once a month was not going to be a possibility. For starters, what would be 1 load of laundry at home has to be divided up into 2-3 sometimes 4 loads. Why? Because THIS is the size of our washing machine. At first glance you think "aww how cute!" Or at least that's what I said at first. But after being here for 8 months (WHOA! how did THAT happen?) I now despise laundry more than ever. When I say it's laundry day I literally mean an ENTIRE day must be devoted to all the laundry I have to do. You're probably asking "well Kristin, why don't you do your laundry more often than once a month?" And to that I will sigh and say "I DO." I know, I know, I shouldn't complain because in reality I am very, very lucky to even have a washing machine in my apartment. I maybe know one other person who is as lucky as that but still. Look at how tiny it is!!

The next problem is that this little machine is also the dryer. Yup, you got it. A washer/dryer combo. As you can maybe imagine, my things do not get very dry when the leftover water from the rinse cycle is still spinning through during the dry cycle. After a couple months of playing with the different settings I finally figured out that rather than putting it on the 3 hour dry cycle (no joke. 3 hours is an option) where my clothes come out smelling burnt and gross I have started to hang things up. Now being that I was too cheap to buy a £10 clothes drying rack and also too lazy to carry it back on the bus and home from the store, I hang it from my door way and take over all the chairs in the living room. I'm not sure how my roommates felt about having laundry strewn about all afternoon but hey! you gotta do whatcha gotta do to get those clothes dry and smelling fresh!
Needless to say I am more than anxious to get home and hug my washer and dryer. Literally. I plan on hugging and thanking each one for being so beautiful and large.
On a side note, it is not washing machines and dryers that I despise but rather the general act of doing laundry. The sorting and soap and timing it and then folding it and getting it organized into drawers....ugh. But ask anyone who has been in to Best Buy with me and they can attest to the fact that Washers and Dryers and appliances in general get me SO excited!! I'm such a dork like that but hey, nothing wrong with liking these things. CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME This is the kind of stuff I love sprinting to as soon as I enter Best Buy hahahah I think Javi had thought I'd gone nuts when he first saw me go bug eyed and start playing with all the dials and knobs. And last time I went with my dad he had to tell me NO 100x's before I would leave. *sigh* poor Kristin. hahah just kidding.

Love from London,
Kristin

Random Happenings

A couple weeks ago I decided to take another stab at cooking using a recipe from my Harry Potter Cookbook! This time around was MUCH more successful than the last. No, really! It was! I decided to stick with a food I have cooked on numerous occasions and was always a hit among my roommates in college. PANCAKES!! There was a slight twist on these that made them better than any pancake recipe I've ever used. Lemons. I LOVEEEE lemons but why would I ever think to add them in to pancake mix? I sure am glad that the author of this "unofficial" Harry Potter cookbook thought to! The recipe was your basic pancake recipe with flour, sugar, eggs but also with grated lemon zest and a small amount of freshly squeezed lemon juice. The batter tasted wonderful and the pancakes even better than that! Anyone who wants the recipe just let me know, I'll email it to you. Mariel was a great assistant and laughed at me as I continued to eat about 3 pancakes worth of batter. You'll understand when I make them for you. Anyways, I can't wait to continue trying new recipes from this cookbook! I think it will be easier when I am back in America because often times I struggle to find some of the ingredients in the store here. If you look hard enough you can usually find everything but my patience is limited in the grocery store and my attention span even shorter than that and I usually find myself distracted by things I can throw in the microwave or oven instead of making myself, especially since I get bored cooking for myself sometimes.

After long days spent in the library and reading for hours in whatever coffee shop I find comfortable that day (okay fine, 99% of the time it's a Starbucks. But I rotate between several of them! Not my fault they just seem to get me.) I am still trying to have fun and relax. The other evening my friend Chris invited me to the filming of a pilot episode of a new comedy show that will be launching here in a few months time. It was called Old Farts and Upstarts featuring Jo Brand. Or something along those lines. Basically it had 3 quite famous UK comedians who were a big deal "back in the day" hence their team name: Old Farts. The other team was made up of 3 up and coming comedians in the UK and all have been in television shows or on their own comedy tours. It was a lot of fun and although I didn't always understand all the British jokes or humor I still laughed for a good two hours and it felt good since the last two weeks of rain and gloom have left me feeling pretty down. Here is a picture of the set they used. I'm not sure we were supposed to even take pictures of this so I didn't feel quite nervy enough to pull out my camera during filming. It was so cool though to see how a real television show is filmed! Sometimes they would have us redo certain parts and make sure we were still clapping or laughing and they even filmed 3 different endings to the show so they would have options. And halfway through the makeup team came out to fix up the comedians faces as the studio was unbelievably hot and we, the audience, was sitting in the bleachers without lights on us. I can't imagine how hot they were on stage!

As for this last picture...well I just like what the bus had to say. I'm not exactly sure how advertising on buses works here in the UK but it seems that as long as you pay for it you can post whatever you like on the side of a bus! Elections for mayor were today and so the past few weeks have been very intensely political and even the buses had ads for candidates which I can't imagine happening in the states. I suppose I could be wrong about that because I don't live in a city where I often see buses BUT I like that this one and a few others I saw that day made such a statement. It's true! Some people are gay. GET OVER IT!

Well, that is basically all that is going on, just a quick little update on my life. 

Love from London,

Kristin

Adventures With Javi

As all time seems to be doing lately, the last two weeks have flown by so quickly I think my head is still spinning. Javi has been visiting me the last 2 weeks and our travels have taken us all over the UK, Ireland, and Germany. Writing about absolutely everything we did would take ages but I'll give you as brief of a summary as I know how while including all the good bits!
Javi arrived early morning April 18 and our reunion was so exciting. It involved lots of jumping up and down and a near tackle right outside the security doors but I didn't care if I made a scene. I was beyond excited to say the least! After a quick 2 hour nap I made us get up because you can't beat jet lag if you sleep through the whole day! We grabbed some dinner and then went to go see Titanic in 3D! Seeing as I was deprived of the opportunity to see it when it first came out in theaters I was ecstatic to be seeing it this time around! For anyone wondering how hard Javi fought me on the decision to see this movie....he didn't! It was actually Javi who suggested we see it together hahah. He's the best.
Let's move on to Ireland. WOW. I am in love with this country. We landed in Dublin early afternoon and found our way to the center of the city. We mostly did a lot of wandering around, taking pictures in front of things that looked important and planning our few days there. Thanks to some awesome suggestions from my friend, John, we found a yummy fish and chips place, a cute pub and the Temple Bar. Now, when I was first told to find Temple Bar I assumed it was one bar. Singular. Not an entire area filled with adorable pubs, restaurants, and overall tourist sites. After settling this confusion between the two of us we did find the right area and even the actual "Temple Bar" and we had a great time listening to an Irish band play music and the next day we even saw Irish Step Dancers perform. On our second day in Dublin we decided to take a tour on the hop on/hop off bus and it was the best way to see as many of the sites as possible in our limited time in Dublin. We saw the outside of the palace (it was closed that day), a famous church I can't remember the name of and the best part of the day...touring the Guinness Factory! We walked through all the steps of the process from the grain to the water to taste testing it. We also had a ticket to go to the Guinness Academy and learn how to pour a proper pint of Guinness. It's a six step process and yes, we did graduate...we have certificates to prove it hahaha.
Day 3 in Ireland sent us over to Galway where we woke up at 5:00am to catch our 6:00am bus. It worked out perfectly though because the tour we wanted to take ended up being partners with the bus that took us over to Galway so we were able to buy tickets and hop straight onto the tour bus where we headed off to see castles, cliffs, and caves! It was by far the BEST and my personal favorite day of our entire time in Ireland. Even the constant rain couldn't damper my mood as we passed breathtaking scenery and stood on the cliffs of Moher with the wind literally whipping my hair across my face. I felt very small standing on the cliffs and looking out over the ocean watching storm clouds seemingly race across the sky towards us. After the cliffs of Moher, the caves were my second favorite part of the tour. It was SO neat to see these caves which used to be used by bears for hibernation (bear bones were found inside and are actually still there). We were walked past huuuuge waterfalls, ducked under old rocks, and skipped down massive passageways that had slowly been formed over thousands of years. I was fascinated and thought it was SO neat.

Our time in Ireland sadly came to an end and we headed back for a few days in London where I not only got to show Javi around my stomping grounds but we also got to go on a tour of the Warner Brothers Studios where Harry Potter was filmed!!!!!! Javi found out about this tour and knowing how much I adore the Harry Potter series he gave me tickets for the tour including a souvenir book for Christmas this year. As you can all imagine I was absolutely stunned and ecstatic to go. I nearly cried on several occasions as excitement overtook me. I forgot to even take pictures! But luckily Javi was on top of things and took about 5000 pictures of me/for me/of the sets/and absolutely everything there was to see! From original costumes to props to video recreations of scenes and an actual broomstick you could ride....I was beyond impressed with the entire tour and I would have absolutely no problem going back again to spend another 3 hours there. Like I said, Javi took all the pictures because I was in a general state of hysteria the whole time but I did get a picture of the GIGANTIC castle they used for filming the Hogwarts castle. Even the most minute details had been put into place from working lights inside to the forbidden forest. I literally lost my breath from gasping so hard as I walked into the last room of the tour. It was absolutely incredible and this picture I have doesn't do it justice but it's a start. I could honestly make an entire blog post about this tour (and it just might happen when I have more time...) but if you want to know more, all you have to do is ask! ;) Harry Potter wasn't the only thing we did in London, don't worry. We also went on a tour to Stonehenge (yes, I've now been there three times), Windsor Castle, and Oxford! Of course the rain was unending yet again so we spent a lot of the day sprinting from the bus to sheltered areas and back to the bus again but I truly enjoyed seeing these new places with Javi! Windsor Castle was stunning and as I do with every castle, I imagined what it would be like to live in such a place. If you take out the fact that tourists take over your household on a daily basis it would be sooo cool to play hide and seek or dark tag. The possibilities would be endless! Anyways...
After London it was off to Bremen, Germany to visit Thorsten for his 30th Birthday! Now in Bremen, it is a very big deal to turn 30 and a tradition stands where if you are not engaged/married by the day of your 30th birthday you have to sweep the church steps until a virgin comes and gives you a kiss. Although he was not forced to go to the actual church to do this, his co-workers and friends did make him follow through on this tradition not once. but twice! After lunch on his birthday we walked Thorsten back to his office and on the steps outside his coworkers had dumped thousands of bottle caps and he had to sweep them all up. Of course, people constantly walked through the piles making the task endless. At his birthday party that night he also had to sweep off the stage in the venue his part was held and THIS time...he was wearing a pink dolphin costume hahahah it was hysterical and great and maybe you just had to be there to understand but it was a great night with great people and I really do love the city of Bremen.

Early the next morning we headed off to Hamburg with Thorsten and his parents (who are just SO, SO amazing and great and I loved meeting them not through Skype) to watch him play in a very important Rugby game. It was so intense and exciting and I loved all the tension between the teams! Whichever team won got to advance to the next division for the season next year so there was a lot of hostility on the field. Want to know who won?!.......Thorsten's team!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I wish our trip to Bremen could have been longer...heck I wish all of our trips could have been longer. But we were very fortunate to have nearly 2 weeks together to explore parts of Europe and enjoy each others company.

I'm struggling to figure out how it can possibly already be May. Not that I am complaining about how fast time is moving but WOW. I have two more trips coming up this month and then it's on to dissertation work only. Bummer right? I guess that is the purpose for me being out here though so like it or not, it must be done! With this last photo, I leave you.





Love from London,
Kristin