Mark Twain once said: The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. |
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| Christmas market goodness |
I’ve been waiting patiently over this last month for the right word, or words, to write another update of our European adventures; Maybe a funny anecdote to start it off, or an allegorical theme of some sort. Since inspiration has not struck, and it’s been well over a month since the last post, I’m just going to settle for the more banal lightning bug variety update to keep you abreast of the latest.
And what do all boring updates begin with? Cue weather discussion: The weather has been seriously bad, which limited our social activities to reading smutty books (Hillary), playing video games (Jeff) and watching movies in our pajamas whilst eating (joy of newly found joy) microwave popcorn. Quite the jet-setter life-style eh? We had lots of rain, a few days of snow, and everything in between. All in all, so far the winter here has closely resembled winters back in Oregon. Must. Find. Vitamin. D. Supplement. I even got my annual cold, which has kept me in bed more often than not over the past 5 days.
I will say though, that watching the weather in Bonn is really quite entertaining. The wind is epic, pushing storms in and out of the area with impressive speed. It can be sunny with a few clouds at 10:13, torrentially deluging at 10:14, thundering and lightning at 10:15, sideways hail and gale-force winds at 10:17, and sunny again by 10:20. Violent weather is fun to watch from the inside, but not so fun to deal with whilst commuting. I considered starting “umbrella dancing” as a new hobby, which consists of twisting/spinning/dodging in the wind to keep your umbrella angled correctly so you stay dry AND keep the umbrella right-side-out. It’s a highly technical sport and very tricky, especially when walking over bridges, in heels and a skirt. In the end I decided against it as it required too much outside time in inclement weather.
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| Prague Castle and Charles Bridge by night |
When we did manage to get out, it was usually to visit one of the really cool Christmas markets in the area. Germans really know how to do the holidays right. I’m already looking forward to more spiced wine, waffles, apple cakes, Baileys hot chocolate, sausages, mushrooms in garlic cream sauce, fried potatoes with applesauce, fish sandwiches, gingerbread and other German festival food in 2012.
Jeff was the busiest of us both in December, finishing up several projects for clients back home, while keeping up his house-husband duties on the home front. His man “lair” is completely set up now allowing him access to a ridiculous amount of electronics. Last week I came home to find him sitting in front of the mac desktop “Stig” whilst balancing the mac laptop “mini-stig” on his lap and holding his new iPhone “tiny-stig” in his left hand. Hello, my name is Jeff McBride, and I am a mac-a-holic. “Hellooooo Jeff.”
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| Prague |
My work in December was also not much to write home about. It was a quiet month with most people at the climate change conference in South Africa and/or on vacation. I unfortunately was not eligible to do either as the newest recruit on the team. Hopefully next year, I will get to attend the conference in Qatar and take at least a week off over the holidays.
We did however, manage a fabulous 5 day trip to Prague, where we spent Christmas amongst the other holiday tourists. Prague was simply stunning and had been on my list of “must sees” for 12 years. Whilst there, we accidentally attended the funeral of Vaclav Havel (With the Clinton's, two British Prime Ministers, Sarkozi and others of import in attendance), ate/drank nearly every consumable available at the Christmas market, visited a Dali and a Mucha exhibition, attended a performance of the Prague royal orchestra, drank a lot of delicious Czech wine (who knew?), and walked our feet off seeing all the sights of the city.
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| 2012 sparklers |
Also enjoyable in December was our new years eve celebration, spent in a Spanish tapas bar in Bonn with an Australian couple, a guy from Lithuania, a German, a Colombian, and a Peruvian. That night was very fun, until I mixed a lot of red wine with a lot of champagne. Midnight fireworks = awesome. My personal fireworks show beginning at 2:30am = not so awesome. Still though, a night to remember (or forget) and a a properly explosive transition between 2011/2012.
Next up, we’re heading to Rome for 5 days at the end of January for a little mini-vacation. Tickets were 50 Euro round trip so hard to beat. Also, we’ll be attending language courses for 2 hours, 3 nights a week beginning in February. Wish us luck!
Love and hugs. More soon in 2012.
