Summer is ahead.

It's been a few months since I've posted. I left all of you hanging somewhere in the middle of Europe. Once I rejoined everyone I figured we'd just talk about it in person. I got too busy with enjoying everything to think about documenting it. I had a delightful quarter all in all. I had three new flatmates who were terrific, I lead worship along with another good friend at InterVarsity, I was recognized by PUMA as a good candidate for a footwear development position they have open (still in process), I learned an absurd amount of engineering and... point being, I had always figured when I stopped observing life and got lost in the craziness, I would stop blogging, but that wasn't true this time. I didn't want to waste a second. Now I'm on break with time to reflect more and write more.

This break, I'm at home mostly. I just got into rock climbing at RIT, but I can't do that here so I'm returning to my old love of tree climbing. The picture above is from a tree in our back yard that I've never climbed before. It's challenging and fun with a beautiful view from the top, over our house (you can just barely make out our roof at the bottom of the frame), across the valley, and to the sunset beyond. I think I'll post a handful of these this break.

I like life.

Holidays part 2 (Silvestre und das neues Jahr/New Years)

The New Years celebration was a great time all in all. I traveled with siblings Marlene and Jonas, as well as Ruth (girl in the red hat) and Sven (not pictured) first to Hamburg on the 30th. There we are on a boat on the Elbe (note the huge chunks of ice in the water, it's amazing we didn't go down like the Titanic). Our teeth were getting cold in that picture and with the wind over the open water... it didn't turn out the best picture, but it was a cool experience.

From the river we then went through exploring the city and then to the house of Sven's family where we ate good food, played cards, Wii, and spent the night. Next day we drove up to Eutin on the Baltic Sea. It's a super small town with lots of cool people. There is another church in our network there so we went to celebrate the New Year with them. It started with 2 hours of worship followed by fireworks, food, and dancing once 2011 came around. It was weird realizing that for most of you it was only 6pm. Anyways I should mention that all of that was after having a delightful dinner with my host family and about 20 other people.

Turns out the guy hosting is studying mechanical engineering too, only he's about 27. People seem to end up in school at much later ages here. Anyways it was cool to talk to him a little bit about what ME is like in Germany vs. the States.

The next day we visited the Baltic Sea and took a stroll down the icy beach. it was beautiful though. I just don't know how the swans and ducks managed to sit in the cold water =P On our way back we stopped for coffee and waffles which really hit the spot. Then as it got dark we made the 2011 picture you can see with sparklers and long exposure times. We had a lot of fun with that.

Sunday then we went to church there and then out to eat. I included a picture of their menu. Note the names of the Pizzas... I ordered a Pittsburgh Pizza. I asked why it was called that but they didn't know. It had spinach, turkey, and cream cheese? I tasted surprisingly good, just not at all like Pittsburgh.

Finally we traveled back home and got ready to start school the next day which was sad, but we had good memories and more friends to show for it. Notice the sunset picture was taken at about 3:30pm. It's crazy how far North we are (Erik I can't imagine Sweden). It's good to know the days are getting longer. Happy New Year everyone!