A quick update

Hello all,

Just thought I'd give a quick summary of what's been going on the past week or so....

Work is still going well. I'm mostly doing odd jobs now, since I only have 2 weeks left here at empirica, so I don't think they want to give me any large tasks. I still haven't heard if I'll get to go to any international meetings, so fingers crossed for that (the one that I was supposed to go to got pushed back until Feb). I've started to write some case studies, which is the task that Lydia has also been working on recently, which is quite funny at times, because it gives Lydia a first glimpse into my working life (which was mostly a former relative unknown).

Last weekend, Lydia and I went to a huuuuuuuuuge Christmas party at our friends Alex and Tina's (whom I met on the West Coast Trail, which I did with my dad in August). They live in Osnabruek, which is a few hours north of Bonn. I've never been to a party quite like this one before. Their house looked like a liquor store, since they had bought a ridiculous amount of alcohol for their guests at the party, with I think 10 types of beer and wine, and 27 different types of liquor! Not only that, but because Lydia and I were the token Canadians there (which was a big deal for them, because Alex and Tina, as well as their friends, all have a love affair going on with Canada), so people kept feeding us their "traditional german drinks". I completely lost track of how much I drank there, and all I can remember was that it was a lot of everything (from an egg liquor hot drink, to gluehwein (the traditional German Christmas wine), to fire tongue bowl (I have no idea about the spelling, but that's what it sounded like), which was a wine that was mixed with 80% rum, to German Absinthe, etc. etc. etc. On top of this, everyone was wearing Christmas hats, and there were tables upon tables of amazing German sausages and other food! Such a crazy fun night! Alex and Tina were also nice enough to let Lydia and I stay in their guest room, and they woke us up with a great little breakfast to settle our stomachs (and surprisingly enough, we were able to eat it).

*Update - here's a couple of pictures to commemorate the event:



The silly guy in the middle is Alex, who (along with Tina) threw this big bash.



The woman looking down on the left is Tina, the other half of the party throwing duo.




Lydia and I drinking some gluehwein with Alex and Tina's neighbors.



Later in the evening, frosty showed up! Lydia gave him such a warm welcome that he soon melted away into nothingness.



This party was so cool. Here you can see two of the many fire pits outside, along with the very cool campfire grill. Everyone at the party was supplied with Santa hats, and all the alcohol you could ever drink.....such a great night!

Next week we plan on going to Konigswinter again to see a few more sights there and visit the spa that they have there, and also to visit with our friend Saskia, who lives in Cologne.

A week after that, and we'll be basking on the beach in Thailand!

That's all for now. I'll try to post a couple of more times before we leave for Thailand (where unfortunately, I will be having too much fun to keep up with this blog, so you will have to use your imagination to see what adventures Lydia and I are getting up to.