Weekend Festivities: or Happy Birthday Mark!

Phew! Quite a weekend. Loads of fun, however.

Started off on Thursday. I arrived in Munich around 9.00 pm and made my way to the Thursday night dance. You know me! :-) It was a ball (no pun intended, but I'll take it!) Met up with Mark there, and met a bunch of the other people who'd be attending the birthday bash. Many of them were German, and would only be coming for one or two days. Several were American, though, including Mark's brother and parents! That was good fun. I'd met his folks before, but not his brother. Nice to complete the picture. The other Americans came from various and sundry parts, including one who lives/works in Addis Abeba, where Mark's currently living/working. He also had an Australian friend who also lives/works in Addis. So, clearly we were an international bunch! Thursday night, most of us crashed at Christine's place (she's a local Munich dancer, and dance teacher). Bless her, there were 6 or 7 of us! She's a total star.

Friday we got loads of bits and pieces accomplished (like groceries!) and finally arrived out at the cabin in the late afternoon. It was quite a lot cooler up at the cabin, which isn't terribly surprising, considering it's up in the mountains. It was a gorgeous location: all beautiful green pine trees growing on the mountain and a lovely little lake in the valley. The cabin we were in was this weird cabin/hostel arrangement. Each room has its own kitchen unit, some separated from the sleeping quarters, some not, and a variety of styles of beds. There's communal toilets and showers. We had 4 of the 6 rooms, and there were 2 other families in the other rooms. Meaning? Even though we didn't actually have exclusive use of the cabin, we still pretty much took over. We tried to be nice and share, but with 20+ people, it's sort of hard not to be everywhere!

Friday night we just pretty much chilled and had dinner, and a quick walk around the lake. Carol (Mark's mom) ended up in charge of the food (she had an ample number of helpers, but she coordinated the efforts). Partly that was because as a mom, she's used to organising meals. Partly it was because she was the only one who knew what the fridge actually contained. Most of the rest of us only knew about the bits and pieces we'd brought (like the chocolate biscuits I brought) and beer. There was a more than ample supply of beer. In fact, Christine ended up with nearly 2 crates back at her house at the end! Fortunately there was stuff other than beer (or other alcohol!) to drink, as I don't do any alcohol. So, Friday we had spaghetti and salad, then cake that one of the Germans had baked. Really nice, too! The whole evening was good fun, if quite. We ended up in bed before 11.00 pm! As Christine said, "What?!? It's too early for bed!" Yet, there we all were. Asleep before midnight.

Saturday people got up whatever time they felt like. Naturally that meant not very early for me! If left to my own devices, I'm prone to late mornings and later evenings! Some crazy people were up before 6! (Australian) Jason, for example, was up and back in Munich before 8.00. He and Mark are riding their motorbikes from Munich to Addis, he had some errands to get done. That, and he's just an early riser by nature. There are times when I wish I were! Mark, (brother) Jason, (father) John with bits of help from other people started getting Mark's bike ready for the trek during the morning. Then various groups headed out on hikes. I was meant to go along, but I was so exhausted from the hectic schedule I've been leading recently (8 months is recent, right?) that I decided to stay behind and help Carol make the birthday cake (Red Devil Food). Yeah, that was actually quite a lot of fun. I sort of wish I'd got to go along, but I did have a blast with Carol. We were making this cake in a wood oven, after all. Challenging! It turned out pretty well, if not perfect. In the evening we had a BBQ and sat at the outside benches and chatted til very late. And had birthday cake. Tasted pretty good, actually. There'd been a wedding at the hotel next door, and after dark they went outside to let off these big paper hotair balloon things. They were paper lanterns with a tiny flame in the bottom, which heated the air and made them float. Really awesome, if slightly dangerous. We saw one catch fire without leaving the ground, and one catch fire and crash down onto the roof of the hotel (but didn't catch light, fortunately!) Then, in the late evening, Mark, (American) Liz and I danced. For some reason none of the German dancers ended up dancing with us. But we had fun! We went to bed quite a bit later Saturday night than the previous night!

Sunday we got up whenever (yeah . . . that means late for me!) and the weather was quite a lot warmer. Saturday had been fine, but a little cool. The sun was only out part of the time. Sunday lived up to its name! It was gorgeous. I ended up reading most of the late morning/afternoon either down by the lake or at the café with (American who lives in Addis) Lorraine. There had been some talk about a lunchtime trek to this restaurant, but Mark and (Australian) John were still preoccupied with their bikes, so it didn't happen. It was a lovely, quiet day. And, in fact, it was pretty much exactly what I needed. I'd felt much better that day. I finally feel like I've caught up to myself. In the afternoon several of us went on bike rides. It's been a while since I've been on the back of a bike. I miss it! It was a gorgeous ride. I rode behind (Australian) Jason, Mark had his mom behind, and then his friend (American, but lives in Germany) Paul and (brother Jason) had their own bikes. Stunning scenery. Then, in the evening we had another big dinner of hamburger soup (another of Carol's family recipes. Excellent!) and salad. Then we went outside to the fire pit and had s’mores (yes, I laid the fire! You know me . . . Pyro, pyro, it's off to burn I go. With sticks and wood you know I could. Pyro, pyro, pyro!) Eventually Liz, Carol and I were the only ones out there, and we were basically just there babysitting the fire til it mostly burnt out. Then we went off to bed, too.

Monday (Mark's actual birthday. He's now 30!) we packed up the majority of the stuff and went into Munich. (American) Sean and I were staying back with Christine that night because we'd planned on going to Nuremberg Tuesday morning (foiled: rain). (American) Liz and (American but lives in Addis) Lorraine were staying back out at the cabin with Mark's family so they could get a lift to the airport in the morning. We all met up for lunch at a Beer Garden and had some really lovely Bavarian food. I had something billed as broccoli, mushroom and potato grattan. Whatever that meant. It was good. Then we all split and went our separate directions. Mark, (Australian) Jason and Lorraine stopped off to collect some stuff Christine had been holding for them, and take it somewhere else. This meant that, since Mark's bike was piled high with spare tires, luggage and other bits and he couldn't get the stuff on the back of his bike at all, poor Lorraine, riding pillion, had to be squished between two very large piles of boxes! It was really funny watching her try and get mounted!

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Amsterdam via Munich, from London

So, I'm en rout to Amsterdam, Netherlands. So, naturally I leave London and fly to Munich, Germany! Clearly this is the logical rout to take. Ok, so maybe not. Why, you ask, am I navigating by such an indirect path? Well . . . Monday it's my friend Mark's 30th Birthday. He's an American, but used to live in Munich, and now lives in Ethiopia (with Nepal in between). So, Munich seemed the most central location for his festivities. He's rented a cabin in the mountains and invited people to come when they can, and stay for whatever amount of time they want. So several of us who've had to travel just to get to Germany are going to be there for the full weekend. Now, since I have to be in Amsterdam on Sunday to meet up with Grandma and Mom at the end of their cruize, I thought, what sense does it make to fly to Munich, fly back to London, just to turn around 3 days later and fly back to the continent? Yeah. It didn't. Especially since I don't have anything in England which requires my physical presense. Nice, eh? So, that's why Amsterdam via Munich.

Home Again, Home Again!

Well, Miss Dorothy got one thing right . . . there's no place like home. I've had a ball over the last 5 months. It's been brilliant. But . . . I'm really glad to be home.

There really isn't much to report about the trip home. It was pretty normal. Got on the flight in Chicago on Wednesday, changed planes in Cincinnati, got off in London at 9.00 am Thursday. Although, for a change, I did actually sleep much of the flight. That was a nice surprise. It wasn't great sleep, but it was sleep. So I wasn't totally trashed when I arrived. And, as a true act of friendship, my friends from church, Claire and Joe, came all the way out to Gatwick to collect me! So I didn't even have to lug everything through the Underground/Trains. Yeay! That was very kind, and totally above and beyond the call.

Friday I got up and went into Uni. Had a quick check-in with my advisor. Things are looking good on the PhD front. Had lunch with Jenny, and took a few photos of campus.



Saturday, I finally got around to to unpacking. Surprisingly, I managed to get everything done, including all the stuff I'd packed away so that my house sitters could move in, in under 4 hours! And no, that didn't mean stuffing everything into the laundry hamper. I mostly had clean laundry, anyway. Then, in the evening, my friend (also from Church) Rebekah came down from Cambridge and we played. Saturday we went to Nando's (one of my favourite cheap and cheerful meals!) for dinner, and watched Sahara at my house. Rebekah started playing with my hair and actually put me to sleep twice! Sunday we went to church, which was great. It was so nice to be back home with them. Then, after church Rebekah made me the most amazing Sunday Dinner. And let me get my head down whilst she prepared it! My body's mostly back to normal, but I am still feeling a bit of jetlag. She made amazing roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and sausages. And then for afters . . . oh my goodness! She's baked these scrumptious chocolate with white chocolate chip biscuits at home and brought them with. She layered them in with cream and cherries and raspberry yogurt for an amazing, light, treat. It was perfect. So we sat out in the garden (rather hideously overgrown) and enjoyed the fruits of her labours. What an amazing welcome home feast!



After dinner we went down to the river. Rebekah's an amazing photographer, (She's just started up a blog of her own, if you want to check out her other work.) and she'd brought her equipment, so she took loads of photos of me. Isn't she sweet? And some of those photos turned out amazing!



I'm now back into normal life. Well, sort of. I'm playing catchup just a bit. The garden had been let go whilst I was away. I suppose of all the things to neglect, that's the least problematic. But when I arrived and looked at it I just though, *sigh* That's going to be a bear to clean up. Fortunately, I have loads of marvelous friends. One of the Youth from church, Elliot, and his dad, David, came round today to help. Elliot cut the grass, David trimmed the edges and raked up all the dead bits out of the grass, and I clipped the hedges back. It's not done, but it's at least usable now. Hooray, and a huge Thank You to David and Elliot!

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 4)

Sorry I haven't finished this story. I didn't have much by way of Internet connection in South Haven. Anyway, picking up from where I left off, on the 13th, I got up, and felt pretty good. Not 100%, of course, but well enough that I just couldn't see skipping the appointment after having worked so hard to get there. So I went. I had this wonderful stylist, Emma. She said that my hair is actually in pretty good shape, just needed a trim, so that's good news. Then she went through all the techniques the Curly Hair Institute uses to get the most out of your curls. I had been using many of them, but not all. And the ones I didn't know made quite a difference. She carefully taught me all the techniques, but managed to keep the results hidden til the style was totally complete. When she finally turned me around, I was so surprised. I knew I have really curly hair. But I did not realise it was that curly! It looked absolutely amazing. Now all I have to do is work out how to do the techniques on myself!
We ended up driving all the way home after the appointment. We'd talked about going part way and staying the night. But we got half way, and it was still pretty early, and we decided that it was just as easy to drive the rest of the way. When we got to the customs checkpoint to re-enter the US, the customs officer asked, 'What was the purpose of your visit?' and I said, 'To get a haircut.' He stops, looks at me and says, 'Really?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, that's a first!' He then asked why, so I explained about the Institute, and he's like, you know, I've never thought about that. Anyway, I thought it was totally worth the pain and trouble and sticking it out through the cold. What do you think?

The rest of my time in Michigan was pretty quiet. On the 14th I got up and kind of puttered around. I hardly did anything, just lunch with Grandma, then down for a nap. I was still feeling the cold, and hadn't slept well the night before, so I was just as happy to keep things quiet. We did drive over to Grandma's doctor. He verified that it was a virus, and I just had to hang in there til it passed. But I felt quite a lot better by that point anyway. It was Aunt Peggy's birthday that day, so Grandma and I went to dinner with her and Uncle Mark, my cousin Meghan and her husband Scott and their little girl, Harley. On the 15th my routine was pretty much the same (minus the doctor's visit): lazy getting up, late lunch, lovely nap in the afternoon. I'd still been having trouble sleeping because of the cold, though. So, Sunday (16th) I'd planned on going into church, but I'd finally really gotten to sleep that night, and I didn't wake up til 11.00. Grandma was feeling a bit stiff and sore and tired, so she was just as happy to take things slow again, and she knew I hadn't been sleeping well, so she didn't want to wake me up. It was just a really quite day. We did have dinner with the above mentioned people again.

The 17th I was finally starting to really feel normal again. I spent some time over at Aunt Peggy's helping her with some computer things, and chatting. Then Grandma and I met up with Lori, a friend from church, for lunch. That was fun. It was good to see Lori, and catch up with what's going on with her. Then I spent the afternoon down on the beach. Now, I know that nowhere is perfect, but there was some real charm to growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. I never lived within sight of the lake, there were always trees and houses between us and the shore, but I always lived within sound of the waves. That was something I really enjoyed. The sun was pretty warm, but there was a breeze, so it was still cool. The sand was just perfectly warm. As I was down there the Tall Ship, Friendships Goodwill, sailed by. It fought in the war of 1812 along the Great Lakes. It's a beautiful ship. Grandma and I had been talking about going to Red Lobster the whole time we'd been driving North, and had never made it. So we finally decided to go have lobster. Well . . . she had lobster. I had crab. It's my favourite. She did share a claw with me, though. So I had a bit of both. It was divine.


The 18th I had a breakfast date with a friend in Paw Paw. Beth and I had become friends through the scrapbooking forum we're members of when people started talking about where everyone was from. She said SW Michigan, so I obviously had to ask where, because that's where South Haven is. So we'd been keeping in contact over the past 8 or so months, and when I found out I'd be going through Michigan on my way home, we made plans to meet. It was absolutely lovely to finally meet her. And she's ever bit as lovely and nice as she sounded in her emails. Then, I drove on into Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo!) and had lunch with a friend, Annette, from High School.... sort of. We'd been friends during our High School years, but not because of school. We were in the same Stake (church regional area) so we met at Stake activities. It was great to reconnect with her. After lunch I went back to Grandma's and spent an hour on the beach again, then . . . had a nap. Then she and I went to Mark and Peggy's for dinner. They made pork loin on the grill, which was marvelous. It was a lovely way to end my stay.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 3)

So, on the 10th, we got through North Carolina, Tennessee, and we were in Kentucky, when I finally got a hold of my family to wish Mom a Happy Mother's Day. Lois was up visiting, and I was telling them about not feeling well, and we started comparing symptoms. We've got the same thing! And I found out where I got it! One of our other friends had it, and was round for 3 days at Lois' house. Both of us caught it from her, as did the husband of another friend. He went to the doctor, and was told, sorry. It's a virus. You'll just have to let it run its course. So, since I felt fine, if not able to swallow comfortably, we decided to revert to our original plan, which was going to be a heck of a lot more fun. So we headed northeast from Kentucky, skirting past Cincinnati, OH, stopping for the night about halfway between Cincinnati and Cleveland (better?!? I got told off by him for spelling it wrong earlier) for the night. Oh. My. Word. I've never had such a miserable excuse for air conditioning! It was constantly going on and off, really noisy and didn't ever really cool the room. I was up every 2 hours. It was horrible.

On the 11th we got up and drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls, Ontario (through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York). We decided to stop off there and see the falls on the 12th. I got up this morning and felt pretty rough. Much worse than I have done. But, at least had slept much better. So, dragged my feet and finally got out the door around noon. I felt miserable, though. Really poorly. Sitting in the restaurant waiting for lunch to arrive we were discussing the possibility of just heading straight home, possibly even today. I got a hold of Lois, and we re-compared notes on our symptoms. Seems like I do, in fact, have the same thing. It's just miserable. And, since I felt quite a lot better after lunch, we decided we'd see how I feel in the morning. If I'm really miserable, we can just pack it in and go home. If not, I can still get to my appointment on Thursday. I've also got an appointment with Grandma's doctor for Friday afternoon.

We also found a health food store that sells essential oils. Thyme and tea tree oils are both natural anti-viral/anti-bacterials, so I'd wanted to get some. They get absorbed directly into your skin, so if you put it straight over the lymph node, it gets to work in the most important spot! (You ought to mix thyme with something else, like grape seed oil -- my favourite -- or olive oil, because other wise the thyme is likely to feel a bit like it's burning your skin.) They also recommended this cool stuff called Lymphdiarral. It's specifically designed to drain the lymph system and reduce swelling in both acute and chronic lymph problems due to infection or injury. Well, that pretty well made my day! I've been using it all day, and I can feel a reduction in the swelling. I'm hoping I wake up and it's much better tomorrow.

We also walked around the Falls for a bit. Really pretty. But let's be honest . . . how long can you stand and look at a river? We spent about half an hour, then came back to the hotel. Just taking things easy today.

Just a couple of seconds of the roar of the water falling over the side.


We've got this really sweet little Australian Rosella Parakeet (a real parakeet, not a budgie that we just call a parakeet!) who lives in our hotel. Her name's Paris (since the Hampton chain is owned by Hilton. . .) She's a doll. Click on the video to see a short bit of her. You can hear her chirp. It's very sweet.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 2)

We drove from Savannah, GA straight on up to Asheville, NC. I'd never been to Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina before, so we took a smaller road through part of South Carolina. It was a two-lane road that went through the centre of some very small towns. Kind of fun. And so green! And it smelled green . . . an observation that has earned me no little grief with him. *sigh* He doesn't realise that green can too be an odder!

The reason we were heading to Asheville was that my youngest cousin on my mom's side lives there. And, since this is my mom's mom that I'm traveling with, it only made sense to stop off and say hi to Daniel, and his girlfriend, Michelle. We arrived on the 8th, but we didn't bug them til the 9th. On the 9th we took Daniel out for breakfast. The most amazing waffles you've ever seen. And the Huevos Rancheros?!? Oh. My. Goodness. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was amazing. We dropped Daniel off for work, then we went on out to the Blue Ridge Parkway (which is also a National Park). We stopped off at the Centre for Folk Art. They were having a big special weekend highlighting various 'fiber crafts'. So there were people there spinning yarn, making bobbin lace (*wow*), crocheting, weaving beads . . . you name it, if it had to do with fibers, there was someone doing it! Amazing. And the live band was so much fun. Except, of course, I didn't have anyone to dance with! Such a waste of fabulous live Blues/Bluegrass music.

That evening we took Daniel and Michelle out for this amazing South American food. It was called 'Tomato: Cocina Latina". The food was so fresh and wonderful. I had carne asada, Daniel had paella (which is technically a Spanish dish, not South American) and Grandma and Michelle had chili relleno. Every one of us enjoyed the food. It was great. Then Daniel took us past the house he's put an offer in on. So, it looks like they're in NC to stay! Grandma, of course, was jibing them about 'when are you going to get married?!?' Apparently they've decided they will it's just a matter of Daniel getting around to asking her. Come on, boy, once you've made the decision, get with it! She's too good of a catch to mess about and let get away!

The night of the 9th, I didn't sleep well at all. I'd been fighting this horrible virus that attacks your lymph nodes, and it was making me pretty miserable. And I woke up on the 10th with more swollen nodes, so we decided to alter our original plan. I'd made an appointment in Toronto at the Curly Hair Institute to get a haircut and learn their techniques for using their product. I've been wanting to do this for years, but it just never works out. But I was kind of worried about this virus. So we decided to drive straight north and get back to Michigan that night, and I could hit the doctor's office on Monday.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 1)

I arrived in Orlando, Florida on the 5th. I only had about 2 hours of sleep, but that was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make, and I'd make again in a heartbeat. A very fluttery heartbeat ;-) So, as a consequence, I pretty much went straight to bed on the 5th. The 6th, Grandma and I were supposed to stop off at Sea World and play for a bit. But it was so hot, well over 90'F, that we decided it just wasn't a good idea. I suffer from heat, but she really suffers, and at 80+ years, probably not a great idea to push it. So we just drove all day. We stopped off in St Augustin, FL.

St Augustin is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the United States. The area was the first place that Ponce De Leon landed in 1513 when he was searching for the fountain of youth. Eventually a colony was established in 1539 -- 42 years before Jamestown, VA and 55 years before the Mayflower arrived. Santa Fe, NM is the only other city which competes. There's some debate as to which city is actually 'oldest', but in any case, it's a very old town (for the United States). The whole town is covered in Spanish Moss. Really pretty, slightly eerie... But one of the avenues in particular is stunning. It's listed as one of the top 10 most beautiful streets in the US. It's lined on either side by Live Oak Trees, and they're covered in Spanish Moss.

The 7th we were planning on playing tourist all day, and staying the night again in St Augustin, but not at the same hotel (which was kind of a miserable place). We got up and jumped on the tourist tram and rode around for a bit. We got off at the old Fort, which is now a National Monument, run by the the National Park System. We explored it for a while, but it was just so hot out there, we decided we'd be better off just heading out for parts less hot. So instead of staying in St Augustine, FL, we ended up staying in Savannah, GA.